Chapter 915 M883 Engine Upgrade Plan

Despite having just experienced a round of economic crisis, the 2001 Paris Air Show quickly demonstrated its huge influence.

On the one hand, due to the superposition of various factors, the financial crisis originating in Asia in this timeline did not expand to the level of sweeping the world in the previous life. About three years was enough for some countries with stronger resilience to catch their breath.

More importantly, the suddenness of the Allied Action and the dramatic consequences that followed made many medium-sized countries realize that

Although the Cold War has ended, for small countries, the end of the Cold War is the beginning of danger.

Moreover, it is really useful in national defense construction.

In the Balkan Peninsula, a B50 can be shot down with anti-aircraft guns from the 2s. I dare not imagine what can be shot down if more advanced equipment is used.

Although the starting point and thinking path of this idea are actually biased, after all, the victory of the B2 had little to do with anti-aircraft guns.

But the final conclusion is correct after all.

As for the arms race, once one country starts it, other countries that originally had no intention of doing so will follow suit.

So, even before the air show's public opening day was over, news of the first order had already come out.

Some media reported that a North African country purchased a large number of improved Su-27SM and Su-27UBM from Sukhoi and has signed a detailed supply contract.

Compared with the basic models exported to China, India, Indonesia and Annan in the past, these two new models have made great improvements in avionics equipment, payload and maneuverability.

Even the radar has been replaced with a flat slot antenna that is more in line with the requirements of the times.

This news was quickly confirmed by Algeria and Sukhoi.

The former also stated that this round of procurement not only involves the Air Force, but also includes 6 battalions of Beech air defense missiles and two F22A frigates from China.

It can be seen that this country, which has just recovered from civil strife a few years ago, has become much richer thanks to the nationalization of oil and gas fields.

As if this was a switch, in less than half a month, more than a dozen countries officially announced new equipment procurement decisions, or at least had plans with clear timetables and selection ranges.

Austria and Norway have expressed their intention to purchase the EF2000 as their country's new generation of main fighter jets.

Morocco has signed a contract with Lockheed Martin to purchase 25 F16C/D fighter jets from the latter to counter air threats from neighboring countries.

希腊空军并未具体表态航空兵装备的更新计划，但却决定把S300防空系统中掺混的部分5V55R导弹升级为48N6E。

In this way, the S300 only needs to be deployed on Crete, and its range can cover the entire southern Aegean Sea and the airspace over Cyprus.

However, the Turkish Air Force is unable to purchase more F16s due to the cooling of relations with the United States and can only respond with a strong protest for the time being.

Saudi Arabia has included F15, EF2000 and Rafale in its selection range.

The Thai Air Force has publicly stated that it has examined Sweden's JAS39C/D and China's J-10E, and believes that the latter is more in line with its tactical needs, but has not yet decided whether to maintain the original 24 aircraft or reduce the purchase quantity to 12.

Brazil announced an arms renewal plan involving 36 aircraft and more than 1500 pieces of various types of ammunition, and will also choose between JAS39C/D and J-10E.

South Korea has determined that its FX program to replace the F4 and F5 fighter jets will not be put to an open tender, but will directly finalize the model as F15K.

Even China, whose international image has gradually changed from an equipment importer to an exporter, has quietly signed a third batch of S12PMU300 procurement contracts for a total of 2 battalions...

In short, those who eat meat eat meat, those who drink soup drink soup, and even those who are poor can eat a little at the bottom of the bowl.

But there is only one exception.

That is France, the host of the air show.

After deliberately postponing the air show for two months and carrying out a fierce operation, there is no need to think about eating meat or drinking soup.

I didn't even smell the fragrance.

Of course, Airbus still made a lot of money as usual.

But this is clearly not the same thing.

Is the point of arms procurement just that little bit of money?

of course not.

It’s about expanding influence!

Why is Thailand actively considering the J-10E?

Performance is secondary.

The core reason is that in 98, China became the mainstay of Asian finance, while Japan, which had stronger economic strength, quickly fell into decline.

Although the core reason for the former to do so was to protect Hong Kong Island, it objectively did prevent Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, which was the first to be hit, from sliding into an even more uncontrollable abyss.

This equipment purchase will obviously in turn enhance China's influence among countries of similar size.

For example, the Brazilians' choices were clearly influenced by this.

However, many countries that were originally equipped with Mirage series fighters, such as Morocco and Saudi Arabia, decisively abandoned Dassault's subsequent models in this round of equipment updates.

This is obviously not a good tendency.

In short, watching others successfully complete transactions at their own air shows, the French have truly experienced the feeling of being NTRS.

So, after the air show ended, they naturally started a round of review.

First of all, the EU’s development momentum in recent years is absolutely beyond reproach, and it even (thinks) has signs of surpassing the United States.

France has always regarded itself as the leader of the European Union, so in terms of its international influence, it must have been stronger than in the past.

So the current situation is definitely not because France is failing.

Well, it must be a product problem.

Of course, Dassault itself acknowledges this.

After all, at the air show, the performance of Rafale was indeed inferior to that of the EF2000 next door.

Therefore, except for the French Navy, which is eager to buy a batch of 12 mass-produced Rafale M aircraft in F1 technical status, the remaining orders will be delivered after being upgraded to F2 technical status.

The most important of these is, of course, the power upgrade that Edsteiner had already thought of on the day of the air show.

The sea level thrust of M88-2 is only 7.6 tons. In order to reduce its own weight, the ejection nozzle used further reduces the operating adjustment range.

Compared with the EJ9, which has a thrust of 200 tons as a basic model, it is indeed dwarfed.

So much so that they were suppressed in the low-altitude and low-speed maneuvers that they were best at.

Therefore, after learning from its mistakes, Dassault quickly put pressure on Snecma.

For the latter, Party A's request is like a death sentence.

In this situation, the Chinese happened to have an almost ready M88-3 plan.

There is no need to even think about which choice to make...

……

So, early September.

Just when Chang Haonan had already arranged his work for the next month in advance and was waiting to see whether the big news would come as promised, he suddenly received a request from Liu Yongyuan to come to Beijing to report to him on his work.

"Mr. Chang, Snecma suddenly said yesterday that they hope to speed up the work with us and put the next improved version of M88 into mass production as soon as possible."

Liu Yongquan said this and placed a meeting memorandum on Chang Haonan's desk.

According to regulations, this kind of international cooperation needs to be reported to the group headquarters for approval at the start and at major milestones, but the intermediate process can be decided independently by each second-level unit.

However, Chang Haonan is the chief designer of the WS-10 after all, and it is no exaggeration to say that he is the founder of China's aero-engine industry in the new era.

Therefore, Liu Yongquan also got used to asking him for instructions and reporting.

"So urgent?"

Chang Haonan took the folder with some confusion, and then opened it:

"Didn't the M88-2 just go into mass production? Doesn't Snecma plan to familiarize itself with the production process?"

If we go by what China calls it, the current progress of M88-2 is similar to that of WS-10. Both have completed the design but have not yet reached the stage of production finalization.

Logically speaking, we shouldn't consider further upgrades so soon.

And there's one more thing.

Chang Haonan has basically arranged the technical plan for M88-3. In addition to performance upgrades, the more important thing is to use this improved version to help China test some technologies, as well as use the design of special-shaped air film holes to do some turbine blade export business.

But the problem is that the annual production capacity of nearly 200 engines at the Liming factory is the "planned capacity".

It hasn’t landed yet.

Currently, only the prototype in the Torch Laboratory is undergoing trial production.

After the ultra-short laser processing equipment is finalized, the Liming factory will set up the production line. The optimistic estimate is that it will take until the second half of next year or the beginning of the year after next.

Therefore, the original schedule was to put the M88-3 into production after mid-2003.

Then Snecma would discover that it was taking too long to build new turbine blades.

At this time, China comes again as the savior.

perfect.

However, looking at the eagerness shown by the French now, it seems that the entire progress must be advanced by at least a year...

Liu Yongquan didn't think much about Chang Haonan, and just answered whatever he had to say:

"I guess it's because they found out that there were no orders after the Paris Air Show, so they got anxious."

"No orders received?"

Chang Haonan roughly recalled the news he had heard during this period, and found that he did not seem to have heard of the part related to Dassault:

"It seems that there is indeed no ..."

But then, Chang Haonan changed the subject:

"But to be honest, this has little to do with the performance of the aircraft... The main problem is that Dassault's promotional strategy for the Rafale is problematic. Another problem is that they didn't target the right market. For example, in a country like South Korea, it's obvious that they only have American aircraft to choose from. No matter how hard they try, they can't win..."

"Well... but I heard from the comrades who came back from the air show that the Rafale and Typhoon performed their flying shows one after the other, and the performance gap is quite obvious."

Liu Yongquan spoke.

Although the Aviation Power Corporation of China did not send a delegation to the exhibition, as an old employee of the head office, Liu Yongquan had many acquaintances in the Aviation Industry Corporation of China next door, and they were bound to interact with each other at work.

"What kind of maneuverability can be seen in an air show..."

Chang Haonan couldn't help but complain:

"They are just some fancy low-altitude, low-G maneuvers. At most, they are just to test the power level and agility. The Typhoon..."

At this point, he suddenly paused.

Chang Haonan originally wanted to say that Typhoon's EJ200 actually had a design flaw. Although the data on paper was top-notch, because there was a lack of a support point in front of the engine fan, it might cause excessive deformation of the casing and damage the compressor blades when flying at high overload, so the actual maneuverability was not up to the design level at all.

However, this defect was not even known to the British army at the time. It was only later that the Typhoon gave incredibly disastrous performances in many simulated air battles, which led to its exposure.

He knew the flaws of M88 even though he had never touched it before. This performance was outrageous.

However, it can be barely explained by saying that it is a reasonable deduction from the problems of the CFM56 core engine.

But the EJ200 is a newly designed product from the inside out, and it is a bit scary that it can point out detailed problems from thousands of kilometers away.

Therefore, Chang Haonan had to change his statement:

"For a multinational joint research and development project like the Typhoon, there is a lot of room for wrangling over subsequent upgrades and maintenance. You will regret it once you buy it..."

Liu Yongquan did not doubt him and just replied:

"But Typhoon has already received several orders, so it's inevitable that the French are anxious..."

"Fine……"

Chang Haonan didn't say anything more:

"You should have received the technical proposal I wrote to you before?"

Liu Yongquan nodded:

"Received. Use a three-dimensional dustpan-shaped air film hole similar to the WS-10 to improve the atomization capability of the combustion chamber fuel nozzle, further increase the temperature before the turbine, and redesign the outer edge of the high-pressure compressor blades to control the boundary layer separation..."

"Just follow that. The air film holes and fuel nozzles are already available. You just need to re-adapt them to the compressor situation."

Chang Haonan closed the file and put it back in the drawer next to him.

"However, we can't help the French work overtime for nothing. Remember to give Dassault a boost and ask them to quickly produce the gyro-stabilized platform of the optoelectronic pod and the technology of the uncooled thermal imager..."