The Rise of Australasia

When news of Scott’s acquisition of the Douglas Aircraft Company reached the domestic front of Australasia, Arthur immediately felt surprised, even excited and relieved.

This economic crisis had struck a few years earlier than in history, making Arthur somewhat unfamiliar with some of the famous American companies.

Apart from the Boeing Company, which he could immediately remember due to its familiarity, Arthur tasked his intelligence personnel to consider other smaller companies for opportunistic acquisitions.

This led to Arthur almost forgetting about the Douglas Aircraft Company, an aircraft manufacturer that would not rise to prominence for about ten more years, and he nearly missed out on it during the major buying spree.

Arthur’s reaction was mainly because the transport planes built by the Douglas Aircraft Company in the ’30s were exceedingly famous.

How famous? A certain principal once said that with 50 DC-3 transport planes, he could even afford to ignore the occupation of a vitally important highway.

This famous quote illustrates the importance of the DC-3 transport plane, a model that Douglas Company introduced in 1936.

And what Australasia currently lacked in the aviation field was exactly the type of transport plane that Douglas specialized in.

In addition, with the airplane series from Boeing, Australasia could even form a triumvirate of aviation giants with the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory, Douglas Aircraft Company, and Boeing Company.

These three giants covered all military and civil aircraft fields, which would propel Australasia’s airplane design and manufacturing capabilities forward significantly.

To avoid any complications, Arthur immediately ordered all intelligence personnel through Director Barty to assist Boeing and Douglas in relocating their headquarters to Australasia with all their might.

It was permissible for other company industries to remain in the United States, but the production lines of these two airplane companies had to be moved to Australasia.

Without the support of these two major aircraft manufacturers, America’s aviation progress would be delayed by several years.

If it continued to be mired in an economic crisis, like rising rapidly in the aircraft industry as it did in history, it would be good enough to maintain its current status.

With the help of many intelligence personnel, the relocation of Boeing and Douglas Aircraft Company proceeded very smoothly.

At this time, the American government had no mind to care about the relocation of a minor aircraft company, as such events were almost a daily occurrence.

On April 2, 1927, William Edward Boeing and Donald Wills Douglas arrived in Australasia holding hands, and they would spend a week inspecting potential sites for their companies before deciding in which city to base their headquarters.

Although a majority of their companies’ shares were acquired, this also meant that they had sufficient funds to facilitate the relocation.

Eventually, after several days of site visits, Boeing decided to head for Melbourne, while the Douglas Aircraft Company chose to station itself at Saint Arthur Castle.

This choice was actually quite normal; compared to other cities, Sydney, Melbourne, and the Capital City Saint Arthur Castle had better infrastructure, larger populations, and relatively more developed economies, making them more suitable for the companies’ growth.

For companies like Boeing and Douglas with a high order volume, the number of employees would also swell dramatically.

This meant that the companies’ headquarters had to be located in cities with significant populations, with at least several hundred thousand inhabitants, otherwise, they couldn’t support the companies’ expansion.

It’s worth mentioning that, after the two aircraft companies chose their locations, it also resulted in a tripartite balance among aircraft manufacturers in Sydney, Melbourne, and Saint Arthur Castle. ŕἈɴòβЁŠ

Soon after Boeing and Douglas selected their headquarters, their equipment and some employees willing to go to Australasia also followed in quick succession.

Australasia was quite generous to these Americans, not only promising that their salaries would be on par with those in the United States but also ensuring they would enjoy citizen treatment in Australasia and secure their jobs, provided they were willing to take up Australasian nationality.

The good news was that there were many vacant factory buildings in the suburbs of Melbourne and Saint Arthur Castle, which could be handed over to Boeing and Douglas for their company bases without any problem.

This also hastened the two companies’ steps into formally starting work, with the smaller-scale Douglas Company needing only two weeks to complete the relocation of their headquarters.

On April 25, 1927, three weeks after Boeing and Douglas came to Australasia.

Following the formal settlement of the two companies in Australasia, Arthur finally had the time to meet with these two highly capable aircraft designers.

The reputation that Boeing Company and Douglas Company made in history was significant, and the abilities of Boeing and Douglas, the founders of these companies, were very important.

To give the technical personnel enough topics for discussion, Arthur also invited Theodore, the technical head of the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory, for a good talk with the aircraft experts.

In the banquet hall of the Royal Palace, Arthur finally met the two experts.

Unlike the fame they had left in history, they were still quite nervous when they met Arthur.

After all, they were just the leaders of a small company, and now most of the company’s shares had been acquired by Arthur.

As a monarch of a superpower, Arthur held the power of the entire country in his hands, and his status was already worlds apart from theirs.

"Don’t be constrained, experts," Arthur said with a smile, gesturing for the two men to sit down and then instructing Theodore to sit beside them.

"This is Theodore, the Chief Aircraft Designer at the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory of Australasia. I believe you technical experts will have common topics to discuss," Arthur said as he introduced Theodore to Boeing and Douglas.

After the three of them got to know each other, Arthur continued, "Well, the fact that we can meet here proves that you are experts I trust enough.

Whether it’s the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory or Boeing and Douglas Companies, you will all become the explorers and pioneers of Australasia in the aircraft industry and develop more advanced and powerful airplanes for Australasia.

Both military aircraft and civilian airplanes are very important to the country and are the main exploration targets in your field of airplanes.

Now, you can talk about some of the issues in the development of the company and outline the main research and development goals for the following period."

Seeing Boeing and Douglas at a loss for how to start speaking, Theodore took the lead and said, "Your Majesty, our civilian plane, the Big Belly 3, is developing very smoothly and is expected to be officially put into commercial use within three years.

The new airplane has reduced the likelihood of accidents, with only a one in 100,000 chance of an incident occurring.

In addition, we have increased the flying speed of civilian airplanes and the number of passengers they can carry. This will become the fastest means of transport in the world, accelerating the connection between our regions."

Arthur nodded.

Arthur was aware of the progress of the civilian airplanes at the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory. It had been over 20 years since the first airplane appeared, and they had gone through many generations and improvements.

Currently, the military airplane developments of various countries were not lagging behind; airplanes had already gained combat capability, were being equipped in large numbers by the nations, and official Air Forces were being established.

However, the research into civilian airplanes was not as in-depth in other countries.

Unlike military airplanes, which pursued combat effectiveness, civilian airplanes sought safety.

No matter how fast an airplane is, if it cannot guarantee safe takeoff and landing, no one will ride it.

This is different for military airplanes. Soldiers carry the mission of defending their country; they care about winning wars, not whether they can return alive while sitting in an airplane.

This led to a generally slow development pace for civilian airplanes in various countries because any airplane design or concept was futile without guaranteed safety.

After Theodore finished his report, Douglas looked at Arthur’s gaze turning towards him and boldly stood up to say, "Your Majesty, we are researching a transport plane that uses two engines and is expected to significantly increase the weight of cargo that transport planes can carry, as well as improve the airplane’s stability and speed.

But as you know, due to the economic crisis in the United States, the progress of this twin-engine transport plane has nearly come to a halt, and it will take some time to restart."

The twin-engine transport plane Douglas mentioned is the famous predecessor of the DC-3 transport plane, the DC-2.

In fact, whether it’s any model of transport plane, Australasia has not been heavily involved.

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This was also why Arthur had high expectations for bringing in Douglas Company because it could fill the gaps in aircraft for Australasia.

"A twin-engine transport plane?" Arthur nodded and looked at Douglas, who seemed slightly uneasy, and smiled, "That’s a good idea. What kind of help does the Douglas Aircraft Company need now?"

"Enough capable employees and sufficient research and development funds, Your Majesty," Douglas said boldly.

This airplane expert, born in 1892, was only 35 years old.

And when he developed the DC-3 transport plane, he was actually only 43 years old. Being so capable at such a young age, talents like Douglas were very important to Australasia.

If used wisely, the airplanes Douglas developed would help Australasia maintain a lead for decades to come, and a substantial one at that.

Arthur nodded and directly agreed to Douglas’s request: "You can hire the employees yourself; there are still plenty of excellent employees at Saint Arthur Castle. As for the funding, I temporarily approve 2 million Australian dollars for research and development, and the extra funds will have to rely on the achievements of your transport plane development."

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