“Brother Tao, will they agree?” Zhao Ling asked Qin Tao after leaving the conference room of Huating Shipyard.
"They should agree. After all, only we can make it, and the price we ask is indeed not high. They must take this first step, otherwise, their company will not be able to develop and grow."
Zhao Ling did not expect that the other party actually came to cooperate. Brother Tao was so good that he could see what the other party was thinking at a glance.
The other party wants 300 million US dollars, which is not only the construction cost, but also the design cost. It can even be said that the design cost accounts for the majority. As long as this design is completed, then Mingzhou Group can get involved in this ro-ro ship. business, and it is a high-end product.
There is a need abroad and a need domestically, and the domestic demand is even greater. After all, this kind of ro-ro ship is not an ordinary ro-ro ship and can also serve the navy when needed.
“By the way, Brother Tao, why are you always promoting this solar energy business? Is this important?” Zhao Ling thought of something else.
Solar energy is a clean energy source, but its power is not very high. Even if the entire deck of a ship is filled, the ship cannot rely on solar energy to sail. This thing is just the icing on the cake, not necessary.
Qin Tao smiled: "Of course we have to promote it. When our solar cells are laid out, the outside world won't be able to tell that the deck looks like the deck of an aircraft carrier, otherwise they will have too many associations."
For the sake of convenience, the top part is designed to be completely flat during design. When needed, the solar panels can be removed and used as a take-off and landing platform for carrier-based aircraft. However, in normal operations, it cannot It's too obvious, so it's most appropriate to put solar panels on it and treat it as a disguise.
Zhao Ling understood: "Brother Tao, then, can this ship built for foreign countries be converted into an amphibious assault ship when needed?"
"Of course not. We give them ordinary steel for the top deck. To directly land a carrier-based aircraft, they would have to make a big hole. If we make it domestically, we will use high-grade aircraft carrier deck steel."
Although Qin Tao deceived the other party to contact the country and ask the country to apply for funds if he ran out of money, he had no intention of providing additional uses to others. He wanted to withstand the take-off and landing of carrier-based aircraft, even vertical take-off and landing fighter jets. , the top deck must also have sufficient strength, but if it is used as a ro-ro ship and the top deck does not require open-air loading, then there is no need to use good steel plates.
In fact, even the deck steel that needs to be used on aircraft carriers is a kind of deception. The quality required is indeed high, but there is still a big gap between the deck steel of aircraft carriers.
However, only by saying this can the other party get the wrong impression: Mingzhou Group can build this kind of ship because it requires aircraft carrier technology!
In this case, the other party will have to obediently accept Mingzhou Group’s asking price and order the world’s largest displacement ro-ro ship from Mingzhou Group. Mingzhou Group can also use their funds to complete the research and development of this kind of ro-ro ship.
After all, there is no such demand in the country yet, and there is no need for them to develop this kind of ship specifically to hide troops from the people. Why build it? Our Oriental cars have not yet been exported to the world.
At this moment, Xu Zhengyang followed.
“Mr. Qin, we just received the news.”
"what news?"
“Huating Aircraft Factory has sent an invitation, asking you to visit their factory.”
Qin Tao stopped and said, "Okay, let's make arrangements for tomorrow."
Huating Aircraft Factory was just a name in the past. When it cooperated with McDonnell Douglas, it was directly changed to Huating Aircraft Manufacturing Company. After all, cooperation with foreign countries is an exchange between companies. It doesn't matter to everyone. The factory is still the same as before. In the factory, the work is still the same as before, just like Chengfei.
In the 1980s, when Factory 132 began to sell aircraft to the outside world, it could no longer use the name of the factory and changed it to Chengdu Aircraft Company. Chengdu Aircraft Company at this time was different from Chengdu Aircraft Company in later generations. There was no 611 Institute, just one. Just a factory.
As for the Huating Aircraft Factory, it can be traced back to the aircraft repair team in the 1950s, and was later changed to the 5703 Factory. In that chaotic era, in order to meet the needs of superiors to travel on their own large passenger aircraft, it began to change from repairing aircraft to manufacturing aircraft. , at that time many aviation elites across the country were mobilized, and it was at that time that great people like Mr. Ma came to the aviation industry.
The next day, when Qin Tao arrived at the Huating Aircraft Factory by car, he saw the Yun Shi parked on the lawn before he arrived at the factory.
There are streaks of yellow on the huge body, which are the things that have flowed down from the rain over the years. It is like tears streaming down a person's face. It is definitely not willing to give in and wants to fly into the sky.
Qin Tao looked at the plane with mixed emotions.
On the tenth day of the Yun Dynasty, Easterners pursued the dream of manufacturing large aircraft for the first time. They thought that flying into the sky was the beginning, but unexpectedly it was the peak.
A total of three aircraft were built for Yun-11. One was used for static testing, one was used for flight test, and the materials of the third aircraft were used for rivet gun training.
What I see in front of me is the Y-10 that has been tested and flown. This aircraft has experienced countless vicissitudes and has flown through countless domestic cities, such as Capital City, Harbin, WLMQ, Zhengzhou, Hefei, Guangzhou, Kunming, Chengdu, LS and other major domestic cities. The LS has flown to the city, especially the plateau city, along the "death route" seven times, which is enough to illustrate the excellent performance of this aircraft. Now, it can only be left alone on the lawn of the aircraft factory without anyone taking care of it. It will not be until 2017 that it will be dismantled, transported and reassembled in the square of COMAC, put up a gangway, and available for people to visit at any time. In front of the aircraft exhibit, there will be a sign with four words written on it: Never give up.
Now, this plane can only stay here alone, as if unwilling to do so.
“Stop.”
The car stopped.
Qin Tao walked across the wet and soft grass and walked towards the plane.
“Mr. Qin, they are coming from the door.” Xu Zhengyang glanced at the factory door in the distance and said to Qin Tao.
Qin Tao seemed to have not heard anything and continued to walk towards the plane, looking up at the plane that had gone through many vicissitudes of life.
However, when he walked over, he unexpectedly found that there was another person there, looking up at the plane. He was an old man with white hair and a complicated expression on his weathered face.
“The Yun-10 has been parked here for twenty years. We aviation people’s dream of pursuing large aircraft has also been stagnant for twenty years.” The old man said.
“Yes, if the Yun-10 project had not been stopped back then, we should now have a suitable large aircraft platform for modification. As for the immature reasons some people say are nonsense,” Qin Tao said.
There has been a lot of debate about the discontinuation of the Yunshi project. Some people feel that it is a pity that a good project is gone, while others feel that this project has no future and must be discontinued. Many opinions have been put forward.
For example, the engine used in the Y-10 engine is the spare parts of the Boeing 707 engine that the civil aviation industry has on hand. The self-developed turbofan 8 cannot be used at all!
This is indeed true. Engines have always been the weak spot of the Orient. Although this turbofan eight is mapped according to the JT3D-3B used on the Boeing 707, there will definitely be a lot of problems. However, when you encounter problems, you have to face them head-on. , and then find ways to solve the problem, instead of pouring cold water on it after encountering the problem, saying that this doesn't work and that doesn't work, and finally give up.
At that time, the turbofan eight had already been tested on the bench. It could be imported at first. There will always be time to mature in the future. If you don't take this step, you will never make progress. At that time, the relationship with the West was still good, and the engine could be completely outsourced.
This is also the biggest problem. As for other problems, they are all empty.
For example, forging presses, the landing gear of large passenger aircraft requires a large die forging press to press the blank before it can be used. At that time, there was no such thing in China. The landing gear of the largest H-6 was still welded, not a whole, and cracks often appeared. .
In fact, the development team of Yunshi has noticed this problem for a long time and has already started to solve it.
As early as the 1960s, for mushroom bombs, the country began to decide to develop a 30,000-ton die forging press. In 1973, the country's first 30,000-ton die forging press was put into production, in which the movable beam was statically balanced. The accuracy is higher than 0.043 millimeters per meter, which is an order of magnitude higher than the equipment sold to France by Lao Maozi.
That's right, even the equipment that Lao Maozi sold to France has no similar equipment in Europe.
Some people also say that the Yunshi unit is a waste of money. In fact, the Yunshi project only cost 537.7 million yuan from the beginning to the end when it was abandoned. It will take another 170 million yuan to complete the research and development. Compared with the West, this amount of research and development is Very low. We wanted to engage in economic construction at that time, but didn’t we have the money?
What should I say? The electron collider built during the same period cost 100 million U.S. dollars, and the later cooperation project with McDonnell Douglas cost 4 billion U.S. dollars. All this money can be spent, but why not spend another one to two hundred million on Yun Shi?
Yun-10 was finally stopped. The Navy and Air Force wanted to build an early warning aircraft, an aerial tanker, etc., but they didn’t even have a suitable platform. If Qin Tao hadn’t contacted a batch of IL-76s and IL-78s, the Navy and Air Force would now be We still have to use H-6 to engage in H-6.
Hearing what Qin Tao said, the old man turned his head and glanced at him: "Yes, a special meeting was held to discuss the demonstration meeting of Yun Shi. The conclusion of the meeting was that the development work of Yun Shi should not be stopped and the team should not be dispersed. Don’t lose the results, I hope Yunshi can complete the entire development process and achieve complete technical results. Unfortunately, no one listened to the conclusion of this meeting.”
After the Yunshi project was cancelled, Huating happened to start a cooperative Santana, so a large number of technicians went to work on cars and the team dispersed. As for the results? The result is the plane in front of you.
"Mr. Qin, I heard that Mingzhou Group is going to launch a new large passenger aircraft project. I am very happy. I am already old. My lifelong ideal is to see the large passenger aircraft we developed ourselves take to the sky. Let's replace Lao Ma and see our own large aircraft. .”
Replacing the old horse?
Qin Tao took another serious look at the old man: "Are you Mr. Cheng?"
When Yunshi was dismounted, its chief engineer Ma Lao was depressed and passed away a few years later. However, Yunshi's deputy chief designer and Ma Lao's comrade Cheng Lao had been waiting for the large passenger plane developed by the motherland to fly into the sky. !
At this moment, a group of people came over from the factory area, and the leader rushed towards this direction in three steps at a time.
“Mr. Qin, Mr. Qin! I’m very sorry for the poor reception. Hey, Mr. Cheng, are you here too?”
The person who came was a man in his forties or fifties, wearing a suit and leather shoes. However, he was still very respectful when he saw Mr. Cheng. After all, he was Mr. Cheng's former student.
"Yeah, I heard that Mr. Qin had a new project. I couldn't stay at home, so I came over to take a look. I knew that Mr. Qin would definitely stay here after he came, so I just waited here. Mr. Qin." Mr. Cheng said with a smile: "Mr. Qin, come and introduce to you. This is my student and the backbone of Huating Aircraft Factory."
"Mr. Qin, just call me Lao Wu." The person said and stretched out his hand.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but come over when I saw this plane.” Qin Tao said, “Can you please run over?”
"It doesn't matter, or we didn't think it through well." Old Wu said: "Mr. Qin, since you are so interested in this aircraft, let's go up and have a look?"
"Okay." Qin Tao nodded: "I won't enter your factory anymore. Let's have a meeting above."
Although the plane looks full of vicissitudes from the outside, once inside, it is relatively clean inside.
“Although it has been exposed to wind and rain for twenty years, the sealing performance of the aircraft is still quite good.” Mr. Cheng said: “At that time, we were confident that its technology had reached the world’s advanced level.”
The sealing of the aircraft must be good, because when flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters, the internal cabin must be pressurized. If there is an air leakage, it will undoubtedly cause a terrible accident.
The ceiling is white, similar to that of a high-speed train, the sides are blue, and it looks like the sea, and the seats are yellow-gray, similar to the sofas of that era. Once you get on it, it is economy class, so the middle aisle looks both ways. There are only two seats, and there is a drawer between the seats that can be used as a small coffee table, with a red carpet underneath.
Now the shape looks a bit outdated and there is no ergonomics, but at the time, it was definitely a tall thing.
Qin Tao sat on one of the seats, feeling the softness from the sponge.
Lao Cheng was sitting opposite, while Lao Wu was standing, leaning on the backrest with his hands, just like people on the train who had not bought a ticket.
"Mr. Qin, although you are a shipbuilder, you are also very interested in building aircraft, right? How about we work together to build our own Chinese passenger aircraft?" Lao Wu said.
Finally got to the key points.
President Qin is going to build a large aircraft, how can he miss out on the Huating Aircraft Factory?
Huating Aircraft Factory has been building passenger aircraft since the original Y-10 aircraft. They built the McDonnell Douglas 82, they planned the AE100 project, and now they are planning the ARJ21 regional airliner. When it comes to building passenger aircraft, they are the most professional. !
"During the meeting, I also proposed a cooperation plan." Qin Tao said: "We are responsible for design and development. If our own aircraft factory cannot produce it, we can authorize you to help produce it, just like what we do in the shipbuilding industry. That way.”
Almost all warships are designed by the Mingzhou Group, but in the face of the huge orders from the Navy, they cannot produce them. Therefore, they need to hand over part of the production tasks to other brother units, such as 054 frigates, 039 submarines, etc. Many of them are It is produced by a brother unit.
On airplanes, of course, this can also be done. If Huating Aircraft Factory wants to cooperate, it can be done in this way.
“Anyway, you have done this before, such as producing passenger aircraft for McDonnell Douglas, using this model.” Qin Tao said: “Your factory has manufacturing capabilities that are in line with Western standards, and we also recognize this.”
The expressions on everyone's faces were a little embarrassed.
They hope to cooperate, a deeper kind of cooperation, not a subcontracting kind of cooperation. It seems that Mr. Qin has been insisting on this aspect and has not changed.
“Mr. Qin, can we jointly research and develop together?” Lao Wu asked.
“The object of our cooperation is the Antonov Design Bureau.”
Everyone was speechless again.
Mingzhou Group is a large international enterprise, much larger than their Huating Aircraft Factory. They cooperate with the Antonov Design Bureau, which is a strong alliance. There is really no need to go to the Huating Aircraft Factory. Mr. Qin even said that a new In a factory, it's all easy.
In comparison, they really can't do anything.
"Mr. Qin, it is not easy to build a large aircraft. It requires a high investment. We should join forces now so that we can realize our dream at the minimum cost." Old Wu continued: "You can go to our production line and have a look. Our technology has reached the world’s advanced level.”
"Yes, Mr. Qin, our technicians have all obtained international certificates. Don't underestimate aircraft manufacturing. Even a rivet must meet relevant standards. A rivet maker must also undergo two or three years of training." Another leader spoke.
“Is there an automatic riveting machine?” Qin Tao asked.
Automatic riveting machine? Is there still such a thing?
"Mr. Qin, building an airplane is different from building other things. You probably don't know that the different structural parts on the airplane are assembled with rivets. These rivets are difficult and require professional training. Just like your factory Shipbuilding welders in China must obtain international certificates. Only in this way can we ensure that every weld is qualified.”
"Most of our welding is done by machines, and we only weld manually where the machines have not welded." Qin Tao said: "Ninety-five percent of the rivets for the fighter jets we produce are made by automatic riveting machines, which are neat and tidy. , exactly the kind that can directly exchange skins between any two aircraft.”
When Dongfang flew two J-82 fighters to the United States, the Americans were shocked to find that the parts were all hand-made and could not be replaced with each other. In fact, even for Western aircraft, there are many things that cannot be replaced, such as the skin of the aircraft. This thing is riveted together. You need to use an electric drill to drill holes first, and then rivet them. Even if you strive for excellence, there will definitely be errors in the rivet holes between any two aircraft.
Of course, the skin does not need to be replaced. If it is broken, it must be replaced with a new one.
The skins of the fighter jets produced by Mingzhou Group are all interchangeable because the position error of the rivets is less than 0.1 mm! This is achieved with advanced technology!
PS: I’m very tired. I’ve been writing an update of 5,000 words every day in the past few days. I’m very sorry.