Chapter 943: We can’t leave everything to the Chinese, right? (4K)

And at the same time Chang Haonan was setting a trap for his competitor.

Paris France.

His partners were also in a dilemma at this time.

In a meeting room of the Dassault Group, several engineers were reporting the development progress of the various components of the Falcon Z business jet to Serge Dassault and Charles Edelsteiner as usual.

Although the project is a joint development among four companies, the overall planning and design of the aircraft are the responsibility of Dassault, so in terms of specific work, they do occupy a position similar to that of the domestic "main engine manufacturer".

The first person to speak was a technician who was in charge of liaison with the Snecma Group:

"At present, Snecma and China Aviation Power Group have officially determined the research and development schedule. The new engine series will be named SeA. According to the different thrusts, there are currently three basic models: SeA350, SeA500 and SeA650. In the future, the thrust can be further subdivided on this basis."

"Three models...are they being developed in parallel?"

Ed Steiner said with concern.

In his plan, the Falcon Z should be a short, fast project that will make its first flight within two years, so the project should not be too extensive.

Fortunately, the other party shook his head:

"No, the priority is the SeA650 with the largest thrust, which is the 6.5-ton thrust model, which is used to adapt to the largest Z9 solution in our Falcon Z project."

Ed Steiner finally felt relieved.

The Z9 solution is the largest model in the entire product series and is also the first model he plans to launch.

The maximum take-off weight of 40 tons is even close to that of China's C808 regional airliner.

As a business jet, it is an absolute behemoth.

Correspondingly, its range has reached more than 12000 kilometers, meeting all the requirements for transoceanic flights.

It is even possible to take off from Paris and reach the west coast of the United States directly without refueling.

Of course, in actual practice, few people need to perform such exaggerated flights.

But in order to compete with its dominant competitors, mainly Bombardier and Gulfstream, Dassault must create a benchmark product.

It’s just like the reason why Airbus must develop the A380.

I can choose not to sell it, but I can't live without it.

"But... use the M88 core engine without the afterburner and make a 6.5-ton civilian engine..."

Dassault, who was sitting at the head of the conference table, took a half-smoked cigar in his hand and asked:

"Can this development progress really match ours?"

You can't blame Dassault for having such concerns.

The so-called being bitten by a snake once, ten years afraid of well rope.

The lesson of how the M88 engine almost killed the Rafale is still fresh in our minds, and it is really hard for people not to think in a bad direction.

The technician who had just reported did not answer immediately, but pondered for a moment.

The main problem with Dassault is...

Not easy to answer.

He is only in charge of liaison and is not an engine designer, so he naturally cannot guarantee other people's work.

But as an employee, you have to consider your boss's concerns...

Therefore, after pondering for a moment, he chose to explain from the side:

"I heard that in order to ensure the progress of research and development, the Chinese team leader rejected Snecma's request to participate in the development of the hot end, and only let them participate in the design of the fan and casing..."

The meaning is obvious.

You can't trust Snecma who ruined the Rafale, but you should at least trust the one who saved the Rafale, right?

However, this person also only had a vague understanding of the situation.

Because it was not actually Liu Yongquan who vetoed Snecma's request.

But Chang Haonan——

Although he had never directly cooperated with the French in his previous life, he had read a lot of relevant information.

To sum up, the French are not good at hot-end research and development.

The SAM146 engine jointly developed by France and Russia has a hot end design defect that results in an actual overhaul interval that is only half or even one-third of the expected indicator, and there are also reliability risks.

With such a precedent, Chang Haonan was naturally worried about letting Snecma get too deeply involved.

Fortunately, some minor errors and omissions do not affect the persuasiveness of this explanation.

Dassault didn't ask any more questions, but just nodded and picked up his cigar again.

Seeing that the topic about engines had come to an end, Edsteiner took over the conversation again and gestured across the conference table:

"Braudie, tell me about the avionics system."

The engineer called Brodie pushed up his glasses, then sat up straight and answered:

"Thales Group has always been one of the main hardware suppliers for passenger aircraft avionics and flight control systems, so there are no obstacles in this regard. In fact, most of the hardware is available on the shelf and can be picked up immediately."

"So, they are currently focusing all their energy on the development of the underlying software program. We have a technical team of about 50 people in our company, cooperating with them at Thales. Although there is no actual progress yet, we have built a test platform using an old Falcon 900 flight simulator and plan to test the first version before March next year."

"..."

……

"call--"

After listening to the entire report, Edsteiner let out a long breath and leaned back in his chair in a relaxed manner:

"It looks like our partners will be able to keep up with our schedule and achieve the first flight of the Falcon Z before 2004."

"Then, we will follow the original plan..."

Just when Edsteiner was completely relieved and ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work, a deep voice suddenly interrupted his chatter:

"Wait a moment……"

Ed Steiner had no choice but to stop.

Following the source of the voice, he noticed that the person who had just spoken was Didier Casore.

Head of Dassault's aerodynamics department.

"Doctor Casore, do you have a question?"

"Yes."

Cassore nodded and opened the notebook in front of him helplessly:

"Wings... new high-speed wings planned for the Falcon Z..."

"There were some... maybe some serious problems with the development process."

In just a few words, some sweat had already flowed down Cassore's forehead.

Because before he could finish speaking, the atmosphere in the conference room became tense.

Especially Ed Steiner, who just looked confident.

He had been worried about whether several important subsystems of the aircraft would delay the development of the entire aircraft.

So, after listening to the reports from several other groups of liaison personnel just now, I felt relieved.

However, before he could be happy for too long, he discovered...

He gave orders as fiercely as a tiger, but in the end, he was the one who got into trouble...

This is more embarrassing.

Everyone in the conference room either lowered their heads or raised their heads, always looking away, not looking at Edsteiner, whose face was turning red and white.

On the contrary, Dassault next to it behaved relatively normally.

After all, he wasn't the one who was embarrassed.

As for the question itself...

Dassault didn't think that a project that had only officially started for more than two months would cause any major chaos.

At worst, you can start over from scratch.

So, he asked on behalf of Ed Steiner:

"Don't worry, tell me what the situation is and whether there is a possible solution?"

Cassore was just taking out his handkerchief to wipe his sweat when he heard his boss' question. He quickly replied:

"A few days ago, we sent the engineering documents on the new wing design to the responsible personnel of each partner for backup as usual."

"Originally, this was just a normal operation that we would do every week. But about two days later, someone suddenly sent us an urgent email stating that there were errors in the modeling and design calculations we had completed using the new method, and provided detailed verification methods."

"Then……"

"Then we tested it according to what he said, and found that... there was indeed a problem..."

"There were violent fluctuations during the calculation process. Although there was no divergence in the end, the reliability and accuracy of the results are probably... no longer guaranteed."

After hearing this description, Edsteiner suddenly felt dizzy.

Aircraft design must be tested in a wind tunnel before it is actually implemented.

The basis of his plan to race against time is to use a highly completed initial design to shorten the time for trial and error in the wind tunnel.

But if the calculation accuracy of the design process cannot be guaranteed...

Not to mention compression, it might even lead to a deviation in the design direction. It would be better to rely on experience and try slowly.

“Is there a solution?”

He asked quickly.

"The development cycle we submitted earlier was estimated based on the premise that the new algorithm is feasible... But now the entire numerical calculation tool has a problem, so relying on us alone... I'm afraid it will be difficult to solve it in a short period of time."

Cassore felt like he was going numb.

Who would have thought that COMSOL would directly release software that was missing some functions, and without any warning before the calculation?

He forced himself to take a deep breath, managed to calm himself down, and then continued:

"At present, the safest way is to switch back to the old wing shape with traditional design, but the cruising speed will be reduced to a level similar to that of competitors...about 900km/h, and the range will be reduced by about 3%."

"Of course, we can also change the calculation tools and methods and design a new wing from scratch, but the progress will be affected by at least 4-6 months."

Ed Steiner was at a loss for a moment.

He signed off on the application of the more radical new COMSOL software in wing design.

Now that something has gone wrong, at least we cannot put all the blame on our subordinates.

He is not British.

"Can't it be faster?"

Ed Steiner still holds on to a last glimmer of hope.

High speed is a very important publicity gimmick in his plan, especially at a time when the Concorde is about to be retired. A business jet that approaches the speed of sound but has the same fuel economy and noise as other aircraft will definitely attract the attention of target customers.

It would be a pity if it were gone.

"It's hard."

Cassole shook his head:

"In fact, I have always wanted to complain about one thing, that is, the adaptation between our own CATIA and Torch Group's TORCH Multiphysics is not good, so every time we have to spend a lot of time to correct and reconstruct the model. This time we switched to COMSOL because they can be directly compatible with our engineering files..."

"In short, if we must complete the task according to the original schedule, then I'm afraid we have to hand over the entire airfoil calculation work to Torch Group itself. Their numerical calculation business department should have engineers with the most computing experience at present. Combined with our new supercomputer hardware, the efficiency will be greatly improved..."

Hearing this suggestion, Edsteiner couldn't help but hesitate:

"But this is one of the most important tasks in aircraft design... If we ask someone else to do it, it will definitely not work if we rely on suppliers..."

"If we add a new partner, we need the consent of the other three companies. Besides, Torch Group is just a software company. What can it know about wing design..."

"Actually...it might not be that troublesome."

Casore suddenly spoke again:

"Although the Torch Group is a software and computing services company on the surface, I checked its background before and found that it is actually our partner, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Aviation Power Group..."

At this time in 2001, the equity structure of non-listed companies was not that easy to check.

Moreover, the Torch Group was only transferred to the Aviation Power Group later.

Therefore, it was obvious that Casore had done a lot of homework to be able to find this kind of information.

"Is there such a thing?"

Ed Steiner was also a little surprised.

However, Casore's next words were even more powerful:

"And I also found out that the general manager of the Torch Group and the person in charge of connecting with our Falcon Z project at the Aviation Power Group...they..."

"They are... the same person."

For a moment, the entire conference room fell silent.

"That is to say..."

After a long time, Brody, who had just reported, broke the silence:

"The email you sent for archiving was actually sent to the developer of TORCH Multiphysics?"

"This should be……"

Cassore nodded:

"Or rather, it was fortunate that it was delivered to him."

"If we hadn't discovered this calculation problem in advance and only realized something was wrong when we started blowing the wind tunnel, it would not be as simple as delaying the progress by a few months..."

And Brodie followed up with:

"If it's him, then maybe the design can really be completed within the original time."

Everyone looked at Ed Steiner.

As the overall person in charge of the Falcon Z project, his opinion is crucial at this time.

And Ed Steiner was also struggling with his conscience.

On the one hand, he felt that the Falcon Z was ultimately a French project, and he couldn't leave everything to the Chinese.

But on the other hand, there seems to be no other choice if we want to maintain the original development progress.

If the other subsystems have been developed by then, we will all stop and wait for Dassault's overall design...

It seems even more embarrassing.

"anyway."

In the end, it was Dassault who came to the rescue of Edsteiner:

“As Dr. Casore just said, if we plan to improve the compatibility between CATIA and TORCH Multiphysics in the future, we will have to cooperate with each other sooner or later.”

"So this time... let's just treat it as a way to get closer to each other in advance!"