Castle of Black Iron

Since Zhang Tie was chased by wing demons and had to dive into the water to escape last time, the engineers of the Glider Base of Hoorn Republic had been busy producing a new glider for Zhang Tie.

In order to produce a new glider for Zhang Tie, Halson, the chief commission officer of the Glider Base of Hoorn Republic even contacted with the side of the Hoorn Republic. The Hoorn Republic finally dispatched a team of experts to Selnes with some carriages of equipment and tools.

Before Zhang Tie knew that news, the experts’ team of Hoorn Republic had already arrived. Zhang Tie felt a bit embarrassed. After listening to Colonel Halson’s explanation, Zhang Tie knew that he had been pretty famous across the Hoorn Republic.

After his heroic event with this Glider Base was spread in the Hoorn Republic, through the propaganda of the media of Hoorn Republic, almost every citizen of Hoorn Republic knew that there was a brave air cavalry called Selnes Eagle who fought lots of wing demons and scared them away by the glider produced in the Hoorn Republic.

At this moment, Zhang Tie was an idol in the Hoorn Republic for sure.

Therefore, after knowing that Zhang Tie’s second glider collapsed, the side of Hoorn Republic dispatched a very powerful experts team to Selnes with equipment and machines to build a wholly new glider for Zhang Tie so as to maintain the honor of the country.

In the words of Colonel Halson, it was the honor of the entire Hoorn Republic for the Selnes Eagle to drive the glider of Hoorn Republic to fight wing demons for the sake of humans.

When the experts’ team arrived in Selnes, they met Zhang Tie twice and communicated with him. As it was in the rainy season, gliders would always lose the driving force brought by elevating thermal air flow; additionally, the rainy day was a great test to this unpowered aircraft. When those experts asked Zhang Tie what sort of glider did he want, Zhang Tie told them the following words:

"I could already make full use of wind power and airflow. I think you can barely make any breakthrough in this aspect. However, the situation on the battlefield is very complex. Sometimes, like the past two months, because of the heavy rain, I could not use these natural conditions, which made me very passive. It would be very dangerous to drive a glider in bad weathers. If possible, I hope to have another driving force so that I don’t have to rely on airflow and wind power. I expect to fly freely in the sky by glider like riding a bicycle."

When Zhang Tie said this, he didn’t imagine whether the experts’ team from the Hoorn Republic could make it. He just told them about his need. Even If they couldn’t make it, it wouldn’t cause any loss to Zhang Tie at least; however, if they could, that would be a great surprise for Zhang Tie. It indicated that Zhang Tie would have a greater freedom in the sky.

In a few days after Zhang Tie posed his requirement, the experts’ team of the Hoorn Republic invited Zhang Tie to do all-round physical fitness tests twice.

Zhang Tie didn’t understand the relationship between driving a glider and his physical fitness. Whereas, he still went there. In the process of physical fitness tests, Zhang Tie remembered that all the members of the experts’ team from the Hoorn Republic were staring at him with gleaming eyes...

Since then, the experts’ team rarely contacted Zhang Tie in the glider base. Until recently, Zhang Tie was informed that a new glider had been produced. They wanted him to take a look.

On October 7th, the Glider Base of Hoorn Republic...

Zhang Tie reappeared in a glider warehouse of the base, where he saw a wholly new glider which had taken dozens of professional engineers of the Hoorn Republic over 1 month.

That glider looked a bit similar to WindTalker II; however, the sharp difference between the entire glider and WindTalker II was that this one had a double-wing propeller on its head.

When Zhang Tie entered the cockpit, he found that the layout and devices had been totally changed. The steering pedal under his feet had been replaced by an actuator like bicycle’s foot pedal. There were also some changes on the elevator. Previously the elevator could only be pulled up or pressed down; however, Zhang Tie found it could now be rotated 90 degrees to the left and the right. There was one more pushing rod below the elevator whose function was unclear.

Except for all these changes, the glider still maintained features of Zhang Clan, namely the seat was foldable; there were still two concave handles on the left and the right of the cockpit which could be lifted by hand; additionally, the cover of the bottom of the cockpit was still slideable.

Zhang Tie looked around in the cockpit. He couldn’t wait to step on the pair of foot pedals. He wanted to see the effect.

It was very hard for commoners to move that pair of foot pedals; those weak ones could only move the pedals a few times. However, for Zhang Tie, it was as easy as how commoners stepped on the pedals of bicycles.

The moment the pedals were moved, the two propellers at the head of the glider had started to rotate, causing a wuthering sound. Zhang Tie gradually accelerated while the propellers sped up. Zhang Tie then found the entire glider started to slide forward.

When the glider was running in the warehouse, a whim flashed across Zhang Tie’s mind. Zhang Tie moved the rudder rightward, causing the glider slide towards the right; Zhang Tie moved the rudder leftward, causing the glider slide towards the left.

Zhang Tie became very excited. He finally understood how did those experts think. Now that he could push glider forward on the ground, he could also have it driven forward by the propellers in the sky.

Zhang Tie jumped out of the cockpit with a happy look, "How did you make it?"

"What you told us brought us a great enlightenment and inspiration. After thinking carefully, we borrowed the designing ideas of the plane before the Catastrophe. We used a set of speed transforming gear and a chain to pass the power being produced by stepping the pedals to the propellers at the head of the glider so that this glider could have the ability of early human planes before the Catastrophe. It could gain an extra driving force when it couldn’t make use of elevating airflow and wind power."

"Thank you, you’re really great!"

"This glider is especially designed and produced for you. Such a design doesn’t work for common glider drivers as they might not have enough strength to maintain a long time flight like you. Do you remember the physical fitness tests that we’ve made for you. We find your legs are very powerful. Additionally, your physical strength and endurance are excellent. If your legs’ strength is converted into machine’s power, your legs might be equal to an engine of 20 horsepower. This reminds us of this design."

"Ah? My feet could work like an engine of 20 horsepower, what does that mean?"

"Commoners who have not lit surging points could only produce 1 horsepower per minute. Within 10 minutes, commoners could only explode about half a horsepower at most. 20 horsepower is like you lie down with your feet lifting a 1500 kg object 1 m high in 1 second. Additionally, you could repeat this process. It is not a simultaneous explosiveness, it is a constant and repetitive strength. Speaking of explosiveness, many people could easily lift 1500 kg object 1 m high in 1 second with feet. However, few people could repeat this process in half an hour or one hour."

"Wuh, I see!" Zhang Tie understood it at once. He had not imagined that his feet could match an engine of 20 horsepower. It made him proud of himself as it was a special ability.

"Can I directly fly into the sky by stepping on this pair of pedals?"

"Although we’ve set the aided function to run the glider by stepping on the pedals, it poses a high requirement on your strength. However, when you fly in the sky, it will be different. As long as you have enough strength to keep the propellers running at least 800 turns a minute, you can have the pedals provide the constant driving force for this glider. It grants a very excellent flight and manipulative performance to this glider without relying on climates. We feel that this glider should be called man-powered plane, instead of a glider!"

"Man-powered plane, it sounds very interesting!" Zhang Tie smiled. When he recalled the Hit-Plane Brotherhood, he felt that he really had a great predestined affinity with planes. He had not imagined that he could really drive a plane now.

"Can I have a try now?"

"Of course!"

"I have one last question. What’s this pushing rod below the elevator used for? I see data 50, 30,15,5, air and ground. What does that mean?"

"This is a variable transmission rod. It could adjust the reduction ratio between the pedals and the propeller and the outputting direction of the driving force from your pedals. It has two outputting directions and four gears. The highest gear represents that you could have this man-powered plane’s propeller rotate 50 turns by stepping on the pedals one loop. Similarly, the lower gear represents that you could have this man-powered plane’s propeller rotate 30 turns by stepping on the pedals one loop. The higher the reduction ratio is, the more strength you will need to step on the pedals one loop. It could adjust itself based on your physical strength. The words ’air’ and ’ground’ respectively represent the outputting direction of the driving force provided by the pedals, ’air’ refers that by stepping on the pedals you could provide a driving force to the propeller while the word ’ground’ refers that by stepping on the pedals you could provide a driving force to the ground wheels and keep it running on the ground like riding a bicycle..."

...

After a few minutes, when Zhang Tie completely figured out how this man-powered plane was manipulated, this man-powered plane was pushed onto the runway.

When Zhang Tie returned to the cockpit, he instantly pushed the variable transmission rod and had it point at the word "ground". After that, he started to step on the pedals forcefully...

Without the traction of a tractor, this time, Zhang Tie just rode pedals like riding a bicycle, causing the glider run faster and faster on the runway. Finally, it left the runway and flew into the sky.

After flying into the sky, Zhang Tie had the gear point at the data 50. After that, he started to step on the pedals rapidly, causing the propellers run very fast...

Finally, without the help of wind power and elevating air flow, Zhang Tie had that man-powered glider fly in the air like a plane by his foot.

...

It was really hard to describe the feeling of driving this man-powered plane in the air. If he was driving a common glider, he had to pay attention to the wind power and direction of airflow; however, by driving this man-powered plane, Zhang Tie felt like becoming really free.

Zhang Tie felt that this was more like a bicycle in the air. As long as he had strength, he only needed to keep stepping on the pedals to fly freely in the sky.

When in free flight, Zhang Tie could drive it like driving a glider in an elevating airflow so that he could take a rest and recover his physical strength. However, when there was no airflow to use, Zhang Tie could drive it at his will by stepping on the pedals, regardless of weather.

If Zhang Tie could step on the pedals to run the propeller in airflow, Zhang Tie found that he could increase his flight speed by at least 20-30%.

With this man-powered plane in hand, Zhang Tie became more confident about completing that task...

...