Chapter 104: 103, Flying Across India, 3000 Kilometers In A Day
Kolkata Airport runway, Fang Wen shook hands and bid farewell to Hell.
“Thank you for your help. See you again if there’s a chance in the future.”
“Probably not. I’ve already applied to return to China.” Hell hesitated, then added, “I suggest that after you arrive in Delhi, you don’t go out at night.”
“Why?” Fang Wen asked.
Yesterday’s pleasant communication had left Hell with a good impression of Fang Wen.
He shared some things that could only be discussed privately.
In recent years, the calls for independence from British India have grown louder and louder. For this reason, last year the capital was even moved from Kolkata to Delhi.
Now Delhi has become the political center again, with all sorts of forces present.
The Indian National Congress even launched a Civil Disobedience Movement, meaning no resistance and no cooperation, with the party leader leading a hunger strike.
Only this year did the Governor of British India sign the 《Delhi Agreement》.
The agreement required the Indian National Congress to stop the Civil Disobedience Movement; the British side also abolished all martial law orders and released prisoners.
Precisely because of this, British control over the local area has gradually weakened, and nights have become unsafe.
Fang Wen nodded, thanked Hell for the reminder, boarded the airplane, and departed.
The airplane flew at 3000 meters altitude, below was British India’s territory.
Looking out, it was a piece of barren land.
This area has higher terrain, mostly hills and mountainous areas.
There were no traces of any large cities at all.
Every long distance, there were some human settlements, which could be called villages or tribes.
Viewing the Indian land from high altitude, Fang Wen gained a new understanding of this area.
Although the area here is vast, it is extremely short of water.
No wonder in ancient times, major wars between various Asian ethnic groups rarely involved this side. Without water, there is no development, no grain reserves—what’s the point of conquering it?
It was not until halfway through the range that Fang Wen saw a big river.
That was the Ganges River, winding from below the Tibetan Plateau, eventually flowing into the Bay of Bengal.
The Ganges River is the best ground mark. Fang Wen exited mechanical perception state and flew upstream along the Ganges River.
More than an hour later, the Shrike Hao arrived at the upper reaches of the Ganges River.
Delhi is a city built on the banks of the Ganges River. On this barren land, only the Ganges River can nurture a city with a large population.
Fang Wen circled above the city, searching for the airport’s location.
Taking this opportunity, he also got to know the overall layout of Delhi.
This city is divided into two parts. The smaller upper part is Old Delhi, with many ancient buildings and is also the old city district.
The larger area below is New Delhi, which was continuously built from 1911 until it took shape in 1929.
In the southeastern area of New Delhi, there is a not very large airport, which should be Palampur Airport.
Fang Wen was about to turn on the radio to call the ground.
Suddenly he saw a biplane fly out from the airport.
After this biplane took off, it adjusted its fuselage and flew toward the Shrike Hao.
What does the other side want to do?
Fang Wen controlled the Shrike Hao to pass by, then quickly circled around and turned, ultimately flying parallel to the biplane.
He looked at the other side, and the other side was also looking at him.
In the era of piston aircraft, especially the open cockpit era, pilots encountering each other in the air could not communicate by speaking or radio.
But they could use some internationally standard hand gestures to express meanings.
For example:
“OK” gesture:
Indicates everything is normal, ready, or confirmation of a certain situation. Usually, extend the palm, form a circle with the index finger and thumb, and stretch the other three fingers straight.
“Thumbs up”:
Indicates “I’m good,” “Everything normal,” or “Ready.” This gesture originated from airplane pilots, when the airplane is ready for takeoff and the engine noise is too loud to communicate with ground staff, so they give a thumbs up to indicate “I am ready（I am ready）.”
“Waving hand”:
Indicates negation, disagreement, or warning. Done by swinging the arm left and right.
Pointing gesture:
Use the arm and finger to point in a specific direction or target. This is a very intuitive gesture for indicating direction, location, or target.
Airplane turn gesture:
One hand raised upright, the other hand rotating around, representing airplane turning.
Airplane forward and stop gestures:
Similar to ground crew command gestures. Both arms fully extended, raised above the head, fingertips upward, indicating forward.
Arms spread open, raised above the head, crossed waving, indicating stop or emergency signal.
There is also a special gesture, airplane shut down engine gesture:
It is a motion similar to “slitting the throat.”
Therefore, the two pilots conducted gesture communication in the high air.
Fang Wen raised his left arm, representing himself, and extended his right arm backward pointing downward.
Then he made an OK gesture.
Meaning he wanted to land here.
The other side waved his hand, right hand slashing horizontally from back to front.
Then pointed at himself, and pointed at Fang Wen.
This gesture was not standard, and Fang Wen was unsure what it meant.
At this moment, a voice came from the activated radio device.
“Ground calling air, is this the Shrike Hao?”
Fang Wen picked up the microphone to reply.
“Shrike Hao requesting landing.”
“No, please have a racing competition with our pilot first, then land afterward.”
So that’s what it meant. Fang Wen finally understood that pilot’s gesture.
The biplane’s top speed was only about 240 kilometers per hour, while the Shrike Hao could reach up to 380 kilometers per hour.
The two were not in the same league at all, yet they still wanted to race. Fang Wen didn’t know what the other side was thinking.
He immediately replied.
“Received, we’ll start racing now.”
After saying that, the airplane suddenly accelerated, leaving the other far behind.
The other side’s biplane chased at maximum power, but couldn’t close the distance at all, instead falling further and further behind.
After finishing the racing competition, Fang Wen requested landing again, and this time got ground approval.
The airplane landed at Palampur Airport and parked under the guidance of ground staff.
Shortly after, another airplane landed on the runway—it was that biplane fighter jet.
It parked next to the Shrike Hao. After the pilot got down, he proactively greeted Fang Wen.
“Hello, our race was unfair. You jumped the start.”
Fang Wen came down the boarding ladder carrying the canvas bag and replied, “It was somewhat unfair.”
What he meant was that the Shrike Hao’s speed was much faster than the other’s, so the racing competition was a bit bullying. With the Shrike Hao’s speed, there was no need to jump the start—even giving the other half a beat, it could catch up.
The other side thought Fang Wen was admitting the unfairness of jumping the start, and immediately showed a smile, feeling like he had won despite losing.
He proactively extended his hand. “I’m Raja, Indian Air Force technical officer. I’m in charge of receiving you.”
Fang Wen shook hands with him, but was surprised in his heart that in Delhi, it wasn’t someone from the American or British side receiving him, but a local person.
He then asked:
“Hello, I’m Fang Wen, Boeing Company employed pilot. According to this long-range flight agreement, a British official was supposed to receive me. Where is he?”
“Sorry, there’s something very important in Delhi. He had to go handle it. I’m in charge of receiving you.”
Raja was very talkative and rattled off a lot at once, letting Fang Wen understand the situation.
After the airplane parked at Delhi Airport, Boeing Company arranged a product demonstration.
The demonstration target was the Indian Air Force, established just last year.
The Indian Air Force, established only a year ago, currently has only some old-style biplane fighter jets and urgently needs to replace them with higher performance airplanes.
Therefore, they simply sent Raja to receive Fang Wen.
Who knew this guy came up with an aerial racing welcome activity.
Raja’s nonstop talking continued. As long as not interrupted, he could go on forever.
After understanding the situation, Fang Wen spoke up: “Can we start introducing the airplane performance now?”
“Oh, yes, you go ahead.” Raja finally stopped.
Unlike introducing at home, this time Fang Wen described all aspects of the P-26 performance by only highlighting the good points, never mentioning the bad ones, acting as a qualified Boeing airplane lecturer.
Raja listened very seriously but didn’t ask questions. Only at the end did he speak:
“We have a plan. Can we transport the airplanes over first? We’ll pay a partial deposit, and settle the full payment later?”
Hearing this, Fang Wen had a sense of déjà vu. In future foreign trade business, Indian businessmen seemed to use the same tactic.
Get the goods first anyway, and when payment is due, play it vague.
If it were his own business, Fang Wen would definitely refuse.
But it wasn’t.
He pretended to hesitate and asked, “How many do you need?”
“Twenty.” Raja stated the number without hesitation, very confidently.
Twice as many as the National Government wanted to buy.
Fang Wen replied, “I can give you a reply tomorrow. I need to send a telegram back. Can you take me to my accommodation now? By the way, can you arrange guards to watch this airplane?”
Hearing that the airplane deal had a chance, Fang Wen’s other requests were no problem at all.
Raja called over airport defending troops, arranged specific people to guard the airplane, then happily took Fang Wen to the airport lodging.
After arriving, he thoughtfully asked, “Shall I take you out to eat? The food here is absolutely unforgettable.”
“Thank you, I brought food.” Fang Wen decisively refused.
“What about drinking water?”
“I have that too.”
“Alright, see you tomorrow.”
Raja left regretfully.
After Raja left, Fang Wen closed the door.
He checked his watch—it was only 3 p.m.
Accounting for the 2.5-hour time difference, it was 5:30 p.m. in Shanghai.
That meant he still had to wait two hours until telegram time.
Just right to do some other things.
Fang Wen took out Feng You Jing and mugwort roll from the canvas bag, applied the Feng You Jing on his body, lit the mugwort, and preemptively took mosquito prevention measures.
Then, he took out the pastries his wife had prepared from the canvas bag.
This time it was a different variety.
Glutinous rice balls.
Fang Wen took one out, unwrapped the lotus leaf, and took a bite.
Cooked glutinous rice wrapped around crispy youtiao crumbs, savory and delicious.
Shanghai’s glutinous rice balls aren’t wrapped in lotus leaves. This was a new product by Kuang Mingzhu, combining Guangdong’s lotus leaf rice balls with glutinous rice balls.
Since it was a new product, it wasn’t just one flavor. Fang Wen opened another one.
This one was Cantonese style, filled with bits of salted meat, roast goose, char siu, and shrimp.
Glutinous rice packed with full protein, rich in energy.
After eating two rice balls, Fang Wen felt somewhat full.
He put the rest back in the food box, rewrapped it with oiled paper, opened the cowhide bag, and took a big gulp of water.
Next was planning tomorrow’s range.
Fang Wen planned not to overnight in Karachi tomorrow, but to fly directly to Tehran the same day.
Delhi to Karachi is 1000 kilometers, Karachi to Tehran is 2000 kilometers.
Completing 3000 kilometers in one day wasn’t impossible, mainly because a transfer was needed during the Karachi to Tehran range.
But the specific transfer airport situation had not been obtained yet.
This required contacting the contacts in Tehran and Karachi in the evening to see who was arranging the transfer airport.
Fang Wen looked at the map, occasionally taking out pen and ruler to calculate. Time passed unknowingly.
An hour later, Fang Wen got up on time, took out the telegraph machine, and sent a telegram to Neil.
“Indian Air Force proposes to purchase twenty fighter jets, but needs delayed payment.”
Once this telegram was sent, whether it succeeded or not had nothing to do with Fang Wen. He had only fulfilled his duty to convey the information, and any future troubles were not his concern.
Neil was quite interested in this, and a telegram came back in just over ten minutes.
“Tell them we’ll send a sales representative to negotiate.”
After ending the telegram exchange with Neil, Fang Wen adjusted the frequency and contacted Karachi and Tehran.
In the telegram, he requested to complete 3000 kilometers of flight in one day and inquired about the transfer airport.
The transfer airport was handled by the contact in Tehran. He provided a place name and coordinates (29°06’N, 58°21’E).
The coordinates `29°06’N, 58°21’E` are the location on Earth at 29 degrees 6 minutes north latitude, 58 degrees 21 minutes east longitude.
For Fang Wen to transfer and land there, he had to mark it on the map first.
He switched to a different map.
It was a large map with latitude and longitude.
The grids on it were all handmade by the map drafters.
Using this map, Fang Wen quickly found the location.
Bam.
With the map coordinates, Fang Wen finally felt at ease. He could use his mechanical perception ability to confirm this position during flight.
One night passed. The mosquitoes by the Ganges River were even worse than in Kolkata. Even Feng You Jing and mugwort didn’t have much effect.
Fang Wen urgently wanted to leave here as early as possible to complete the 3000-kilometer range during daylight hours.
At 8:10, Raja came over.
Fang Wen informed him that Boeing Company would send a sales commissioner, which made Raja very happy.
The follow-up matters were quickly arranged.
The airplane was fully fueled, and some engine cooling water was brought as backup. Fang Wen took off again.
This time, because time was tight, Fang Wen was no longer in leisurely driving mode. The airplane speed increased a lot.
After more than three hours, he arrived in Karachi.
North of Karachi Port is Jinnah Airport. After contacting the ground, Fang Wen landed at the airport.
Because communication was done last night, the waiting British personnel at the airport immediately arranged fuel replenishment.
After resting for 2 hours to ensure the airplane engine cooled down and avoid metal fatigue, Fang Wen took off.
Departing from Karachi, heading up along the Arabian Sea, Fang Wen began searching for Bam’s exact position.
After confirming the position, the airplane flew there at high speed.
Another three-plus hours of flight, and he finally arrived at Bam.
There was a plain, and large clusters of ancient buildings.
But where was the landing spot?
