Chapter 1223 The Europeans Who Love and Hate Each Other

The idea of ​​launching the Y-9 into the international market right after it completes some test flight missions was something that was considered when the project was launched.

After all, at this point in time, twin-engine turbofan tactical transport aircraft with faster speed, better ride comfort and lower operating costs have begun to attract the attention of some countries.

As for serious competitors, apart from the An-72 which adopts an unconventional design, the only other one is the C2 produced by Kawasaki Heavy Industries next door.

Relying on its larger size (equivalent to A400M), the latter could indeed have had a considerable advantage.

And it is obvious that Japan wants to play a trick by having such a model with military purposes but without any weapons, to pave the way for officially breaking through the arms export restrictions in the future.

However, as luck would have it, the body of the first C2 prototype was found to be substandard after production was completed.

Building an airplane is not like building a car, where even if the structure is not up to standard, you can get away with it.

So it had to be rebuilt from the ground up, and the original schedule for its first flight in 2007 was completely cancelled.

As for the actual delivery, that is even more distant.

Therefore, if the Y-9 is publicly exhibited in 2006, it can create a window period of 4-5 years.

Even without considering the economic issue of how many aircraft can be sold, the improvement in reputation and perception that this model can bring to China in the international aviation market is worth the price of the ticket.

However, taking the No. 02 prototype out directly with its heavy test flight mission and two new engines was somewhat inconsistent with the cautious habits accumulated by the aviation industry system over the years.

Therefore, even Liang Shaoxiu, who always believed in Chang Haonan, had a slightly doubtful expression:

"Will disclosing the structure of the WS-20 so early have some adverse effects on subsequent market competition?"

After he finished speaking, perhaps because he was worried that Chang Haonan might misunderstand him, he quickly continued to explain:

"What I mean is...it is often difficult to define the international intellectual property rights of this type of product. If our competitors borrow the design of the intercooler and your condensate control module, and combine it with other basic technologies in which they already have an advantage, is it possible for them to create a strong competitor for us in a short period of time?"

In fact, his question is also a microcosm of the mentality of China's military industry at the turn of the century.

At this stage, China's weapons and equipment have begun to move away from the past state of relying entirely on ultra-low prices to attract customers, and have a certain performance foundation.

But most of these foundations come from the ingenuity of software and hardware design, rather than real hard power thresholds.

And the final results are still mainly focused on catching up with performance and finding and filling gaps.

As a result, the entire military industry tends to customize export models to avoid direct contact between foreign troops and the weapons and equipment used by the People's Liberation Army (even if these equipment are no longer the most advanced), so as to prevent others from seeing through the clues and losing the advantage of information asymmetry.

Although with the development of science and technology, China has more and more unique skills that others cannot imitate, but once the style of doing things is finalized, it cannot be changed in three to five months.

On the original timeline, this habit continued until around the 2020s, when it was alleviated with the emergence of export versions of the same models such as the Z-10ME, HQ-9BE, and J-10CE.

Although the situation is slightly different now, taking the J-10 as an example, the J-10E that is ultimately exported is still a version that is significantly different from the J-10A.

Chang Haonan also intends to take this opportunity to push the overall military industry towards a more open state.

Then he patiently explained:

"Several core technologies of the WS-20, whether it is the integrated design of the stator blades and intercooler, or the specific execution logic of the condensate control module, have very high technical barriers... Just like European and American countries were not afraid to sell their aircraft engines to us in the past, these things are not so easy to be copied even if others get their hands on them, let alone take a look at them."

"On the contrary, Western established aerospace companies will soon realize that our overall architecture is unique, at least in the short term. If we add some of their accumulated technologies to this architecture, we will be able to create a new generation of products that will outperform all our peers..."

"Only in this way can the airworthiness certification barriers they have established be further broken down, and we can also get the opportunity to enter the international mainstream aviation market..."

This is exactly Chang Haonan's ambition.

Starting from the aircraft engines used in mainline passenger aircraft, then gradually developing to the whole mainline aircraft, and finally completing the comprehensive mutual recognition of the entire airworthiness standards.

The whole process will probably take 10-15 years.

But if you follow the steps step by step, it can basically be guaranteed to work.

"So... the expected cooperation partner is still the French?"

After all, Liang Shaoxiu was not from the Aviation Power Group, and the cooperation between Gaofa and Rolls-Royce was actually quite low-key, so he was obviously unable to keep up with the pace.

Chang Haonan and Zhang Zhenhua next to him looked at each other and smiled at the same time:

"When the Singapore Air Show opens, you'll know..."

In fact, Chang Haonan and others had been planning to target Rolls-Royce for a long time.

Including letting the full-size model of the WS-20 be exhibited publicly, which is also the finale of the whole process——

First, through the previous operations, we let Luo Luo have an idea of ​​our next move, and then we slap the products that have been more than half implemented on them.

The British had no choice but to believe it.

But Chang Haonan can't really see the future after all.

There are some situations that no one can predict...

……

Almost at the same time.

Friedrichshafen, Germany.

After returning to the UK from China, Tim Bodie learned a more complete picture from Panos Watson.

Although Dr. Partridge had previously stated with certainty that it was not a wise choice to use the indirect cooling and heat recovery system on aircraft engines, Watson, who had learned to be cautious, was still prepared to contact MTU, the company that implemented the CLEAN plan.

Therefore, as the head of the NGME project, Bodima was sent to Germany without stopping, preparing for a purely tentative but insincere contact with the other party.

MTU, which has always hoped to enter the aviation power market, attached great importance to this and directly sent Ilse Winkler, who had participated in this project before, to be in charge of the connection.

The two were not familiar with each other, but they had attended some technical and policy conferences in the industry together before, so they had met each other before.

"I heard from Director Markus Zeiss that you now need a partner with sufficient engineering experience in the field of gas turbines to complete a new project?"

After an emotionless and clichéd opening speech, it was Dr. Winkler who got to the point first.

It even made Bodi almost unable to react.

Even for the old-fashioned Germans, this approach was a bit too blunt.

Although this is not a formal business negotiation, it is also an intentional contact between the two groups.

If you appear too anxious, you will inevitably suffer losses.

But fortunately, he had rehearsed the speech many times in his mind, and speaking out the following content had almost become instinctive.

"Yes."

Bodi nodded, and then played some internal information about NGME on the computer:

"Based on the analysis of the current international air transport market and considering that the 10-year exclusive supply agreement that Boeing was forced to sign after acquiring McDonnell Douglas is about to expire, we believe that Boeing and Airbus should start developing a new generation of mainline civil airliners in the near future to further consolidate their leading position in the industry."

"During the development of the Trent 900, we realised that the current generation of aircraft engines, which are our main products, have basically exhausted their upgrade potential. Therefore, we need to develop a new generation of aviation power from scratch to meet the power requirements of these new generation aircraft..."

In fact, this information was revealed privately to Bodi by Airbus, but Rolls-Royce had never really intended to cooperate with MTU. This trip was only to find out the truth, so it was naturally impossible for them to tell the truth about the source of the information channel.

So I just made up an excuse that "the ten-year period has expired."

But it does sound like that—

The package of unequal treaties in 97 had a significant impact on Boeing.

In particular, the sales ratio of new aircraft in the mainline aircraft market has been directly reduced to around 47%, which is basically on par with Airbus.

I must do something to redeem myself.

After explaining the reasoning, Bodie paused for a moment, and then began to appeal to his emotions:

"Previously, several companies, including ours, cooperated to establish the International Aero Engines Company (IAE). This was generally a successful experience, but there were too many participants, which also dispersed the group's strength to a large extent. As a result, after more than 2500 years of establishment, there is still only one model of product, the V, and it is difficult to develop new models from scratch..."

"In addition, IAE's equity structure is no longer reasonable... Japan Aero Engine Corporation no longer has the ability to supply core turbine components, but it still holds a 23% stake in it, while you only hold 12%..."

"..."

This passage is indeed mixed with a lot of true feelings.

Especially the part about diss Japanese.

At the beginning, a poorly processed lubricating oil pipe almost ruined the entire Trent 900 model. Bodie still feels a little scared when he thinks about it.

As for standing up for MTU, that was purely a show.

But Dr. Winkler seemed to like this and became interested immediately after hearing it:

“So, if the two sides cooperate to implement this NGME project, what specific parts do we need to complete on the MTU side?”

"Our goal with the new engine is to reduce fuel consumption by 2500% and pollutant emissions by more than 20% compared to the V30."

Bodi felt that today's pace was a little unreasonable, but now that things had come to this, he had no choice but to show his true colors:

"To achieve this goal, it is difficult to achieve it only by upgrading the fan and combustion chamber, so we hope to combine the results of the past CLEAN project and apply the indirect cooling and heat recovery technology to aircraft engines."

I don’t know if it was an illusion, but after hearing this, Winkler on the opposite side actually showed a slightly relaxed expression.

But it was gone in a flash.

Soon his expression changed to a serious one:

“Although we are willing to respond to your proposal, the CLEAN plan at that time did not produce any particularly valuable results.”

"According to our research, in aircraft engines, since the specific heat capacity of air as a coolant is far less than that of water, the core function is actually the regenerator, and the intercooler is only an auxiliary device to cooperate with the regenerator, allowing the engine to obtain lower energy consumption..."

"But the regenerator of an aircraft engine can only be integrated into the tail nozzle, directly in contact with the high-temperature combustion gas discharged by the turbine. The working environment is much worse than that of a gas turbine. We have tried every possible means, but we can only keep the regenerator module working normally for less than 200 hours. The cost and reliability are totally unacceptable..."

"..."

Bodie patiently talked about some irrelevant things until the meeting lasted for three hours, and then he "reluctantly" led the team to leave.

After seeing off the Rolls-Royce delegation, Winkler changed his previous honest and simple behavior, quickly returned to the office and made a phone call.

"I'm Ilse Winkler. We've already contacted the people sent by Luo Luo..."

"They also plan to cooperate with us to promote the development of a new generation of 12-15 ton aircraft engines..."

"Don't worry about this. I have already tried it out. The British are completely unaware of our cooperation with Pratt & Whitney. It must be just a coincidence that it happened at this time..."

"Yes, there is no risk of leaks in the CLAIRE2020 plan, so we can proceed as planned..."

"..."

After hanging up the phone, Winkler leaned back in his chair and breathed a long sigh of relief.

Then he turned around and looked at the sea-air boundary outside the French window:

"British……"

"It's a pity that you're a step too slow..."