Chapter 322 The Russians also envy us (die for the leader)

The Russian exhibition area is located on the other side of the taxiway from France.

Because it is customary to prepare it for Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, the area is really large.

The old guys didn't live up to the organizer's arrangements. They basically took out the best stuff from the bottom of the box.

Located in the center of the exhibition area is an IL-96-300 that was absent from the last Xiangzhou Air Show.

Although it is smaller than the Airbus A340-500/600, it is a serious four-engine wide-body passenger aircraft anyway, and it can barely match the alignment mechanism.

As for the other Tu 204-100S, it is an old friend whom I met last year.

But this time Yi Yuanhe was more interested in the latter.

As the chief model engineer of the 603 Institute, he had heard some rumors from the Science and Technology Committee level before.

After the superiors have given up hope on the MD90 project in cooperation with McDonnell Douglas, in order to continue to promote the domestic large aircraft industry, and more importantly, to maintain Hufei, which has acquired certain capabilities, from falling apart, the current plan is to refer to the 204th The project model gradually introduces the production line of Figure 214/, and requires the Tupolev Design Bureau and the Aviation Industry Corporation to cooperate to standardize and customize domestically produced passenger aircraft according to requirements.

Considering the current predicament of the Tupolev Design Bureau, this proposal is obviously quite feasible.

Of course, China's technological accumulation in large aircraft is even weaker than that of fighter jets. It may be difficult to obtain conditions that are extremely beneficial to itself in operation like Project 11.

But no matter what, it will definitely be easier to talk to than Boeing after acquiring McDonnell Douglas in the future.

With the attitude of going to see something, Yi Yuan and Lin Weixuan walked directly over Lin Weixuan, who was half a step in front of him, and walked to the Tu 204.

There are fewer staff in the Russian exhibition area than expected. Basically there are only a few staff who are watching the exhibition area to clean and maintain order.

What was even more surprising was that after seeing their IDs and confirming that they were fellow exhibitors from China, the other party directly invited them to get on the plane and have a look.

Generally speaking, unless the passenger aircraft at the exhibition are in a very early stage, they will be open for viewing, but such enthusiastic invitations are indeed rare.

Yi Yuanhe was not polite. He had studied in the Soviet Union and could speak Russian. After a brief communication with the Russian personnel, he took Lin Weixuan directly to visit the two planes.

Especially the cockpit.

The cockpits of the IL-96-300 and the Tu-204-100S use almost the same style design and avionics equipment. Although the gap with their Airbus and Boeing counterparts is still relatively obvious, from the perspective of the mid-to-late 90s , not entirely behind the times.

The only fly in the ointment is that both aircraft still retain the design of a three-person crew, that is, the pilot, co-pilot and mechanic, while the two new models of Airbus A340 just seen opposite have been upgraded to a two-person crew. .

For passenger aircraft that need to be operated commercially, one more person is a huge expense.

Yi Yuanhe tried to sit in the main driving position of Figure 204 and held the steering wheel in front of him to feel it.

"Can the cockpit be upgraded to a two-person configuration?"

He turned around and asked the Tupolev Company staff behind him in Russian.

The latter nodded:

"The company already has relevant plans, and it is expected that the next major upgrade model will use a two-person cockpit."

According to industry lingo, this answer basically means that it cannot be done in a short period of time.

After all, with the current situation of the game, God knows when the next big version will be released.

But just when Yi Yuanhe was about to say something, the other party added:

"However, we are planning to launch a sub-model using all Western equipment, the Tu 204-120. The basic performance is similar to our Tu 204-100S, but the degree of automation will be higher, and of course the price will be more expensive."

Yi Yuanhe shook his head.

Changing avionics may be more attractive to some Western or pro-Western customers, but as far as China is concerned, the introduction of the production Tu-204 was originally to avoid risks and obtain complete 100-ton aircraft manufacturing capabilities. If it is for advanced To choose a large number of Western subsystems is to sacrifice the basics and pursue the last.

Anyway, there are still a large number of aircraft with three-person crews in civil aviation, so it is not unacceptable in a short period of time.

As long as the price of the plane is right.

Thinking of this, he asked again:

"Then this model is the Tu 204-100S. How much does each aircraft cost?"

The seemingly simple question actually stunned the Russian guy next to him.

In fact, this is like separated mountains.

Yi Yuanhe is an expert in aircraft design, but he actually doesn't know how to sell aircraft.

In aircraft transaction contracts, the price of bare metal is often only a small part of the total price, while the bulk is other services included in the contract, such as pilot and ground crew training, parts supply, warranty methods and warranty periods.

So not talking about these and only talking about price is a hooliganism.

But he finally got a less precise answer.

"According to the purchasing habits of general airlines, the price of spare parts and maintenance services is approximately between 3200 million and 3900 million U.S. dollars."

Later, Yi Yuanhe realized that he actually had no relevant concepts.

So I had to switch to Chinese and ask Lin Weixuan, who was confused because he couldn’t understand the Russian conversation:

"Old Lin, the person just now said that the price of their aircraft is about 3200 million to 3900 million U.S. dollars. How does it compare to a mainline passenger aircraft?"

Only then did the latter know that Yi Yuanhe had just made an inquiry.

"If it's less than 4000 million...it's pretty cheap."

After thinking for a while, Lin Weixuan replied:

"We purchased a batch of Boeing 757-200s last year. Their overall performance is similar to that of the Tu-204, and the price is US$7400 million each. Airbus's latest A321, 80-ton class, has a unit price of more than US$7000 million."

This is a very intuitive comparison.

There must still be some moisture in the quotation given by the Russians. If localization can be completed in the future, the cost can be reduced even lower.

At that time, it can even be used as a cargo aircraft or a special aircraft platform.

So Yi Yuanhe secretly recorded this matter in his heart.

In addition to the two large aircraft, the Russians also brought a latest Flanker demonstrator aircraft numbered 711, and a front-line bomber named Su-32FN.

As a military aircraft, it is naturally not open to visitors like a passenger aircraft, so we can only take a look at it from a distance outside the fence.

Both aircraft have a three-wing design, especially the No. 711 aircraft, which also uses a three-dimensional vector nozzle. It is believed that the maneuverability will be a huge leap.

"Perhaps it can also be used as a future improvement direction for Project 11..."

After leaving the Russian exhibition area, Yi Yuanhe took out a notebook and wrote down all the things he had just thought about.

However, when they walked around the air show and returned to where their plane was, they discovered a scene that made people laugh and cry -

A group of old men with ID badges of Russian exhibitor staff, just like Yi Yuanhe and the two just now, gathered around the MA60 display board with great interest and stopped to watch, and it sounded like they had a rather fierce argument. discuss.

"No wonder there weren't many people over there just now. They all came to us after a long time..."

Yi Yuanhe straightened his clothes and walked forward, but in the middle of the mess, he heard a few words in Russian clearly.

"The display board says that this type of aircraft has passed the airworthiness certification of all 15 EU countries. I want to know how they did it?"

"Not only that, a colleague of mine went to Tashkent to receive Chinese customers before. I heard from them that China and Europe directly signed a mutual recognition of airworthiness certification for regional aircraft below a certain take-off weight and number of seats. That means that in the future, China Models that have passed the border examination can be directly operated in Europe.”

The tone of the second voice was full of envy:

"If this condition is given to us, it would be so comfortable..."

In an instant, Yi Yuanhe suddenly realized something.

China really has no leverage in large aircraft technology.

But there are places outside of technology.

And it's critical.