The Rise Of Australasia

At the request of Britain, France, and Russia, Arthur sold the over 300 obsolete first-generation military aircraft from the Aeronautical Research Room's inventory to them, and also sold them the complete technology of the first-generation military aircraft.

Although he transferred the technology, there was no loss to Arthur. Given the current reserve of aerospace aerodynamics and aircraft manufacturing talents in Australasia, it is basically impossible for any individual country to catch up with Australasia's progress in aircraft.

A few years ago, Australasia stored nearly one-third of the related talents in the world, and now there are only more and more.

Unless the remaining experts in Europe could unite, the advantage of Australasia in aircraft could not be supplemented in a short time.

Without the interference and participation of Australia, European countries want to develop military aircraft at the level of Australasia's fourth-generation aircraft, and it will at least take about ten years.

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Australasia's aircraft can be upgraded at least twice over these ten years. Along with the performance of the aircraft, which is better than the previous generation, the gap between Australasia and other countries in aircraft will only grow.

This is the benefit of talent reserves. Understanding this point, Arthur used the Victoria Award to buy top talents worldwide for his own use and for Australasia.

At present, the talent reserves of Australasia is very abundant. The top talent reserves in some fields are in no way inferior to those in European powers.

Rough statistics show that by 1915, Australasia had already excavated at least thousands of physics and chemistry experts from Europe. Experts known internationally numbered at least hundreds, and there were countless well-known experts in the industry.

Although the Australasian Royal Physics and Chemistry Research Association uses at least 5 million Australian dollars in research funds each year, the results of these experts' research have made Australasia make considerable progress in various aspects.

This has also led to the Victoria Award still being held in Europe as usual, and the cruel European War has not affected the issuance of this academically recognized highest award.

Of course, it is not yet time for the Victoria Award to be presented in the new year. But Arthur's talent recruitment actions will never stop at any time.

On July 1, 1915, Batty, the director of the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau, reported good news to Arthur, that is, there were a lot of talents in the new round of 200,000 Russian immigrants.

Although Russia is not as good as Britain, France, and Germany in research, it does not mean that there is a lack of talent in broad Russia.

On the contrary, Russia has many talents, but quite a lot of them are not reused by the current Russian government.

If there was no talent in Russia, the Soviet Union would not quickly become a superpower on par with the United States in the future.

Investigating the 200,000 Russian immigrants took some time, but compared with the report after the investigation, the time spent was nothing.

The claimed talent among the new batch of Russian immigrants included talents in agriculture, industry, physics, chemistry, and even aerospace aerodynamics, airships, and aircraft manufacturing.

The most noteworthy name is undoubtedly Constatine Ziorski, which is not too small in Russia.

Arthur also has some understanding of his great names. In later generations, Ziolkowski was known as the founder of modern cosmology and the father of spaceflight.

Constatine Ziorski was born in 1857, and he is currently 58 years old.

Ziolkowski was born in a common peasant family in the Ryazan province of Russia. Due to the bad living environment of the family, and because Ziolkowski had a severe cold when he was ten years old, leading to scarlet fever, he almost completely lost his hearing. Therefore, he was not sent to Moscow for study by his parents until he was 16 years old.

This has to mention the education of Europe at that time. Unlike the unified college entrance examination known to people in later generations, most of the education in the West at this time is based on examination. Universities conduct exams according to their own admission conditions and enroll the best.

Of course, Ziolkowski, who did not receive education until he was 16, naturally could not enter the university for study. In order to learn more knowledge, Ziolkowski completely immersed himself in the library in three years, self-studied analysis geometry, advanced algebra and calculus, learned physics, chemistry, mechanics, and also loved fiction and magazines in astronomy.

A 16-year-old boy who has not received education in self-study, higher algebra and calculus, can't help but praise Ziolkowski's intelligence.

After returning from his studies, Ziolkowski passed the examination of rural middle school and became a mathematics teacher in a small city's middle school.

While educating people, Ziolkowski set up a laboratory by himself, teaching and starting independent research.

During this period, Ziolkowski published dozens of papers, his papers were not only frequently sent to physics and chemistry societies in St. Petersburg, but also praised by famous Russian scientists Mengetliev.

In the later stages of his research, Ziolkowski shifted his interest to airships and proposed the idea of an all-metal rigid airship.

This proposal greatly pleased the government of Saint Petersburgh, which appointed Ziolkowski as an airship expert.

In fact, before the outbreak of World War I, Ziolkowski was already living a comfortable middle-class life. As Russia's airship expert, he earned about 1,200 rubles a year, which, although not much, was entirely sufficient.

But the good times didn't last. After the outbreak of World War I, airships constructed under Ziolkowski's supervision were sent to the battlefield and were quickly destroyed by Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Although Russia also destroyed airships from Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the news of a significant investment in airships failing made Russia swiftly abandon the entire airship research department, leaving Ziolkowski unemployed and stripping him of his golden rice bowl.

Even though Ziolkowski could have returned to his secondary school teaching role, the seeds of spaceflight had already been planted during his time as an airship expert, and there was no possibility of him stopping his research now.

This was like being halfway through undressing only for the other party to announce the arrival of a relative; Ziolkowski was agonizingly frustrated. Eventually, under the persuasion of his family, he chose to seek new research opportunities abroad.

Australasia became Ziolkowski's first target. There was no other reason; One of Ziolkowski's friends had joined a University in Australia. Invited by his friend, Ziolkowski decided to submit his resume to the universities in Australasia, seeking an opportunity to become a university professor.

Ziolkowski had published several papers on rocket theory and spaceflight in scientific reports. It is exactly these slightly famous papers that quickly caught the attention of Director Barty, who subsequently reported it to Arthur.

There was no doubt that Arthur welcomed an expert in rocket theory and space travel.

To add, the expert was immigrating with his family. In this case, Arthur was willing to welcome experts with no special background, and who were devoted to scientific research.

In early July, Arthur received Ziolkowski at the Sydney Palace and had a pleasant long talk with him on the theory of rockets.

Ziolkowski, who would be lauded by future generations as the founding father of modern space travel and aviation, undoubtedly possessed immense capabilities. Many of his ideas were extraordinarily innovative.

It was these unique ideas that laid the solid foundation for future space travel and astronautics.

Arthur was highly impressed with Ziolkowski's ideas and capabilities, immediately promising him the position of Honorary Professor at the Sydney Royal Military Academy Air Force Institute, and a membership at the Australasia Royal Physics and Chemistry Research Association.

After all, Ziolkowski was already 58 years old. Arthur's greatest hope was for him to lay the foundations for Australasia's space travel and astronautics, and conduct some rocket research along the way.

His position at the Research Association was designed to provide Ziolkowski with more research funding and access to more advanced laboratories.

As for his position at the Sydney Royal Military Academy, Arthur also hoped that Ziolkowski could cultivate more talent for Australasia, more realistically advancing Australasia's space travel and astronautics industries.

This was a strategy for the future, even though producing rockets and realizing space travel in a short time was not likely.

But at least a solid foundation could be laid for the future, putting the country one step ahead of others in this regard.

At this time, other countries were preoccupied with World War I, and even the most basic military aircraft was the pinnacle of their current aviation abilities.

While other nations researched airplanes, Australasia researched rockets, giving them a clear advantage.

Ziolkowski was very satisfied with Arthur's arrangements. His coming to Australasia was merely a search for a career opportunity, a chance to continue his theoretical research in rockets and space travel.

Unexpectedly, upon arriving in Australasia, he immediately received recognition from Arthur, not only successfully stepping into the top tier Sydney Royal Military Academy but also joining the Australasian Royal Physical and Chemical Research Association.

Of course, the rewards Arthur offered to Ziolkowski were not limited to those. A property in Sydney and jobs for Ziolkowski's family members were also resolved with a single word from Arthur.

Arthur even promised that as long as Ziolkowski made impressive progress in theoretical research, the Aerospace Laboratory would be given to Ziolkowski for him to fully engage in aerospace research.

The primary focus of the Aerospace Laboratory is currently the research and manufacture of aircraft. As aircraft become increasingly important, establishing a separate research and manufacturing facility for them becomes necessary.

The Aerospace Laboratory was the perfect place to separate aeronautics and aircraft. While a new aircraft manufacturing factory could be established to take over the aircraft business, the Aerospace Laboratory could focus on aeronautical research.