Free Web NovelChapter 1542: Chapter 729: It’s Only 100 Billion Dollars_2
It’s not just my parents anymore, but a whole bunch of netizens beyond count.
This feeling is just too depressing.
"Can’t they, like with other people, feel envious that I can drive a flying car?"
"Sigh~~~"
Zhao Yi couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh.
Actually, after driving the flying car a few times, you don’t want to drive it anymore. Traveling through the sky freely is indeed a very nice experience, but the flying car has its flaws.
The flaw is caused by the anti-gravity system.
Because the anti-gravity system covers the entire car, even a large area above it, the driver and passengers are enveloped within the anti-gravity field.
So sitting in the flying car, the gravity you experience is nearly zero, and your body feels as if it’s in space.
Weightlessness is not at all a pleasant experience.
Because of the presence of atmospheric pressure, weightlessness on Earth feels much better than in space, but nevertheless, it’s still weightlessness. When operating a flying car, you have to hold onto the steering wheel, and although there are auxiliary propulsion devices, they definitely cannot compare to normal circumstances.
So after driving a flying car a few times and coming back down, you don’t want to go back up.
Although other people are still envious, Zhao Yi has lost interest.
On Weibo, people also asked about related issues, "Can the technology of flying cars be applied to the civil aviation field?"
This is a big question. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
The world of civil aviation is still dominated by international big companies. The vast majority of civil aircraft come from just two brands, either Air K or Bo Y.
The development of anti-gravity technology has caused the stock prices of these two companies to plunge significantly, and they have not risen again to this day. However, in the civil aviation field, they are simply competitors and have not been pushed out of the market due to the development of anti-gravity technology.
The main reason is that anti-gravity aircraft are difficult to apply in the commercial market.
One reason is the lateral speed.
The initial designs of anti-gravity aircraft were all disc-shaped, like alien UFOs, but they couldn’t move as nimbly as alien UFOs nor accelerate quickly laterally.
Flying cars have broken through this issue, but another problem remains unresolved—the issue of weightlessness caused by the anti-gravity technology.
This is a super big problem.
The civil aviation field cannot prevent patients from boarding planes. It cannot restrict passengers based on age, health, etc., and a weightless environment would make many people uncomfortable, thereby affecting their health.
An aircraft manufactured using anti-gravity technology would definitely have a weightless environment onboard, making it essentially impossible to open up for a large number of passengers.
Zhao Yi saw many similar questions on the internet and simply gave a reply, "With the technology we have now, anti-gravity aircraft cannot yet be extended to the civil aviation domain."
"However, we are researching a key technology and have already made significant breakthroughs. I believe that in the near future, anti-gravity aircraft will be able to enter the civil aviation market."
This message, once posted, had a huge impact.
A vast number of netizens commented, wanting to know what key technology was being researched, though naturally, they wouldn’t get an answer.
An even bigger impact was on the international stock market. The stock prices of Bo Y Company, Air K Company, and their upstream and downstream industry companies plummeted almost instantly and quite sharply.
In just two hours, the stock price of Bo Y Company dropped by eight percent, and many large institutions continued to sell off.
The stock price of Air K Company also dropped by six percent.
Some stock market research institutions predicted, "In the next week, the stock prices of the two companies and related enterprises upstream and downstream may even fall by more than fifty percent."
Many institutions had similar judgments, mainly because of the international trust in Zhao Yi.
Whenever Zhao Yi announced some news, almost certainly, after some time, it would come to fruition. That is to say, they would soon incorporate the so-called key research into the manufacturing of anti-gravity aircraft and enable anti-gravity aircraft to enter the civil aviation field.
It’s not at all surprising.
The main reason is the emergence of flying cars. Ordinary people then think that since flying cars can be made, it’s naturally possible to manufacture more advanced airplanes with corresponding technology.
Zhao Yi hadn’t anticipated that just a couple of sentences could cause such a huge shakeup.
He also received several ’unfriendly emails,’ mostly from shareholders affiliated with Bo Y and Kong K, as well as individuals from upstream and downstream enterprises.
Many of these unfriendly emails involved swearing at Zhao Yi, which could be politely interpreted as, "Are you so bored that you have to say such things? Don’t you know the impact your words can have?"
"You just posted on Weibo and caused the company’s stock to tumble so much, there’s no way to explain this to the shareholders!"
In fact, both companies Bo Y and Kong K were actively researching anti-gravity technology. As airplane manufacturers, they were obviously aware of the potential application of anti-gravity technology in the field of civil aviation.
Because they had conducted thorough research, they knew exactly why anti-gravity aircraft couldn’t be applied in the field of civil aviation.
Now that Zhao Yi had bluntly stated that anti-gravity aircraft would enter the field of civil aviation, they could even guess what the key technology was that he referred to—
Gravity generation! freeweɓnøvel.com
Many people had come to the same conclusion and also found it incredibly unbelievable.
Gravity generation, how could that be possible?
Even with many recent technological breakthroughs, gravity generation still seemed like alien technology, as incomprehensible as matter transport.
The two companies were also holding internal meetings where opinions were voiced, "What Zhao Yi mentioned must be gravity generation, they have probably developed the related technology."
"Generally, Zhao Yi doesn’t speak without basis. If he said so, there must be some foundation."
"But even if they’ve developed the relevant technology, it might not yet be mature. For instance, they may be able to create some gravity, but if the generated gravity is very weak, it couldn’t be applied to the field of civil aviation, and won’t impact us any time soon."
"The stock has only fallen for now. If it turns out later that their so-called new technology is useless, then the stock price will gradually climb back up."
"That makes sense—"
The two companies came to a similar conclusion.
When a new technology emerges, it won’t reach maturity immediately; take anti-gravity technology, for example. The first two years were just slow research, knowing the resulting spacecraft would be of little significance.
Of course, a sense of crisis was still essential.
Both companies knew they were at a critical juncture between survival and extinction.
Even if the new technology wasn’t mature in the short term, given the rate of technological development domestically, in a few years, they might be able to create anti-gravity civil aircraft that they simply couldn’t compete with.
It would be almost like a strike from another dimension, utterly unfair market competition.
Therefore, they decided to increase their investment in the research and development of anti-gravity technology and hoped to cooperate with some special domestic companies.
For example, Yixing.
For example, Aviation Group, Space Information Technology Company, Advanced Compression Material Company.
And so on.
Speaking of the capability to manufacture civil aircraft, they were the world’s finest, and domestically, there were no companies that could compete. Even if new technology emerged that allowed domestic companies to manufacture civil aircraft, it could significantly increase costs.
If a decisive technology did indeed emerge in the future, they hoped to obtain the rights to use it. They were open to cooperation; being able to be involved in the manufacturing of new types of civil aircraft was much better than being excluded from the industry.
These concerns were of no significance to Zhao Yi.
He didn’t care about the falling stock prices of other countries’ companies or any other impact. As for the future of anti-gravity civil aviation aircraft, he had given it some thought, but personally, it didn’t affect him much.
The market in the field of civil aircraft was indeed not small.
However, the profit margins were not high.
For instance, Bo Y Company’s market value was barely a hundred billion dollars, not even a third of Yixing Technology’s, nor could it catch up with Yixing Unlimited Power Company.
Now standing at a higher position, his perspective had naturally changed.
Zhao Yi looked higher and further; technological improvement was the most important aspect to him. He believed that gravity generation technology’s largest application was in space ships, and venturing through the cosmos was his dream.
In comparison, what did the market competition on Earth matter?
