Chapter 1572 C919

Just as Luan Wenjie said, the row of special cars did not drive to the main venue, but drove south and directly into the newly built Pudong assembly base of Hufei Group.

Under the guidance of the staff, Chang Haonan and a dozen other participants walked into a huge factory compartment with bright lights.

What came into view was not the cold machines and assembly lines, but a huge cylinder placed horizontally -

An expert would quickly realize that this should be a simulated passenger plane cabin section.

However, through the side windows, it can be vaguely seen that the interior is not densely arranged like an economy class, but is decorated to look like a business jet.

Jin Zhuanglong, Chairman of Hufei Group, personally welcomed us and enthusiastically introduced:

"Dear leaders and experts, welcome to the 919:1 simulated cabin section we developed for the next generation of China's mainline passenger aircraft C1! Please feel our preliminary design concept and human-machine environment."

This content was not on the preset agenda, but the focus of this symposium was the C919, so no one raised any questions. Instead, they followed the guidance and stepped onto the fixed gangway with great interest.

After entering the cabin, everyone suddenly realized what was going on.

The layout inside the cabin is not that of a business jet, but a small conference room!

It can accommodate about twenty people.

It was obviously well prepared.

Compared to the magnificent conference room, the cabin of this airplane does seem a bit cramped.

But the unique design was eye-catching enough and still attracted a lot of admiration.

Even Chang Haonan was a little curious about what the C919 would look like on this timeline.

The matching of aircraft engines for passenger aircraft is much simpler than that for fighter aircraft, so aero-engine designers generally do not participate deeply in aircraft design work.

Especially the body part.

At this time, Jin Zhuanglong had already followed from behind, and while guiding everyone to take their seats, he began to introduce the design highlights:

"In terms of fuselage structure, we have fully absorbed the lessons learned from the Airbus A320 series and the Boeing 737 series, and adopted a non-circular cross-section in the fuselage design, which can not only optimize the internal space utilization and improve passenger comfort, but more importantly, reserve sufficient flexibility for possible cargo model conversion in the future."

Those who attended the symposium were not complete laymen, and quite a number of them were former airline managers, so he went straight to the most critical part right from the start.

Airbus has gained a lot of advantages in the passenger market by relying on its latecomer advantage, but it has been almost beaten to a pulp by Boeing in the cargo sector.

This is of course partly due to the fact that Airbus aircraft are generally newer and there are not that many old aircraft that can be converted into cargo planes.

But Boeing's transport aircraft pedigree is also very important.

The 737 passenger-to-cargo conversion only needs to be carried out by a designated service provider, and it takes about 90 days from deployment to completion and acceptance. However, the A320 needs to return to the final assembly plant, and the modification and verification cycle is much longer.

“Here, and here, we introduced a replaceable module design.”

Jin Zhuanglong walked to the middle of the cabin and pointed at several load-bearing structures:

"From the beginning of the project, we have taken the versatility of the aircraft into core consideration. The C919 can freely choose the combination in the production process. The selection range includes cabin doors, that is, ordinary cabin doors or large main cargo doors required for cargo transportation, and crossbeams, whether they are more space-saving L-beams or T-beams with stronger load-bearing capacity..."

"..."

Choosing a simulated cabin as the meeting place is definitely a gamble.

After all, if we take it to a more serious level, his failure to report this in advance was definitely disorganized and undisciplined.

But it turned out that Jin Zhuanglong made the right bet today.

Everyone's attention was focused on what he was explaining.

A leader of the Civil Aviation Administration who came from the postal aviation industry could not help but express his curiosity and asked directly in the gap between the two sentences:

"How's the volume, after the cargo change?"

Postal Airlines is one of the earliest companies in China to provide dedicated cargo routes. Although its cargo scale has been overtaken by Yangtze River Express and Shunfeng Airlines in recent years, it still maintains a maximum cargo fleet size of 56 aircraft.

However, about a quarter of them are still Y-8 and Y-7.

Although the actual age of the aircraft is less than 20 years, it is still a young and mature cargo plane, but its performance is indeed no longer suitable for use.

Moreover, as China's share in high-end manufacturing continues to increase, more and more time-sensitive products need to be transported internationally by air.

The two old models no longer support current mission requirements.

This question was just right, and even seemed like it was asked in advance.

So much so that Jin Zhuanglong could directly take out a piece of promotional material and point to the cabin cross-section diagram on it to introduce: "The final specific design will be fine-tuned, but the effective loading space of the main cargo hold of the baseline model C919-1000 will not be less than 144.5 cubic meters."

The leader looked up and thought for a moment: "The main cargo hold of the Boeing 737-800 freighter should be 141.1 cubic meters, which is about 2.5% larger..."

In principle, the 737-800 is a stretched version of the NG series, but it is the best-selling model.

Therefore, the basic model of C919 is chosen to benchmark against 738, and the development of a shortened model will be considered later.

Jin Zhuanglong quickly added:

"The 919 and 737 are similar in size, so the cargo hold volume will not be much different, but it is the extra three cubic meters that allow the 3's main cargo hold to accommodate 919 standard cargo pallets, in addition to the 12 cubic meters of belly cargo space."

Hearing this, the leader who asked the question finally showed a satisfied expression.

The 737-800 is limited by design and can accommodate 12 cargo pallets on paper, but it can only accommodate 11 standard pallets plus one half-size pallet.

All in all, the gap is not just 2.5%.

"What about the load?"

The other party continued to ask questions.

"According to the AE1500 data currently given by the Aviation Power Group, it will not be less than 30 tons." When mentioning the AE1500, Jin Zhuanglong glanced at Chang Haonan who had never spoken beside him, "In fact, in most cases, it is the space that limits the carrying capacity, not the load capacity."

This answer also shifted the attention of others in the cabin to the latter.

Chang Haonan felt the gazes of more than a dozen people around him, and asked:

"Most users probably won't be willing to buy a brand new cargo plane, so they would just convert a passenger plane that has been used for a few years... How difficult is this?"

Jin Zhuanglong knocked on the polymer lining above his head:

"It can be modified by returning to the factory or authorized service providers. The door components and beams mentioned above are also designed for quick replacement. The modification work can be completed in as short as one month. Including the verification process, it will not exceed 70 days, ensuring that the aircraft has a broader market adaptability and life extension space throughout its life cycle..."

"In addition, if this design is ultimately proven to be effective, we will further promote it to other subsequent models, such as the C929, which is still in the demonstration preparation stage."

Then, Chang Haonan asked from a different angle:

"The crossbeam and the door are both important structural parts. According to our past experience, after several years of intensive use, these parts will be more or less deformed, which will cause certain troubles in the subsequent modification process. You just reported a one-month cycle. Have you considered this issue?"

In fact, the aviation forces on this timeline acquired the two new platforms, C808 and C909, very early on, and the special aircraft were all modified from new aircraft just pulled off the production line, so they rarely encountered similar situations.

The "trouble" that Chang Haonan mentioned was mainly reflected in the process of dealing with second-hand Il-76s in his previous life.

Almost every aircraft requires a separate design.

But Jin Zhuanglong nodded decisively:

"Thinked about it."

Before he finished speaking, someone on the other side of the cabin exclaimed, "Can you solve the deformation problem?"

"That's of course impossible," Jin Zhuanglong explained. "But we referred to the full life cycle management system designed by Academician Chang for military aircraft and developed a structural health management system that is embedded between ground maintenance records and flight databases."

Everyone's attention was focused on Chang Haonan again.

The latter coughed twice and simply spoke:

"There is indeed such a system... It is mainly used to quickly obtain the damage and deformation of the aircraft, reduce ground maintenance time, and increase the dispatch rate."

Jin Zhuanglong immediately followed up:

"So with just a few minor changes, it can be used to analyze and model aircraft structures, and perform structural damage analysis and assessment based on actual operating conditions through structural model simulation calculations..."

"..."

The meeting had not yet started, but the preparatory session alone had lasted nearly an hour.

But no one showed any impatience.

"Everyone."

Finally, Luan Wenjie stood up and interrupted the crowd:

"I think it's time to start the symposium..."