Chapter 1441 Facing reality

One week later.

In the warm breeze of the early morning in Gaojing, an Airbus A330 aircraft slowly braked to a stop on the apron of Yanliang Airport.

The gangway truck that had been waiting nearby followed closely behind and docked precisely at the hatch position almost at the same time as the engine stopped.

The staff on the ground rolled out the red carpet and decorative flower baskets as they had rehearsed many times before.

Apart from the fact that there was no guard of honor lined up in an orderly manner waiting for review, and no symbolic elements such as the national flag and national emblem, it could almost be said that the preparations were made according to the standards for welcoming high-level foreign guests, and the display was very grand.

Even though the bigwigs at Rolls-Royce were well-informed, they were still a little surprised.

Especially Tim Bodie, who was still in the cabin and had not had time to get up.

Since about five years ago, he has visited China alone or with a team no less than twenty times, but has never received such treatment.

So much so that, looking at the busy yet orderly scene before him, Bodi even worried for a moment whether his group would be overstepping their authority.

However, this thought only flashed through my mind.

Instead, the uneasy feeling in my heart fell to the ground.

Before setting off on this trip, including just now during the flight, Bodi felt that this trip was a bit too hasty. The original itinerary suddenly changed drastically a week ago, and the new topic was completely caused by an unexpected incident. There was no time to make adequate preparations.

Moreover, revealing one's true intentions so easily or even impatiently during negotiations can easily lead to the opponent's neglect.

However, judging from the reaction of the Navy System Department, the situation is extremely urgent this time and there is not much time to waste.

Thinking of this, he turned his head and glanced at the other side of the cabin, wanting to see how wonderful Richard Partridge's expression was at this moment.

It was this old fellow who stated with certainty that with the current level of technology, it would be impossible to apply the indirect cooling and heat recovery technology to aircraft engines, which almost ruined the last chance of the NGME project.

Fortunately, MTU backstabbed itself midway and chose to join forces with Pratt & Whitney, which indirectly helped Rolls-Royce to save the situation.

Now that time has passed, Bodi really wants to know what the other party's mental state is at this moment.

Of course, I also wanted to watch the fun.

But Partridge did not give him the chance, instead he focused all his attention outside the porthole, leaving Bodie with only the back of his head covered with gray hair.

After all, the A330 is a twin-aisle wide-body aircraft with a 2-4-2 layout. From the latter's perspective, it is actually not possible to see the scene outside the other side window clearly.

At this time, the plane door had been opened and the cabin broadcast began to notify all passengers that they could prepare to leave the plane.

Bodie had no choice but to unbuckle his seat belt and get up to get his briefcase, muttering:

"It seems that the Chinese still take this very seriously..."

Elginbridge happened to be walking by at this moment, and shook his head seriously after hearing this:

"It may not be a good thing for us if the other party pays attention to us."

Bodi was stunned at first, then he understood what his leader meant.

The NGME project is equally shared by both parties at a ratio of 50:50, so naturally everything is harmonious. The bigger the show, the smoother things will go.

But this time, it was obvious that there was a sucker waiting to raise the price. The other party deliberately put on such a high standard of reception. Rather than showing their importance, it was more like a show of power...

Soon, just after the group left the cabin, the scene that appeared in front of Bodi confirmed his guess.

On both sides of the edge of the apron, about a few dozen meters away from them, there were a dozen gray-painted military transport planes parked in rows, which were obviously ready for delivery.

He didn't feel anything when he was sitting in the plane just now, but now looking from the gangway, he sees that the two rows of planes are parked symmetrically, as if they were specially arranged to welcome them.

Indeed, for a company as large as Rolls-Royce, the scene of a dozen aircraft waiting for delivery is commonplace and not rare at all.

What really attracts the eye are the more than 1500 high-bypass ratio engines under their wings that are almost identical to those of the AE.

After officially joining the NGME project, Rolls-Royce redesigned the combustion chamber structure and part of the fuel and oil pipelines based on the WS-20 to further reduce fuel consumption and pollutant emissions, and make the entire engine more in line with the maintenance and operation habits of the civil aviation industry.

However, the two are almost identical in the fan-high pressure compressor part of the intercooling circuit.

There is no doubt that this is a naked display of strength.

However, the other two people were not particularly clear about the specific situation of the NGME project, so at present, only Bodi understood the meaning of the Chinese people's operation.

He wanted to explain the reason behind this to Elginbridge, but at this time, Chang Haonan, who came to pick him up at the airport, had already strode forward and blocked his reminder:

"Mr. Elginbridge, on behalf of China Aviation Power Group, I welcome you and your colleagues..."

During the courtesy greetings between the leaders of both sides, the accompanying staff did not have any specific tasks other than translation, so they were all looking around, trying to see if they could find anything worthy of attention at the Yanliang Airport.

However, the Chinese side had already prepared for this. Apart from the dozen or so Y-9s that the British wanted to see, the other models that were being tested were either parked in the hangar early and could not be seen at all, or were tightly wrapped in camouflage rainproof cloth, so that you could only recognize the model at most.

"It doesn't look like there's anything special here?"

Patrich came behind Bodi at some point and asked in a low voice:

"I remember you said before that the NGME project will soon be conducting the second phase of test flights. So the flight platform for the first phase should be here, right?"

In fact, to this day, Patridge still doesn't believe that anyone can integrate an indirect cooling circuit into a small aircraft engine and still maintain a stable cycle operation.

Therefore, the first priority for him and Elginbridge when they came here was not to reach any agreement directly with the Chinese side.

Instead, it is to confirm that the other party really has the ability to help you solve the problem.

Otherwise, it would be really fun if someone else took advantage of you for nothing.

But to Bodi, this question was a question of his work performance in recent years.

If it were under normal circumstances, he would have to lose face.

But it was not a good idea to have an open internal conflict in such a situation, so we had to grit our teeth and endure it.

He just glanced at the other person unhappily and didn't answer at all.

However, at this moment, a low roar sounded from behind the delegation.

After all, the sound of engines working is completely normal at an airport, so no one took it too seriously.

After all, everyone had just got off the plane. Being a little distracted was one thing, but looking back blatantly was another.

Too indecent.

But the roar became louder and louder, and soon even drowned out the sound of the two people talking in front.

Now no one cared about the appearance anymore. Even Elginbridge himself turned around in confusion and looked at the other side of the apron through the gap under the belly of the A330.

Sure enough, an Il-76 aircraft painted red and white was taxiing out of the hangar, apparently entering the taxiway to prepare for takeoff.

At first glance, this scene doesn't seem to be anything special. The most unusual thing is that the fancy paint job is quite rare in China.

But a few seconds later, as the huge body of the Il-76 slowly turned a 90-degree turn, almost everyone saw it—

Under the left wing of the aircraft, there was a turbofan engine that was obviously larger than the D30KP2 next to it.

No matter how slow the delegation was, they had already realized at this time that the plane must be China's engine aerial test platform.

And Patridge, who had just commented that there was "nothing special" here, couldn't help but stiffen his face and turned his head in the other direction awkwardly.

But he couldn't help but glance towards the end of the runway, with an expression of being hypocritical but actually being upright.

At this moment, let alone the Chinese people around.

Even Tim Bodie, who was angry just now, almost couldn't help but give Chang Haonan a thumbs up.