The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1112 - 833: DC-3 and Boeing 367

Chapter 1112: Chapter 833: DC-3 and Boeing 367

Australasia’s military expansion was not good news for the Island Nation.

Counting the forces from the Philippines and Kalimantan, Australasia could control an army size of over 1.3 million, which is more than three times the size of the Island Nation Army.

In the Pacific Ocean, Australasia’s sole contender is the Island Nation. The purpose of the expansion is obvious, and this has caused a high level of tension within the Island Nation.

The current Island Nation is facing a very different situation from its historical counterpart.

Due to its small size, the Island Nation has little petroleum of its own. Historically, prior to World War II, the Island Nation was extremely reliant on petroleum imported from the United States.

One set of data illustrates just how exaggerated the Island Nation’s dependency on foreign petroleum was. Before World War II, over 90% of the Island Nation’s total petroleum consumption came from imports.

Of all the imported petroleum, 80% came from the United States, and over 10% from the Southeast Asian Region, mainly the Dutch East Indies.

In this world, the two regions and nations that historically supplied the Island Nation with petroleum, the United States and the Dutch East Indies, have both been wiped out.

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This has made the Island Nation’s petroleum crisis even more severe than in history, forcing it to look for other ways to maintain its domestic petroleum consumption.

The first thing it did was to buy at high prices from Australasia. Australasia has the Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia, and Australia as three major oil-producing areas, and even the territory of Alaska has a considerable amount of petroleum reserves.

It is no exaggeration to say that the oil reserves of Australasia are completely sufficient for its own use until new energy sources are discovered and become popular.

One of the reasons for the Island Nation entering a competitive state with Australasia was the Island Nation’s extreme shortage of petroleum resources, while the Southeast Asian Region controlled by Australasia has fairly abundant petroleum reserves.

One of the reasons for the Island Nation’s tension is that their source of petroleum can easily be cut off by Australasia.

Currently, the Island Nation only has two ways to purchase petroleum. One is to make a long sea journey to buy a small amount of petroleum from South American countries. The other is to buy petroleum at a high price from Australasia.

But neither of these methods can be the main way of importing petroleum, which is one of the reasons why the Island Nation has so few cars and tanks.

Due to the high cost of oil, Islander people generally dislike cars. Especially after Australasia and the United Kingdom jointly controlled the price of petroleum, the Island Nation has fallen into a complete crisis in terms of petroleum.

To make matters worse, the Island Nation has not discovered any large petroleum reserves in all the territories they occupy.

Times have changed. All modern heavy weapons like aircraft and tanks require a large amount of petroleum as fuel.

With its lifeline of petroleum being strangled, the Island Nation is essentially at someone’s mercy, without any chance of resistance.

At this time, the Islanders discovered that the treaty they signed against Russia Nation had become a shackle binding them from obtaining petroleum.

Russia Nation has a fair amount of petroleum reserves, and the Far Eastern Port of Russia Nation is relatively close to the Island Nation and is capable of supplying the Island Nation with a substantial amount of petroleum.

However, due to the treaty signed with Germany against Russia Nation, the Island Nation could not engage in any cooperation with Russia Nation, and buying petroleum from Russia Nation became an absurd idea.

Without any other choice, the Islanders could only speed up their plans to find petroleum on all their lands, while attempting to launch a larger scale war, even preparing for war with Australasia.

At this time, Arthur was unaware of the Islanders’ intentions, and even if he did know, he wouldn’t be too concerned about it.

Arthur had already successfully visited the Douglas Aircraft Company to see the historic transport plane, the DC-3, in person.

It has been nearly eight years since the development of the previous generation of transport plane, the DC-2. After receiving some of the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory’s transport plane production lines and blueprints, Douglas finally perfected their design ideas and created the new generation, the DC-3 transport plane.

Unlike military jet planes, the DC-3 used a conventional propeller design. It has been proven that even years after the birth of jet planes, propeller aircraft still have their unique functions.

The new generation of transport aircraft featured a twin-engine piston design and would be an entirely new twin-engine propeller transport plane.

Due to the limitations in transport capacity of the previous generation, Douglas specifically increased the passenger capacity of the latest generation of transport planes, the DC-3, to 34 persons (3 crew members plus 31 passengers).

The entire DC-3 transport plane is 19.52 meters long, with a wingspan of 29.12 meters, and stands 5.2 meters tall, significantly larger than the previous generation in every dimension.

The empty weight of the entire plane is approximately 18,355 pounds, or 8.34 tons. In addition to the 34 occupants, the DC-3 transport plane can also carry over 6,000 pounds (2.7 tons) of supplies.

Because the maximum takeoff weight reached 31,000 pounds, which is 14 tons, the cargo capacity of the DC-3 transport plane was greatly enhanced.

In terms of speed, because it used a relatively standard propeller for power, the DC-3 transport plane was not very fast.

Even though Douglas Aircraft Company specifically hired Disel as the engine designer and invited many engine experts from Australasia.

But the best figures the plane could offer were a maximum speed of 385 kilometers per hour.