Chapter 404: Lockheed’s grievance: We really didn’t plagiarize
624, conference room.
“On behalf of all the staff of Institute 624, I welcome Mr. Qin and his party to inspect.” Mr. Jiang said with a smile: “Everyone applauds and welcomes!”
Without Qin Tao, their project would not exist. However, after the project was negotiated, Qin Tao never came again, leaving them no chance even if they wanted to express their gratitude. Now, Qin Tao finally came, and they were very happy. Happy.
At the time of the negotiations, Mr. Jiang was the main representative. After returning, Mr. Jiang was appointed as the chief designer of the Turbofan-15. Although he has gray hair, he is very motivated.
"Mr. Jiang, I just brought a group of people to inspect our J-31A project. I came here to take a look. By the way, I also brought you a new force. Let me introduce you to this Ms. Vanessa. From Rainbow Nation Atlas Corporation.”
Qin Tao did not bring in all the guests from the Rainbow Kingdom. Vanessa, as their representative, was brought over by Qin Tao. At this time, after hearing Qin Tao's introduction, she had a smile on her face: " I am very happy to work here and we will work hard in the future.”
Qin Tao was a little surprised: "Vanessa, can you speak our Chinese?"
"Since I have decided to work here, of course I have to learn the language here so that communication can be facilitated." Vanessa's tone was a little weird, but she could express her meaning clearly, which made Qin Tao extremely emotional.
Isn’t this too awesome?
It has been less than a month since I came into contact with them. During this time, the other party has actually been able to communicate in spoken language!
“Ms. Vanessa, what kind of job did you do before?” Mr. Jiang asked Vanessa.
“The part I am responsible for is the single-crystal turbine blade. Although we only have the Atar 9K50 engine in China, we still want to improve it and make its performance more advanced. Our single-crystal turbine blade technology has been matured.”
Mr. Jiang suddenly lost his composure.
For aeroengines, turbine blades that can withstand high temperatures are also an important technology. Single crystal turbine blades are an advanced technology proposed in the late 1970s.
As the name suggests, it is a cast blade with only one grain. It eliminates the lateral grain boundaries that are sensitive to voids and cracks, and makes all grain boundaries parallel to the direction of the stress axis, thereby improving the performance of the alloy, increasing the high-temperature strength of the alloy, and further improving the overall performance of the alloy.
Although everyone knows that during manufacturing, the magnetic field generated by super electromagnets is used to allow the melted high-temperature alloy to gradually condense to form a single crystal with all atoms arranged in a consistent manner, but the specific method of operation is still being tested.
And the person in front of me already has a strong ability in this area!
“Ms. Vanessa, are you willing to join our single crystal turbine blade R&D team?” Mr. Liu asked, his words trembling with excitement.
This is not just for the improved turbofan-15A. Once developed, it can be used in various aircraft engines!
Compared to material composition, craftsmanship is also very important. In this regard, China has suffered a great loss.
The Spey engine was introduced at a huge cost and received all the material and technical information, but it did not have the technology, so until now, it has not been 100% domestically produced.
In contrast, the introduction of R-79 technology was much smoother. At Qin Tao's insistence, they packed up a complete set of design drawings and technical information, material composition lists, process steps, and even some production equipment. came back.
That’s why they were able to complete the engine imitation in such a short period of time.
However, the prototype R-79 engine is still too backward. Imitation is only the first step. The next improvement is the most important. Using advanced technology to increase the power of the engine and reduce the weight of the engine is their future goal. MLA.
Various advanced technologies need breakthroughs, and Mr. Qin has brought them a group of talents!
“Of course I do. I feel very honored to be able to participate in such an important model.”
Now she also knows that the WS-15 developed here is for the famous J-31A, and its technical difficulty far exceeds that of the Rainbow Nation engine. She is very excited.
You made the right choice to come here!
For someone like her, salary and other things have even taken a back seat. She just wants to put what she has learned to use.
“Mr. Liu, I heard that our project is progressing smoothly.” Qin Tao said, “A prototype has been built.”
"Yes, our initial work has been very smooth, and now we can imitate the cat and the tiger. However, if we want to continue to improve, we still face great challenges. Although this engine is powerful, the thrust-to-weight ratio is very low. If By comparison, it’s not even as good as the third-generation engine, and about the same as Spey.”
The thrust of the R-79 engine is 152 kN, but its weight is also as high as 2.5 tons. Calculated, the thrust-to-weight ratio is around 6. The thrust-to-weight ratio of the third-generation engine is around 8, and the thrust-to-weight ratio of the fourth-generation engine is 10.
The way to improve the thrust-to-weight ratio is to increase the thrust on the one hand and to reduce the weight on the other.
“So, are we planning to improve on the existing engine?”
Mr. Jiang nodded.
“I’m sorry, I think this was originally an attempt to take a shortcut, but in the end, I might end up taking a long detour, getting up early and catching up with a late gathering.”
Mr. Jiang was stunned by Qin Tao's words: "Mr. Qin, what do you think?"
"I don't know much about aero engines, but I heard that this kind of thing can affect the whole body, so I'm wondering whether we should develop the core engine first, and after a lot of experiments, we can thoroughly understand the technology. After that, the outer duct is added to make a brand new turbofan-15A."
The right way to develop military engines is to study the core engine first, understand all the parameters of the core engine, and then assemble the engine. Only in this way can you be at ease.
"Mr. Qin, you are right, we also want to do this, but it costs too much!" Mr. Jiang said: "We have invested 200 million to complete the production of the prototype. I am afraid that this modification will not be available for the second time." You can’t make it even if it’s a billion dollars.”
Forward research and development is definitely good, but it is too expensive!
"The money that should be spent must be spent, not to mention 2 billion, even if it is 4 billion, it must be studied out. The funds needed for the project will be solved by the superiors. If they cannot be solved, they will be taken from our J-31A project. .”
J-31A is an international cooperation project that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. Qin Tao is full of confidence in this project. As the project continues to develop in the future, there will definitely be more people joining in.
It is also appropriate to use some of the money to support the WS-15. After all, this engine will not only be used on the J-31A, but also on the J-20. It will hold up the future of the motherland. The sky.
Mr. Jiang sighed with emotion.
“There are rumors in our system that following Mr. Qin will help us get something to eat. Now, we have realized it. Mr. Qin, if our upgraded engine is fully developed, you will be the biggest contributor!”
Qin Tao accepted Mr. Jiang’s compliment.
"I started this project all by myself, so how could I watch it fail halfway? However, I didn't invest much money in this project. The main reason is that our project has been recognized by countries around the world, so there will be A steady stream of customers come to invest in us, and the most successful thing about our project is its market-oriented operation!"
If it had relied on state investment, this project would never have gone as far as it does now. Look at how much money the J-10 has invested. The J-31A, which was originally intended to be a naval carrier-based aircraft project, is unlikely to get too much. In terms of funds, the Navy can only support the JH-7.
However, the J-31A has come so far and has a bright future. What do they rely on?
It is market-oriented operation!
Mr. Qin’s idea completely saved this project and also promoted the progress of the domestic aviation industry. Everyone was very emotional about this.
“Yes, Mr. Qin, your market-oriented operation is unique in the world. In this regard, you have made great contributions to our aviation industry!”
While Qin Tao was taking a break from his busy schedule to inspect the aviation industry, a group of people were still arguing on the other side of the ocean.
Facing China's J-31A fighter, the Americans felt insulted, so they decided to speed up their research and development, and thus the first coordination meeting on the joint attack aircraft began.
The person presiding over the meeting was none other than William Perry, known as the military plane killer.
After taking office, William Perry reviewed existing fighter development projects. Not long after, the Navy's A/F-X project and the Air Force's MRF project were canceled.
These projects were eventually merged into the JAST project (Joint Advanced Strike Technology) to develop a multi-service common fighter.
"The era of the Cold War has long passed. For us, we should not be like in the past, where each military service uses its own fighter jets. When McNamara was in office, they used F-4 fighters, a single type of aircraft. , common to all services, and we should be like this in the future."
The air force generals present could not help but curse, do you think we are willing to use it? In the era of F-4 fighters, we have lived in the shadow of the Navy for a long time!
However, they did not argue. After all, the Air Force's F-22 is under development. They already have at least a high-end fighter. As for low-end aircraft, they don't care. On the contrary, the Navy should be worried.
“So, I decided to merge our CALF project and ASTOVL project into JAST. It ended up becoming a huge project!”
What? Everyone was surprised.
"Mr. William, it's impossible to do this. Think about our F-111 program, which ended up being an engineering sandbox." The Marine Corps officer complained.
Especially the last one, which is the vertical take-off and landing fighter project needed by the Marine Corps. Should this project also be merged?
"I've heard this saying." William Perry ignored the Marine Corps' complaints and continued: "If fighter jets continue to develop into more advanced and more expensive aircraft, the United States will only have one aircraft in the future. , the Air Force uses it in the morning, the Navy uses it in the afternoon, the Army uses it in the evening, and the Marine Corps can only use it on February 29th of a leap year. Therefore, the goals of our current plans are to be portable, multi-purpose, and low-priced. This way everyone can have it. For airplanes!”
"Now, this is not the time to complain. If you want to complain, then complain about the collapse of the Red Empire!" William Perry continued: "Now, we need to listen to the design plan of the bidding team, and Boeing comes first! "
“This is our design drawing.” The Boeing technician opened the slide.
When the design of the aircraft appeared on the screen, everyone laughed.
“This big mouth reminds me of a toad!”
“That’s right, that big mouth is just for fun!”
Faced with these doubts, people from Boeing remained unmoved and continued to introduce: "This design was developed from our AVX-70 project. It uses a single-engine nose-type air intake and a mid-mounted engine with lift jets. Tube…"
“Next up, a Lockheed project!”
Daniel walked up and opened his slides, and sure enough, the laughter came as expected.
“You, Lockheed, are so shameless, why are you copying Chinese projects?”
“That’s right, we would rather have a toad mouth than an aircraft that is the same as China’s fighter jets! When our aircraft takes to the sky, what will others think of our aircraft?”
Different paths lead to the same destination! After repeated calculations and designs, Lockheed designers found that the Chinese project shape was the most suitable.
So, they brought this project, and as they envisioned, countless people despised them.
At this time, listening to these sarcasm, Daniel felt extremely aggrieved. How could this be a project they copied from the Chinese? This project is their original creation! But now no one believes it. Although they have checked themselves, they have not found anyone leaking secrets.
This project of theirs has also gone through a long period of development.
Initially, they planned to use the configuration used on the ASTOVL project: a canard design with a trapezoidal main wing, but they later abandoned it.
Because canards are not popular in the United States, including the widely circulated saying: the best place for canards is on other people's fighter jets. The radar reflection area caused by the canards was troublesome, and the resistance to crossing the sound barrier was higher than the ordinary configuration. Therefore, they made modifications. First, they canceled the canards and became a fighter close to a delta wing design. In addition, the horizontal tail returns to the traditional design.
Although the final design is similar to the F-22, it actually went through some twists and turns.
What now? It was directly said to be plagiarism! In the United States, which has the strongest technological strength, plagiarism is something to be laughed at.
“For vertical takeoff and landing, we use a combination of a tail nozzle and a front lift fan...”
There was another burst of ridicule: “Even the vertical take-off and landing layout is the same!”
“Is there no one left at Lockheed?”
“That’s right, bring out the same innovative spirit as the F-117!”
Daniel almost went down amid boos. He was extremely depressed, but there was nothing he could do about it.
“Next, let’s ask McDonnell Douglas to introduce the plan.”
McDonnell Douglas is also an experienced military aircraft design team. In the Air Force's bidding, the YF-23 project they proposed together with Northrop was considered to be the most technologically advanced. At the same time, because of its advanced technology, was abandoned.
Now, their design is still avant-garde and bold: the fuselage adopts air intakes on both sides, LAMBDA main wings, and like the YF-23, the horizontal tail design is canceled. The entire design once again gives people a bright feeling.
"Now, please allow me to introduce the LAMBDA main wing." The engineer was very proud: "This is a uniquely shaped main wing. The trailing edge of the main wing has a forward sweep angle and a backward sweep angle, which increases the aspect ratio and makes the The aerodynamic efficiency at high altitudes is better than that of a trapezoidal wing, and it also improves maneuverability at medium and low altitudes. The large-area flaperon can function as a vertical tail through differential control."
The vertical tail has disappeared on the B-2 bomber. Now, McDonnell Douglas designers believe that the vertical tail is no longer necessary.
Everyone’s eyes were brightened, just like the original YF-23 project!
“In terms of the vertical take-off and landing solution, we believe that the technical difficulty of the lift fan is too great, so we installed a special lift engine at this location.”
In terms of vertical take-off and landing options, McDonnell Douglas uses the same structure as the Yak-38!
In fact, they originally planned to use lift fans, but when China announced the J-31A project, they had a keen feeling that this method, like the method used by China, would be despised by many people. , they would rather use a defective lift engine, even if it is like the Yak-141, than like the J-31A.
The projects of the three bidding companies were displayed, there was another quarrel, and then a vote was taken by a show of hands.
“Now, I announce that Boeing’s project has been given the opportunity to develop further and has been given the number X-32, and McDonnell Douglas’ project has also been given the opportunity to be given the number X-35!”
Hearing William's words, Daniel stood up immediately: "Why? Our project is the most complete!"
They never expected that they would be eliminated at the initial stage! They have already won the Air Force's F-22 fighter project, and it will be easy for them to win this joint attack aircraft project.
“Is it because our aircraft is similar to the J-31A? This is not fair, this is not fair!”
No one paid any heed to Daniel's words.
That’s right, that’s the reason! They will never use a copied aircraft design.
Daniel almost vomited blood. Although he knew he would be questioned, he didn't expect that their plane would be eliminated just because of their similar appearance!
"Those two aircraft are both flawed, with many flaws. The X-32 is a big-mouthed toad, so ugly! The X-35 uses a lift engine, and the problem of deck ablation is simply unsolvable. It’s a waste of fuel!”
“That’s better than plagiarism.”
"damn it!"
This is the most frustrating day for Lockheed. They have built the F-117 and they are developing the F-22, but now, they have been eliminated first in the development of the next low-end aircraft!
The reason is still bullshit, saying that their planes are similar to those of the Chinese!
"Our project is not simply a technical verification, but was born in response to actual needs. In order to cope with the huge financial investment, we must also adopt a joint research and development approach. We must include partners such as the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey. , and the cooperation levels are divided into first-level partners, the United Kingdom, and second-level partners, which are the next three countries. Others who join are third-level partners.
"Plagiarism, this is plagiarism!" Daniel couldn't bear it any longer and shouted loudly in the conference room: "You dislike our plagiarism in aircraft design, what about you? In terms of your business operation model, aren't you also plagiarizing Dongfang? People? What reason do you have to abandon our project? No, this is not fair!"
Facing Daniel's roar, William Perry said calmly: "He has gone crazy, please drag him out!"
Since the plan was to adopt an international cooperation approach, of course it could not be kept secret. On the evening of that day, the project office officially announced the plan to the public.
A sensation all over the world.
The United States, which has always been wealthy, actually wants to unite other countries to develop a brand new fighter aircraft. The requirements, ideas, and commercial operations of this stealth aircraft are almost exactly the same as the J-31A from the East!
How could the beautiful country, which always prides itself on innovation, be so shameless as to plagiarize?
There are a lot of inside stories that have leaked out.
East.
Qin Tao has completed his inspection in the Land of Abundance and returned to Huating.
On the way, Qin Tao heard the news that Xu Zhengyang got, and it was a little funny.
At the beginning, he had thought that he would go the way of the F-35 and leave Lockheed with no way to go. However, these were all beyond his control, but he did not expect that Lockheed would be eliminated in the end. .
“Mr. Qin, you are so powerful, you can actually make a multinational arms giant suffer.” Xu Zhengyang said.
Qin Tao smiled: "Our J-31A plan is just a stimulus. There are many other reasons. For example, many people don't want to see Lockheed alone."
F-117, F-22, these aircraft are all produced by Lockheed. If coupled with the new Joint Attack Aircraft program, it means that the only American military aircraft giant is Lockheed.
Even this company has always been able to control costs, unlike Northrop. But who can guarantee the future? Once one company becomes dominant, the military will have to hold its nose and endure Lockheed's difficulties.
Xu Zhengyang didn't think so much. At this time, after hearing Qin Tao's words, Xu Zhengyang thought about it and realized that this was really the case, so he was even more impressed.
Mr. Qin is so awesome!
“Mr. Qin, will the other two companies come up with more powerful aircraft?”
“I don’t know about this.” Qin Tao said: “After all, Americans are the most advanced in technology. Maybe they can really develop and mature the useless stuff.”
The big-mouthed X-32 would be funny enough if it flew all over the world. The X-35 from McDonnell Douglas, which uses a lift engine, will worry the Marine Corps?
Whatever, it has nothing to do with me anyway.
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(End of this chapter)