Northrop Company moved swiftly upon discovering a new blue ocean of opportunity. They immediately dispatched teams to survey major police departments across the USA. The overwhelmingly positive feedback they received spurred this defense contractor into action, showcasing an exceptional level of efficiency.
After all, this was a profitable endeavor. If they could dominate the market for police drones nationwide, the potential sales volume—though not quite at the level of military demand—was still substantial.
Excluding Hawaii, there are fifty states. Even if other states did not place as large an order as New York City, which requested six drones, an average purchase from each state would still add up to hundreds of units. This would rival any military contract in terms of volume.
And these drones aren't cheap. Based on the configurations Northrop currently provides for military drones, which include both surveillance and combat capabilities, the unit price for each drone is significant. When multiplied by the expected order size, the revenue potential becomes enormous.
The Northrop board was ecstatic upon receiving the news.
They realized that if they could secure the entire police drone market, it would enable them to surpass General Atomics, a competitor with which they had long competed. Success here could establish Northrop Grumman as a leader in the drone market.
While other companies had attempted to design drones capable of hovering mid-air, Northrop's shrewdness had led them to patent the embedded rotor technology long ago. This meant that competitors, like General Atomics—the makers of the Predator and Reaper drones for the military—couldn't pursue this design without Northrop's consent.
Civilian drones, which typically use quadcopter designs, were slower and didn't meet military standards. These quadcopters were still contenders in the police drone market, but they had inherent limitations in both endurance and payload capacity, which were inferior to the drones designed by Castle with both propellers and turbofan engines.
After careful study of competitors and client requirements, Northrop sensed this as an incredible growth opportunity.
Breaking into this new police drone market would mean an immense boon for the company, potentially as lucrative as their military contracts.
Interestingly, this entire opportunity emerged thanks to the company's least conventional shareholder: an author. His wife, a police precinct chief in New York, had received a hand-built drone from him as a donation, sparking the interest of the NYPD. This unexpected sequence of events ultimately led to Northrop receiving a proposal to supply drones for police use.
Reflecting on it, this author was indeed something of a lucky charm for the company.
Since this drone was also his design, Northrop reached out to Castle, who was relaxing at his estate on Long Island, to ask if he could adapt their existing military drones for police use.
In the USA, police departments are under state or local jurisdictions, not federal control. This differs from countries with centralized police forces; in the USA, only the FBI operates under federal oversight. Consequently, police departments with adequate funding can independently purchase equipment to meet their needs.
The economic strength of cities varies significantly. For instance, places like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, with robust economies and high tax revenues, have well-funded police departments. However, cities like Detroit, which has struggled financially, may have smaller budgets for such acquisitions.
Regardless, Northrop understood that not every state could afford to buy drones, but if even a few drones were purchased in each state, it would result in substantial cumulative demand.
Although they couldn't offer Castle another share in the company for opening up this new market, Northrop offered him a generous fee for his modifications. Having recently won a new-generation military drone contract, Northrop was more than willing to invest in this police drone project.
Even Castle's assistant, a low-level researcher at Northrop, benefited from the perks of this success, making it difficult for Castle to turn down the request. With Jarvis helping calculate technical parameters and managing his lab, Castle saw a chance to acquire high-end materials unavailable for personal purchase—a win-win.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to develop a police drone based on an existing military model, Castle managed to procure a significant stockpile of materials from Northrop. However, Castle had secretly instructed Jarvis to work on a police drone prototype in his lab shortly after the project proposal was approved by Northrop.
This police drone design emphasized surveillance and endurance over firepower, with its dimensions reduced to a third of the military model.
At cruising speed, it could remain airborne for up to 24 hours. With two custom-made turboprop engines powering embedded rotors, the endurance could be extended even further.
Despite having four engines—two turboprops and two turbofans—each optimized and scaled down for efficiency, fuel consumption was comparable to that of a small car, thanks to Jarvis's advanced computational optimizations.
Not only could Castle deliver a complete prototype to Northrop, but he also optimized the engines in the process, creating improvements that thrilled the drone's engine supplier, Pratt & Whitney.
Jarvis's access to computational resources rivaled those of dedicated aerospace manufacturers, and Castle's knowledge, inspired by Marvel's Tony Stark, contributed unconventional yet highly effective weapon design concepts. So, when Castle was designing the drone for his wife's precinct, he took the opportunity to tweak the engines.
Northrop's engineers were stunned when they saw the results of Castle's modifications on the prototype.
Pratt & Whitney's on-site representatives at Northrop rushed to witness the ground tests, already knowing their engines powered Northrop's new drones. Seeing Castle's modified engines perform so well on the test stand was an unexpected windfall.
For the representatives, Castle's modifications had boosted engine performance by a significant margin. How had this author achieved such an outcome?
Pratt & Whitney's representatives immediately reported this discovery to their headquarters, while Northrop's personnel quickly notified the board.
"How did he do this?" asked Northrop's technical director during an urgent board meeting. He turned to the senior vice president who had managed communications with Castle.
The senior VP looked bewildered. "I'm not sure! Since we sent the materials directly to his Long Island estate, he told us not to worry. And Castle delivered the police drone prototype on schedule. As for how he optimized Pratt & Whitney's engines, I have no idea!"
The senior VP felt wronged; he wasn't Castle's babysitter, and the board had unanimously decided to entrust the project to him.
The technical director shook his head at the VP's lack of technical understanding. "Do you realize what it means that he improved Pratt & Whitney's engines?"
"Idiot, this is a big deal! Haven't you noticed how the Pratt & Whitney reps have practically lost their minds, reporting this back to their company?"
The VP, not being technically inclined, was stumped. "I really don't know! Castle didn't even mention it. Should we just ask him directly?"
Castle initially had no idea what the fuss was about when he received Northrop's call. But when the technical director, who specialized in aerospace technology, asked about the enhanced performance of the engines on the police drone he'd just delivered, Castle realized Jarvis might have just achieved something groundbreaking…
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Fairy Tail: Igneel's Eldest Son (Chapter 256)
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Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 542)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 924)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1284)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1289)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1316)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1402)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)
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