Chapter 1061 The British must tell the truth!

The engine testing phase remains a purely corporate endeavour, and the Trent 900 explosion did not become a public disaster.

Therefore, Rolls-Royce had no obligation to announce the accident itself and the results of the investigation. Instead, it blocked the news from the outside world at the first possible moment and explained the loud noise caused by the explosion as the result of a pulse detonation engine being tested.

Only the core personnel involved in model development and testing can understand the specific situation.

It should be said that the British are quite efficient in this matter.

Even Bodi didn't know exactly what happened until he returned home.

But after all, there is no wall that is impenetrable.

Moreover, the act of blocking messages itself will reveal a lot of information.

Within a few days, some good-natured media appeared around Derby County, hoping to get some useful information indirectly.

Some tabloids that are not afraid of trouble have begun to publish articles suggesting that Rolls-Royce has encountered a "major setback" in one of its projects.

Fortunately, Test Bench No. 58 is not a separate device, but is located in the same park as the earlier Test Bench No. 57.

The two sides can accommodate up to 10 engines in total, and 4 of them can be tested simultaneously.

The pulse detonation engine that Rolls-Royce previously claimed is indeed real.

Therefore, the outside world has not yet found clear evidence and can only remain at the stage of speculation and suspicion.

Only Airbus felt something was wrong.

From the beginning of the second week of negotiations, the leading Bodi disappeared and was replaced by a so-called "full-power negotiator" who had never been seen before.

However, as long as the topic between the two parties touches on the key points related to the details of the contract, the other party will either avoid the topic or make some excessive demands that are obviously looking for trouble.

So much so that several days passed and there was no progress at all.

Some people also began to speculate whether it was true that the Trent 900 had an accident as the outside world said.

But on the one hand, they have placed too many expectations on Rolls-Royce and are subjectively unwilling to accept such speculation.

Secondly, this negotiation started at Rolls-Royce's initiative, or even at its urging.

This means that the other party should have sufficient confidence.

Could it be that there was no sign at all, and the accident suddenly happened at the critical moment during these few days?

No way?

In comparison, it is obviously a more reasonable analysis that competitors manipulate the media to carry out malicious slander.

This made Airbus a little undecided for a while.

In short, in the first two or three days after the explosion, everything seemed calm.

But everyone in the know knew that this calm was only temporary.

If they can find and solve the problem in a short period of time, everyone will be happy.

Even if this matter is revealed in the future, it can still be regarded as a good story.

But if we delay too long...

All the momentum created before turned into a boomerang and hit his head.

Therefore, Panos Watson ordered a new batch of turbine blades immediately after the accident.

Although it is called an order, there is actually no need to go through the negotiation process again.

Since Rolls-Royce's order volume remained quite stable in the previous few months, both parties modified their cooperation model in order to improve efficiency.

Rolls-Royce can increase the order quantity at any time according to its own needs, while China Aviation Power Group provides products according to the previously signed unified contract, and the two parties settle the payment every six months or a year.

Therefore, you only need to simply contact the other party and submit a new order.

Based on past experience, it usually arrives within 7-10 days.

If you are fast enough, the cycle can even be shortened to five days.

In Watson's view, this is the efficiency that can only be achieved by sending spot goods.

It is very likely that the other party has prepared a large batch of goods in advance, and as long as he places an order, it will be shipped immediately.

This time should be no exception.

In fact, his guess was quite accurate.

After the completion of Gaofa Group's laser processing production line, the output of turbine blades has exceeded the order volume of Rolls-Royce.

Therefore, unless there is a large order coming in all at once, the goods can be shipped directly from the warehouse.

However, the situation this time is different...

……

On the other side, China.

Shortly after Tim Bodi contacted Huaxia through the Xiro Group.

Chang Haonan, who was busy sorting out data in the Torch Laboratory, received a call.

He frowned and prepared to transfer the call to Liu Chenchen——

Since returning to the capital, he has begun to live a reclusive life.

On the one hand, the WS-20 has basically met the project approval conditions, and the research and development of QC300 has also entered a critical stage, all of which require him to maintain his attention on the technical level.

On the other hand, we are also waiting for the final plan for the reorganization of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

There are rumors that Chang Haonan may directly take up an important position in the new department after the reorganization.

But given Chang Haonan's current age, even from the perspective of special handling of special matters, it is unlikely that he will be able to go any further.

After all, state-owned enterprises and government agencies are all within the system.

But if you really want to compare them, the difference is still quite big.

It's not hard to guess that many eyes are focused on him.

It’s better to keep a low profile.

Therefore, most calls, unless they are absolutely necessary, are handled by the three secretaries.

However, just as Chang Haonan was about to press the transfer button, he caught a glimpse of the extension number on the caller ID.

From Gaojing.

The calls from there are mostly about purely technical or project issues.

Therefore, after hesitating for a moment, he picked up the receiver directly.

A familiar voice soon came from the other side:

"Mr. Chang, I'm Zhang Zhenhua."

Of course, Chang Haonan also recognized the other party's identity:

"I know, what's the matter?"

Generally speaking, people from the Aviation Power Group do not contact the laboratory directly, but instead communicate through Zhang Liangping.

Zhang Zhenhua also got straight to the point:

"We just received an order from the Xiluo Group not long ago, but this time the order interval is shortened by half compared to the previous one, and..."

At this point, he paused for a moment, but quickly continued:

“And the Xiluo Group requested that the goods be delivered to them this time, rather than shipped directly to the UK.”

"We are discussing whether to agree to this request from the Xiro side..."

Chang Haonan also immediately heard something wrong.

In the cooperation between the two parties, the Xiro Group actually only played the role of a white glove.

That is to say, the turbine blades produced in China are washed to look like those "self-produced" by Rolls-Royce.

Therefore, except for the first few attempts, the delivery process did not require the involvement of this middleman at all. The Aviation Power Group directly connected with the Chinese Customs.

Due to the special status of the former, this method can also shorten the customs declaration process as much as possible.

The magical delivery cycle of 7-10 days is also partly due to this.

Now the Xiro side suddenly asked to intercept the goods. Although it was not against the rules, it was obviously abnormal.

"What are their order quantities?"

Chang Haonan did not give an answer immediately, but asked instead.

There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone, followed by the sound of turning pages.

Soon, Zhang Zhenhua reported a very small number.

"Not even enough for one engine."

Chang Haonan made a quick judgment.

At the same time, a reasonable guess is formed:

"The order quantity is small, and they are going to hand it over directly to the Xiluo Group. Maybe that means they are not going to go through the customs declaration process, but are going to send it back by carrying it with them?"

"For small quantities of items that are not smuggled, this is definitely faster than any other logistics method. If it is ready-made goods, even two days will be enough."

Zhang Zhenhua also suddenly realized:

"So, this means that the British side is in a hurry this time, so much so that they don't even want to wait a week?"

"That's right..."

Chang Haonan certainly didn't know about the twists and turns between Airbus and Rolls-Royce at this time, but as a reborn person, he knew from the very beginning that the Trent 900 had design... or quality defects.

In the previous life, the Qantas QF32 had its turbine blades penetrate the casing and then destroy the aircraft itself, almost becoming a typical example of an engine non-containment accident.

Therefore, it is reasonable to speculate that on this timeline, they may have encountered a similar situation during the testing process.

The urgent purchase of a small number of blades was most likely for the purpose of reconstructing the accident situation.

"Old Zhang."

Thinking of this, Chang Haonan was no longer sleepy:

"After all, the Xiluo Group is Party A on paper. As long as it does not conflict with the content of the contract, we have no reason to reject them."

"But……"

Zhang Zhenhua obviously wanted to refute something, but was interrupted by Chang Haonan:

"Hear me out."

The latter's voice became obviously excited:

"If they play tricks on the contract, then we can play tricks on the contract too. Just tell the two British guys from the Xiluo Group that they happen to have no stock to ship this time, and they need to wait for the new batch of products to come off the production line. Try to delay the delivery until the longest period allowed by the contract!"

"Um... ah?"

Zhang Zhenhua called, his original intention was just to seek safety.

The result was an instruction that had never been envisioned.

"The matter is rather complicated... It's hard to explain right now. Anyway, Luo Luo is very anxious this time, and it's obvious that he's hiding something big from us. We have to find a way to make the British tell the truth!"