Homo Sapiens

The February spring wind cut like shears.

Though spring in the Northern Hemisphere wasn't as pronounced in Southeast Asia, the weather was generally dry and pleasant, making it an ideal season for tourism in the region.

As a popular tourist destination, Siam, benefiting from the medical support of the Qingye Group, had become the ideal destination for global tourists this year.

Thonburi International Airport.

Xiaolin Yafu disembarked from the plane with his wife, Xiaolin Xingzi, and their daughter, Xiaolin Meizhi.

As an executive at Xiaolin Pharmaceutical, Xiaolin Yafu had been stationed in Thonburi City for the past two years, mainly for work.

He was on vacation for the Spring Festival and had brought his wife and daughter to Siam.

"Whoa..." Xiaolin Meizhi's eyes widened as she stared at the tarmac in the distance. She quickly pulled out her phone and started furiously snapping pictures of several planes parked there.

Xiaolin Yafu turned his head and also saw the large passenger jets on the tarmac. His mouth fell slightly open. "A plane with feathers?"

The family stood before a massive floor-to-ceiling window, curiously observing the feathered planes.

Other passengers had also stopped to watch.

Xiaolin Yafu noticed the Luzon Airlines logo painted on the feathers. He immediately opened his smartphone and searched for news about Luzon Airlines.

Instantly, his browser was flooded with related news articles and a link to the official Luzon Airlines website.

[Luzon Airlines Unveils New Generation of Large Passenger Aircraft... 02.22]

[Luzon Airlines Company Launches Large Transport Aircraft—the Flyer-1, Codenamed Phoenix... 02.23]

[The Phoenix Transport Plane Has Officially Received Airworthiness Certification from Luzon, Hongsawaddy, Siam, and Ceylon... 02.23]

[Qingye Airlines Company Plans to Purchase 100 Phoenix Transport Planes for Domestic Routes... 02.24]

Xiaolin Yafu hadn't expected that while he was away on a trip to Tokyo, Luzon would be up to something big again. He navigated to the official Luzon Airlines website.

He quickly found a detailed introduction to the aircraft.

However, Xiaolin Yafu was a layman. He flew quite often, but his understanding of airplanes was basically limited to terms like "plane... jet engine..." and so on.

All he could tell was that the Phoenix Transport Plane was stunningly beautiful, like a great bird in flight.

But there were people who knew the industry, like Captain Li Cunzhen, who had just flown in from Xingdao Changi Airport in a Boeing passenger jet.

He had spotted the Phoenix planes on the tarmac from his cockpit.

"Is that thing really safe?" his co-pilot, Xiao Xiaoxing, asked while sipping his coffee.

Li Cunzhen opened his phone and pulled up the detailed information page for the Phoenix Transport Plane.

Flyer-1 Transport Plane: Phoenix

Length: 35 meters. Wingspan: 42 meters. Empty weight: 32 tons. Max takeoff weight: 70 tons. Max fuel capacity: 10 tons. Max payload: 33 tons.

Equipped with two Chixin-60 turbofan engines.

Max speed: 850 km/h. Cruising speed: 650 km/h. Max range (fully loaded): 8,000 kilometers.

Flipping to the next page revealed several variants of the Phoenix:

Phoenix—Model A (medium-range): 10-ton fuel tank, max range of 8,000 kilometers, with a payload of 33 tons or 350 seats.

Phoenix—Model B (long-range): Fuel tank increased to 20 tons, allowing for a max range of 16,000 kilometers, with a payload of 23 tons or 280 seats.

Li Cunzhen stroked his chin. These specs were superior to the Boeing 737 across the board. In particular, its fuel consumption was only about 27.6% of a Boeing 737's.

"The data has to be fake, right?" Xiao Xiaoxing said with a look of disbelief.

"Even if there's some exaggeration, the fuel efficiency shouldn't be that far off," Li Cunzhen said, judging from his experience that the chances of the data being fabricated were low.

After all, the plane was already in service. If the fuel consumption figures were fake, would Siam Airlines and Qingye Aviation, who had already purchased the aircraft, just be putting on a brave face to their own detriment?

Although Li Cunzhen knew that Luzon, Siam, and Hongsawaddy were as thick as thieves, faking something like this would serve no real purpose.

On second thought, Xiao Xiaoxing also felt it was unlikely the fuel consumption data was faked.

If you're going to fake specs for a product, you usually do it with the lifespan of its components or the quality of its raw materials.

But for public-facing performance parameters like fuel consumption, range, and payload, airlines would definitely conduct test flights before making a purchase. There was virtually no possibility of fabrication.

Xiao Xiaoxing made a comically horrified face. "This is insane! With fuel consumption at only 27.6%, Boeing and Airbus combined wouldn't be enough to take on Luzon Airlines!"

"It's taking off..."

"What?"

Li Cunzhen pointed at the runway.

A Phoenix Passenger Plane was taxiing from the tarmac onto the runway.

Xiao Xiaoxing raised his phone and used the zoom function to get a closer look. He could see that the feathers on the wings and fuselage were constantly moving.

A moment later, the plane began to accelerate down the runway.

"Such a short takeoff run..." Li Cunzhen watched as the Phoenix Passenger Plane lifted off the ground after using only about two-thirds of the runway.

Meanwhile, Xiao Xiaoxing, still looking at his phone, could see through the zoomed-in view that the feathers on the Phoenix's surface were constantly shifting, their shape changing every second.

"Is that the secret to the Phoenix Passenger Plane's ultra-low fuel consumption?"

Watching the Phoenix Passenger Plane soar into the sky, Li Cunzhen couldn't help but remark, "It looks like Boeing and Airbus have met their match."

What the two of them didn't know was that Luzon Airlines had withheld even more confidential information from the data they had released.

For example: engine lifespan, and performance enhancements based on flight route experience.

Regarding engine lifespan, Luzon Airlines was simply leveraging the material science advantages of the Homo Sapiens Company, so that wasn't particularly surprising.

The flight route enhancements, however, were another of Luzon Airlines' unique advantages.

Specifically, aircraft equipped with the Flyer System would become increasingly efficient over time when flying fixed routes, thereby reducing fuel consumption per unit of distance flown.

In other words, the 27.6% fuel consumption figure was what a Phoenix Passenger Plane required when it was still unfamiliar with a route.

Once a Phoenix Passenger Plane became familiar with a route by collecting sufficient data on airflow direction, airflow speed, air temperature, air density, and air humidity, it could establish a flight database for that specific route.

Using this data, the aircraft could precisely adjust its flight attitude and the shape of its feathers, allowing it to maintain optimal flight efficiency at all times.

After just a few years of flying a particular route, a Phoenix Passenger Plane would have essentially mastered all its seasonal variations.

Furthermore, as the manufacturer of the Phoenix Passenger Plane, Luzon Airlines collected flight data from its operational aircraft every month for its central route database, allowing this route data to be shared quickly.

This meant that once one Phoenix Passenger Plane had flown a route, all other Phoenix planes could gain its "experience."

This was a detail unknown to the outside world.

Only a few airline operators under the Homo Sapiens Company were aware of it.

The 27.6% fuel consumption figure alone was already enough to put Boeing and Airbus on high alert. If this route database were to be revealed, they would likely fall into despair.

In fact, Boeing and Airbus were already panicking.

On one hand, they were hiring online trolls to smear Luzon Airlines' aircraft; on the other, they were desperate to acquire its manufacturing technology.

Meanwhile, the bosses behind the scenes in America had already added a new charge against Luzon to their little black books: technology surpassing American corporations, severely threatening the survival of America's core tech companies—an unforgivable sin.