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Chapter 40: Prototype Completed

In the following days, Tang Rui stayed at home and worked on manufacturing firefighting drones.

With the Multi-Drone Coordination Intelligence Program, the performance of the firefighting drones improved significantly.

Moreover, this improvement was more effective with a higher number of firefighting drones.

Of course, there was a limit to this performance enhancement, which was capped at 112 drones.

Similarly, the minimum number of drones for this performance enhancement was six.

The effectiveness would diminish when the number of drones deployed on the battlefield fell below six.

However, with the assistance of the Multi-Drone Coordination Intelligence Program, once enemy targets were identified, the drones carrying the "fire extinguishing agent" would be the first to charge into the fire scene.

And the drones carrying equipment would be the last to join the charge, following the algorithm's allocation.

The firefighting drones would operate in groups of six, continuously exchanging positions based on the algorithm's distribution.

To ensure the existence of the complete minimum baseline, there wouldn't be any silly situations where drones equipped with optical lenses or radar were directly hit first.

On Thursday, while Tang Rui was at home building drones, he received a call from Mr. Zhang. The prototype of the drone he designed for the police order was already manufactured, and the costs of various accessories were calculated. The next step was the test flight. However, Mr. Zhang did not provide the avionics system and required Tang Rui to import it himself since avionics was not something simple. If bought separately, it would be quite expensive.

After hanging up the phone, Tang Rui put down his tools and went to take a shower, also tidying up his appearance. He hadn't been out for the past few days, so he hadn't bothered much about his appearance. However, since he was going to Mr. Zhang's place later, he thought he should pay some attention to it.

Half an hour later, a handsome young man reappeared. Tang Rui looked at himself in the mirror and instinctively narrowed his eyes. He looked too handsome, so handsome that it was dazzling.

After changing into suitable clothes, Tang Rui carried his laptop and drove to the Light Aviation Power Company. When he arrived at the company's entrance, Mr. Zhang's secretary was already waiting there. After exchanging some pleasantries, she led Tang Rui to a product display hall outside the assembly workshop.

"Junior, take a look. Does it meet your requirements?" Mr. Zhang pointed to the drone next to him and smiled, saying.

Beside him was the just-completed prototype.

"It's perfect, Senior! The engineers in your company are really good." Tang Rui looked at the drone and happily exchanged compliments with him.

"This is the basic parameter of the drone. Take a look first."

"Okay."

Tang Rui took the folder and began to flip through the parameters written on it.

Aircraft Length: 2.214 meters.

Aircraft Height: 0.834 meters.

Wingspan: 4.200 meters.

Max Width of Fuselage: 0.423 meters.

Max Height of Fuselage: 0.442 meters.

Weight: 320 kilograms.

Power: 1 unit of 40 horsepower piston engine.

Avionics system...

Tang Rui briefly looked through the basic parameters of the drone, and as for the model and performance of the equipment listed afterward, he couldn't be bothered to read them.

If he tried to read everything, he wouldn't have time for anything else today.

"Senior, once the avionics system is installed on this drone, will it be able to take off?"

Tang Rui asked.

"Of course, everything is ready. As long as the system is imported and checked for any issues, we can proceed with the test flight," said Zhang Zhipeng confidently.

For this type of drone, there was no difficulty at all in manufacturing it at their company. The reason it took them a few days was mainly due to the drawings. The blueprints provided by Tang Rui only included the design for the body and internal equipment, and there was nothing else.

Drones were also aircraft. Every single screw on them had its parameters. Therefore, the employees at the design institute had been working overtime for the past few days.

"Alright, I'll import the avionics system now," Tang Rui said, and he opened his laptop, connected the data cable, and began importing the program.

"Senior, how much did it cost to manufacture this drone?" Tang Rui asked.

"Take a guess," Zhang Zhipeng replied.

"Two million?"

"Even if you gave me two million, this price wouldn't have passed in the meeting," Zhang Zhipeng said irritably. "You must have been dreaming if you thought you could buy a drone for two million."

"Hehe... How much exactly?" Tang Rui inquired.

"It's at the end of the documents. Take a look for yourself," Zhang Zhipeng replied.

Tang Rui picked up the folder again and flipped to the last pages.

Oof. It was two full pages of the equipment price list.

The final calculated cost was 2.62 million per unit, excluding the manufacturing fee.

"Senior, with the manufacturing fee, how much is it per unit?" Tang Rui asked.

"That depends on how many units you want to manufacture. The more you order, the cheaper it will be. If you order a small quantity, it will be 2.8 million per unit. For larger quantities, we can negotiate. This is already the lowest price I can help you get," Zhang Zhipeng explained honestly.

He hadn't deceived Tang Rui. Manufacturing a drone would cost him 180,000 each, which was already giving him face because they were classmates. Otherwise, if it were a small order, only a few units, they wouldn't have even bothered taking up such a job.

"Thank you, Senior," Tang Rui expressed his gratitude. Zhang Zhipeng was someone he could truly rely on when he needed help.

After a while, the avionics system was successfully imported. Tang Rui opened the operating system, started the drone, and began the self-check.

An engineer beside him also came over to watch, afraid that Tang Rui might accidentally damage the drone.

After half an hour of testing, they confirmed that there were no issues with the system, and all functions were working properly.

"Senior, could I test-fly it here?" Tang Rui asked.

If he couldn't test-fly it here, he would have to apply for airspace permission.

"It's possible, but you can only fly it at low altitudes, not exceeding 2,000 meters, and within a range of no more than 10 kilometers."

"Beyond that, you'd have to apply to the authorities, which could be quite troublesome."

"It's enough. Just a simple test to see if there are any issues."

"Let's go then."

Without Tang Rui needing to do anything, the nearby staff members drove a small trailer and towed the drone to the small runway outside the factory area.

The runway wasn't very long, only suitable for taking off and landing small aircraft, but that was normal since they mainly manufactured this type of aircraft here.

Following Zhang Zhipeng, Tang Rui arrived at the sturdy tower at the edge of the runway.

By this time, the drone had been towed onto the runway and was being fueled.

After a few minutes, Tang Rui saw the hand signals from the ground staff. He pushed the throttle forward and released the brake.

With the propellers spinning rapidly, the drone began to move forward on the runway.

However, the speed was nowhere near that of a jet aircraft. But considering its lightweight design, the 40-horsepower engine was quite powerful.

After rolling for several dozen meters, the drone reached the required takeoff speed, and Tang Rui immediately pulled the control stick.

The drone slowly took off.