Chapter 1036 Warning from China

In the information age, news always travels faster than logistics.

George Brin and Adam Whittle were just two ruthless rubber stamp tools. After making sure that the documents provided by China did not have obvious legal and technical risks, they submitted the electronic version of the documents and the currently somewhat alarming project progress to the British headquarters.

As for sample identification, technical testing, and compliance review...

Stop joking, Xiluo Company is just an empty shell with less than three-digit employees, most of whom are scattered in various airports and warehouses...

It's impossible to do this.

Therefore, the British side, which was eight hours behind China time, also received hundreds of documents sent by Xiro Company on the working day of December 8.

Rolls-Royce's response to this...

Quite quickly.

The message was received at noon.

That evening, before all the documents had even had time to be printed out, important figures in the Trent 900 R&D team had already flown back from the UK and other parts of Europe for the meeting.

The person who was most stimulated was obviously the head of the process group, the smart guy, Nate McGill, who was the first to propose using the semi-finished waste from China's research and development process to deduce the other party's specific process.

Because even though he hadn't seen what the finished product would look like yet, his plan had obviously failed.

Last time, about three months ago, the first batch of scrap sent back by the Chinese was full of various processing defects. Cracks and remelted layers were only the surface ones. After further testing, it was found that the metallographic condition of the alloy had also changed significantly.

It can basically be said that there is absolutely no progress.

Even after he took it back and analyzed it for a long time, he could only conclude that it was processed with a high-energy laser.

As for other features and even specific parameters...

No need to think about it.

But at first, McGill even thought it was a good thing.

Because his idea was that the Chinese would need the third and fourth batches of raw materials for trial processing later.

In this way, even if the other party deliberately carries out mechanical damage before returning it, the process of technological improvement can be gradually seen from it.

After all, you can get some useful information.

As a result, once the second batch of raw materials arrived, there was no news for three months.

Actually, this is not quite accurate.

After all, China still submits a progress report with standard format and beautiful writing every one or two weeks.

Unfortunately, these reports are very British.

In other words, the article is very long but contains almost no substantive content.

Of course, we have all worked our way up from master's to doctoral degrees, and we all know the unspoken rule of padding periodic reports.

So gradually, no one took a closer look.

It's just common sense that since the other party hasn't asked for the third batch of raw materials, it means that the progress may not be very optimistic.

However, just when everyone is relaxing and preparing to enjoy the Christmas holiday.

The Chinese people just exploded...

Until half an hour after the meeting started, McGill was still holding a page from the pile of reports, sitting at the conference table like a wooden man, studying it -

On that page, there are multi-angle pictures of production samples.

The edges of the air film holes are smooth and the material surface is bright.

You can even see a slight reflection.

There is no trace of the previous battle-damaged style.

If the last time the Chinese delivered the RB211-524B4 sample, they directly presented the result without any process, then this time at best they wrote an extra solution to show respect to the person who set the question...

To the extent that for a moment, McGill even wanted to slam the table and angrily accused the Chinese of deliberately scrapping the first batch of raw materials to make fun of him.

But then he recalled that he had vowed before that the other party would not see through this plan, and finally he held it back...

……

Compared to McGill, whose face had turned purple, the others were in a relatively stable state of mind.

Lapworth's biggest hope is that the technology he developed can be used on the Trent 900. At this time, he is only one step away from making his dream come true. It doesn't matter who is responsible for the production of these turbine components.

Bodie felt from the beginning that this kind of reverse engineering was unreliable and a bit cheap. Although his original intention was not particularly noble, now looking at McGill's embarrassed expression, he could only feel relieved.

As for others, including project manager Panos Watson, they were just trying their best to get the job done.

Anyway, if the core components are outsourced to others for production, the lost profits and leaked secrets are already a done deal, so it is better to support McNair's plan.

What if it works.

Without expectations, there will be no defense.

but……

Doing business with China, especially companies related to Chang Haonan.

If the defense is not broken here, it will be broken somewhere else.

Just like now...

"Director Watson..."

Bodi suddenly raised his head, and his expression became serious:

“There is a very important content here.”

As he spoke, he turned over the pages in his hand so that more people could see them.

But the conference table is still a bit wide, and it is really difficult for people opposite to see the densely packed English letters.

All you can see is the word "Warning" written in bold black font at the very beginning.

Helpless, I had to ask my secretary to find the electronic version of the manuscript.

In fact, at this point, no one thought much about it.

I feel that it is nothing more than some routine marking by Party B.

For example, pay attention to the operating instructions during clamping, installation and disassembly, and how to contact for maintenance or replacement of new parts if damage occurs.

However, when the contents of the material were finally projected onto the screen, the content surprised everyone.

Warning regarding possible lack of overspeed protection for low-pressure turbine disks.

Obviously, this is not a legal or rights clause added as a template, but a technical document out and out.

The content is also very simple.

We said that during the production process of turbine parts, we found that the Trent 900 engine lacked measures to prevent turbine overload and overspeed in extreme situations. Once the turbine shaft breaks due to an accident or other reasons, it may lead to more serious consequences. It is reasonable to speculate that your company may also lack the same type of design in the structure of the intermediate pressure turbine.

However, considering that we have not obtained the complete design plan of this model, we have no way of knowing whether your company has achieved the same function by other technical means. Therefore, we are just making a friendly reminder here and hope that you will make corrections if necessary, and encourage each other if not.

Even when read from an English perspective, the content seems a bit pointed.

As the person in charge of the entire model, Watson, as expected, became famous because of this -

He has worked for Rolls-Royce for more than 30 years and has personally designed more three-rotors than the Chinese have ever seen on blueprints. As a foundry, you may have some unique technical skills, but you also honestly complete your own production orders. How can you be here to guide us on how to design aircraft engines?

However, as a British gentleman, Watson would not start his name directly with the F word.

He took several deep breaths, managed to calm down, and then said to Bodi:

"You can write them a reply letter and say thank you for the reminder from our partners, but the Trent 900 is different from the old aircraft engines. Its turbine shaft is precisely calculated during design and produced by the top process and quality assurance team. It will not break within its service life and without external damage."

"Moreover, the Airbus A900, which is the aircraft that the Trent 380 is installed on, is a four-engine aircraft. Even if there is a very small probability that the engine is damaged due to external reasons, as long as one of the four engines can continue to work, the emergency mode can be activated to keep the aircraft flying for at least half an hour..."

"..."

This reply letter can be considered as a tit-for-tat response.

Basically, the Trent 900 is different from those low-end things you have come into contact with in the past. Don't think that you understand our Rolls-Royce design concept just because you have learned a Spey. The concentric shaft of the Trent series has a redundant design, and it will not have an outrageous failure such as a broken shaft inexplicably. If it is caused by external factors, it will be useless even if an anti-overspeed design is added. In addition, we also have a strong mode that can ensure flight safety in the most extreme situations. It doesn't matter if you are ignorant, but don't point fingers at us...

However, Watson did not write the whole truth.

In fact, from a purely risk control perspective, no matter how perfect the design of the shaft itself is, there is no flaw in adding an additional safety redundancy.

What really made them abandon this design was the relatively complex structure of the three-rotor itself.

It’s not that it cannot be designed, but the cost control requirements given above are relatively high.

In order to compete with GP7200, performance must be improved.

Then we can only make some compromises on redundant design.

After all, this is a major trend with the development of aviation technology.

Just like in the past only four-engine aircraft were allowed to fly across the ocean, and later three-engine and twin-engine aircraft were gradually allowed to fly.

Besides, they did not falsify the calculations and tests, so unless there were external factors, it would be impossible for the axle to break.

In short, before the samples were sent to the UK, the two sides had already completed a verbal sparring match in secret.

At this point in time, almost everyone thought that this was just part of a bickering between the two leaders.

But these two documents, many years later, became a kind of aftertaste that affected the whole world...