Chapter 543 A friend comes from afar
Weather forecasts are inherently inaccurate.
In the decades since the founding of the country, weather forecasts mainly relied on the predictions of weather stations and experienced personnel in various places. Until the 1980s, with the opening of the country, the domestic meteorological bureau specially introduced the M-160Ⅱ and M-170. A mainframe computer. Their performance was very advanced at the time, and they were mainly used in international weather communication services. They were also used to develop numerical forecast models, and the country began to have advanced weather forecast methods.
In 1988, the first experimental meteorological satellite was launched into the sky, and the meteorological numerical model forecasting business was booming. It also started in the 1990s. Beautiful female weather hosts would look at the satellite cloud images and predict when the rain would fall in the country. When it comes to rain and what the temperature will be, the forecast time is only about two days, and in many cases it may not be accurate.
Later, with the rapid development of domestic supercomputers, the Meteorological Bureau independently developed a new generation of Global/Regional General Numerical Weather Prediction System (GRAPES), and the weather forecast time was increased to more than one week. Even so, weather forecast is still a very big problem. Difficult operation.
There is a very interesting saying in this, which is the butterfly effect. A butterfly flapping its wings can cause a tsunami thousands of kilometers away. This image metaphor fully illustrates that in the weather system, the introduction of a tiny variable will cause the weather to change. mutation. What quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes is completely inappropriate here.
So, even if the weather forecast in the East is wrong, there will be no problem. Few weather forecasts in the 1990s are absolutely accurate.
If it were normal times, it might be nothing, but now, seeing a new storm about to affect his aircraft carrier Super Sun King, Ah San finally became anxious.
Are you going to watch an accident happen to this aircraft carrier?
Of course not!
The Super Sun King is too important to them, and they must save this aircraft carrier at all costs!
Chaudhari came to the east again and came to Mingzhou Shipyard.
“Mr. Qin, we sincerely beg you to dispatch the Shenzhou floating dock immediately. We hope to rescue our Chaori King as soon as possible.”
“Of course, as long as US$500 million is transferred to our Mingzhou Group’s account, we can take action immediately.”
Qin Tao's answer was also very straightforward. Chaudhary had a troubled look on his face: "However, our funds are still under review and approval, and we still need to go through the process. Can you dispatch it immediately?"
"Of course not." Qin Tao is not stupid: "We risked breach of contract and helped you rescue the ship in the spirit of great international friendship. What's the result? If you can't get the funding approval, aren't our efforts in vain? What? When the funds arrive, we will set off.”
When doing business with people from these countries, you must get all the funds in advance, because these guys have no credibility at all.
“Mr. Qin, can we pay the deposit first?”
“Sure, I’ll pay a deposit of 480 million first.” Qin Tao replied cheerfully: “For the remaining 20 million, if you end up defaulting on your debt, forget it.”
Chaudhary opened his eyes wide. Is this still a deposit? This is already full payment, okay? The remaining 20 million is already a drizzle.
He was very confused, but Qin Tao had already stood up: "I am very busy, so I won't accompany you. You must also seize the time and raise funds quickly, otherwise the rescue will be delayed in the end. Don't blame us. , after all, our ships are slow and it only takes three to five days."
Asan had no choice. They had no choice but to collect all the money quickly. That night, the Shenzhou floating dock was finally dispatched.
When the Super Sun King ran aground, its hull was already tilted, and it looked terrible. At the same time, a high-powered tugboat from an island nation and Asan's two tugboats were hired to work together to lift the Super Sun King from the shoal. Pulled off alive.
After the Super Sun King floated up, the Shenzhou floating dock moved below and lifted the Super Sun King. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they watched the entire hull of the huge aircraft carrier emerge from the water. It was now safe.
Although the tug fee of US$500 million is very expensive, it can avoid accidents. Compared with the cost of losing an aircraft carrier, the tug fee is still acceptable.
More people are looking at Mingzhou Group. Isn’t this very profitable?
At the same time that the world's most expensive tugboat operation was underway, Qin Tao came to the 624th Institute.
"What you are seeing now is the most important engine on our J-31A, the turbofan 15." Qin Tao smiled and said to the guests from the Rainbow Kingdom: "Currently, we have completed the test of the prototype. production and is currently undergoing the first phase of improvement work.”
It is not difficult to manufacture a complete set of turbofan 15 engines that introduce R79 technology. At present, the first phase of testing has been completely completed. There are no problems in terms of life, thrust, etc. The next step is to improve. .
This will take a long time. After all, the Turbofan 15 is not your own. It is easy to imitate and it will be a difficult process to improve. However, this is also necessary. As long as you walk this road, everything will be smooth sailing in the future.
Oscar opened his eyes and looked at the turbofan 15 that had completed the life test and was on display. He said with emotion: "Your progress is so enviable."
Although the defense exhibition has ended, according to the original plan, Oscar and others did not leave. They stayed for a few more days on the excuse of being sick. Then, when Qin Tao found time, he took them for a walk in person.
Although Denel Company has engaged in many aircraft projects, without exception, they all use a large number of foreign accessories. For example, their Sculptor fighter jet uses only the Atta 50K turbojet engine. After all, this is the only one that can Production, as for the armed helicopter project that Oscar is responsible for, it is actually a modification of the French transport helicopter. The engine and other components are all inherited from the transport aircraft. If mass production is to be carried out, we must find a way to solve the procurement problem of this subsystem. .
Orientals are different, they have always been self-researched!
At this moment, a petite and thin woman walked by, and Oscar felt that she looked familiar. At this time, when the woman walked up to him, he suddenly raised his head and glanced this way.
Oscar's heart immediately started beating loudly.
"Vanessa? Is that you? Vanessa?" Oscar shouted excitedly.
“Hey, Oscar, Helen...why are you here?” Vanessa pretended to be surprised.
“We’re here to visit, what about you?”
“I work here.” Vanessa said, “I have been working here for two years. I participated in the research and development of Turbofan 15 and am currently the person in charge of the turbine blade project.”
What? principal?
Oscar was even more surprised.
In the Rainbow Country, people like them are being marginalized and ostracized everywhere. Unexpectedly, when they come here, they can be entrusted with important responsibilities!
“Since you all know each other, let’s come over together during lunch.” Qin Tao greeted.
So, when it was time to eat, the table was full, almost all of them people from the Rainbow Kingdom, but their mental states were different.
Those who are already working here with peace of mind are full of high morale, optimistic and cheerful, while those who come to inspect have very complicated moods at this time.
“How is the East?” Oscar couldn’t help but ask.
"Yes, of course the East is very good." Vanessa said: "We live very happily here. We are doing the job we like every day, and the salary is very good. We occasionally go out to the streets. The security outside is very good. Those People are very friendly to us.”
This sentence became the last straw that broke the camel's back. Now the Rainbow Kingdom is already a world dominated by people with different skin types. They all have to be careful in their behavior. If they are not careful, they may be attacked. Robbery, beatings, and women may be insulted.
For them, this is paradise!
"Mr. Qin, can we work here?" Finally, Helen couldn't help it anymore and was the first to ask.
"Of course it's no problem. On behalf of Dongfang, I welcome you to work here." Qin Tao said with a smile on his face: "You can still work on the previous development projects, and all the benefits will be the same as the locals, and you will also get an extra bonus. Settlement fee, Helen, you are engaged in air-to-air missiles, I can introduce you to our air-to-air missile research and development department."
Helen's face was filled with excitement.
“What about me?” Oscar asked.
“Our relevant domestic departments are developing professional armed helicopters. Your experience can be put to good use. I will introduce you to it and you can be the deputy chief engineer of this project.”
After all, this was his first time here. Qin Tao directly promised him the position of deputy chief engineer. So what else did Oscar say?
“Mr. Qin, thank you very much. I just need to be an ordinary designer. We will stay in the East from now on!”
“Of course it’s no problem, I welcome you very much,” Qin Tao said.
Although these are not shipbuilders, Qin Tao welcomes them as long as they are engaged in technology. They can usher in a new development opportunity here, and the country will also gain a large number of scientific and technological talents. Among other things, the army's armed forces The helicopter project will definitely progress faster.
Although the Army's project has nothing to do with itself, in the future, if the Navy has amphibious assault ships, it will still need specialized attack helicopters. The Army's armed helicopters can also come up temporarily when needed.
However, Qin Tao didn't know that these people had made more contacts, so much so that they attracted an ambitious guy.
After deceiving these people, Qin Tao headed to Qiongzhou without stopping.
Two hundred and fifty NK-33 engines have been transported back by An-225 transport aircraft. When choosing a warehouse, Qin Tao conducted some research and thought, and finally decided to buy a piece of land in Yaxing Town, Qiongzhou and build a building. There is a modern warehouse where these engines are stored.
There is of course only one reason for doing this: Qiongzhou will build the largest rocket launch site in the country to join in the fun.
At that time, in order to protect the security of the motherland, ballistic missiles were developed domestically. When the Dongfeng-5 intercontinental ballistic missile was developed, it also meant the arrival of the aerospace era.
Whether it is the United States or the Soviet Union, they initially entered the space era with intercontinental ballistic missiles. After modifying the Dongfeng-5 missile, it became the Long March 2 rocket.
The rocket is available, but where is the launch site? The underground intercontinental ballistic missile silos specially dug out of the mountains cannot be used as launch sites for launch vehicles. China has begun to select sites for space launch sites.
Ordinarily, Qiongzhou Island is the southernmost point of the motherland. Launching from here can save rockets more fuel or achieve greater carrying capacity. However, considering the international environment during the Cold War, the launch site was still built in Xichang, an inland city.
However, in the 1980s, as international relations eased, Qiongzhou was still taken seriously. Although the Wenchang Launch Center only began to be built in the 21st century, as early as 1988, the first one was used for A scientific sounding rocket launch site was built on the west coast of Qiongzhou, mainly for launching suborbital rockets. This was also to fill a gap in the country at that time, and the rocket was successfully launched on December 19 of the same year.
Of course, this kind of rocket is not very famous. Domestic rockets are all named after the Long March, but this rocket is called Vega. (The name is the same as the European rocket.) It is also very small, similar to an ordinary anti-aircraft missile. After all, it is used to detect high-altitude conditions and does not need to put satellites into orbit.
Moreover, after the launch of the Vega-3 sounding rocket, that is, in 1994, the place was almost abandoned.
The newly built warehouse of Mingzhou Group is right next to this sounding rocket base.
When Qin Tao came here, he looked at the people who came to greet him with great interest.
“Mr. Qin, you don’t have to come here in person, we can help you do your work well.” Wan Zhenfu, the burly base manager, said to Qin Tao with a smile.
Qin Tao asked with confusion on his face: "Wasn't this a launch base for sounding rockets before? Why didn't I see anything?"
Wan Zhenfu smiled: "Mr. Qin, come with me."
So, Qin Tao walked into the wall and walked to the roof of a two-story building. Wan Zhenfu pointed to the small house two hundred meters outside and said: "Look, one of these two houses belongs to Rocket." In the final assembly workshop, one is the bunker for control and command, and further ahead, the cement platform is our rocket launch site."
Qin Tao was speechless. It was completely different from the rocket launch base he imagined!
"Our sounding rocket is very small, using a mobile launcher and tilted launch method." Wan Zhenfu said: "Vega 1 is more than seven meters long, and Vega 3 is only more than four meters long. At that time, there were two mobile radar stations nearby to track the launched missiles."
Qin Tao finally understood why when talking about Qiongzhou's launch base, few people would start here. It was like a child's play house.
“Lao Wan, are you engaged in aerospace?” Qin Tao continued to ask.
"Yes, I have been working in aerospace for half my life. I personally participated in the launch of these sounding rockets. Later, when everyone wanted to leave, I couldn't bear to leave, so I stayed." Wan Zhenfu said: "This place hasn't been so lively for a long time. Your Mingzhou Group is so fast, you built the warehouse in one week and installed air conditioning."
The climate here is too humid. If air conditioning is not installed, Qin Tao is afraid that those rockets will be destroyed.
“This is our Mingzhou speed.” Qin Tao said with a smile: “Then it depends on what the Americans choose. If they create an engine test bed, it will be more lively here.”
"Yes, since the end of the project, there has never been any excitement here." Wan Zhenfu said: "Mr. Qin, the engines you bought are so awesome. It is said that the thrust is 170 tons. With so many engines, if all of them are It would be a shame to sell it.”
"Of course we can't sell them all. The Americans want dozens of units at most, and I guess they have to keep the rest." Qin Tao looked at Wan Zhenfu: "Lao Wan, do you have any ideas?"
"The engine of our Long March 2 only has a thrust of 75 tons, and four of them in parallel can only produce a thrust of more than 200 tons." Wan Zhenfu said: "This kind of engine has a single thrust of 170 tons. If the first-stage rocket uses four If we have this kind of engine, it would be 680 tons! It has more thrust than our most important Long March 2 F-type strap-on rocket, and its carrying capacity in low-Earth orbit can reach ten tons."
Wan Zhenfu is drooling.
"This is just a separate rocket. If four boosters are bundled outside and each booster uses two engines, there will be eight additional engines with a thrust of 1,360 tons, plus the original 680 tons, this is a thrust of two thousand tons, a thrust of two thousand tons!" When he said this, Wan Zhenfu was extremely excited: "The near-earth carrying capacity can reach at least fifty tons! If it is at our Qiongzhou base Launch, it may reach sixty tons! Mr. Qin, do you know what this means? "
Looking at the excited Wan Zhenfu, Qin Tao smiled: "Of course I know that in 1992, our country had launched the manned space project. This process needs to be divided into three steps. First, go up and come back, and then start. To launch an experimental space station, we will eventually need to build a large space station with people to take care of it, and in the final stage, we will definitely need rockets with stronger carrying capacity."
"That's right, Mr. Qin, if we can use these NK-33s to build our high-thrust launch vehicle, then our large space station can be built earlier, and we will also enter the second-rate aerospace industry. To the field of first-class aerospace!”
"However, there will be some problems here." Qin Tao said: "For example, we are developing a 120-ton thrust rocket engine domestically. Now if we use these 170-ton thrust rocket engines, will we still be able to use them? Do you want to conduct self-research? After all, the state’s allocation for aerospace is certain.”
Hearing these words, the excited expression on Wan Zhenfu's face suddenly dimmed. Mr. Qin was right. No matter how good these rocket engines are, they belong to others. No matter how large the inventory is, they will always be used up. What should I do after using it?
Once the country pins its hopes entirely on these engines and gives up on self-research, the aerospace system will face a break when the engines are used up.
"So, if you want to use these engines, you can't follow the path of the domestic aerospace system. We, the Mingzhou Group, need to invest by ourselves." Qin Tao said: "Lao Wan, if we invest by ourselves, do you think we can use these rockets?" How much does it cost to use the engine and turn it into a rocket?”
The investment in aerospace engineering is quite huge. Take the most famous moon landing project as an example. The Red Empire's N1 rocket ended in haste due to the planned economic system at the time and four consecutive bombings. It is impossible to calculate how much it cost. But the Apollo project was public, and US$19.408 billion was invested in more than ten years. This was still the currency value in the 1970s, and converted to later generations, it would be close to 200 billion!
For another comparison, if you convert this money into 13 Saturn Vs, each one costs close to 14 billion U.S. dollars, which means that a single launch destroyed a Ford-class aircraft carrier and also picked up a new one. Squadron's F-35 fighter jets!
What is the gain? Just that bit of lunar soil.
The huge investment and harvest are completely disproportionate.
Except for the state, private individuals will definitely lose money if they do this kind of thing.
“If there are enough R&D personnel, I think at least 500 million will be needed.” Wan Zhenfu calculated carefully.
For a rocket, the most expensive thing is actually the engine. After all, what else can a rocket have? In addition to the engine, there are fuel tanks and electronic equipment, and the technology for fuel tanks and electronic equipment is available in China!
Of course, this is not correct. Installing different engines on rockets requires a lot of calculations, and flutter and the like are big problems.
Qin Tao is interested. If he can open up the situation with only 500 million, then he can give it a try.
At this moment, Xu Zhengyang spoke from behind Qin Tao: "Mr. Qin, we just received news that people from American Airlines Jet Engine Company are about to arrive."
The reason why Qin Tao came over was, of course, because the Americans were also on their journey. This business was a good harvest. Since Qin Tao had time, of course he had to come over to receive him.
Soon, the motorcade drove over, and Santos got off the car first. He took a deep breath of fresh air: "The air here is so sweet!"
In Qiongzhou in the 1990s, the air quality was absolutely top-notch. As for the air in the United States, just look at the impactful electric vehicles produced by General Motors. The pollution in California was so serious that California introduced a bill. A few years later The car is not allowed to smoke! Of course, the oil bosses would never tolerate such a bill, so the bill was later abandoned, and even the impact cars were destroyed.
“Yes, the environment here is very good.” A young man got out of the car and sighed.
Qin Tao was stunned when he saw this person. Although he was still very young at this time, his appearance looked very much like someone!
"Who is this?"
"Mr. Qin, my name is Ailong Max." The other party began to introduce himself: "I heard that Mingzhou Group is very powerful, so I came here with everyone to take a look."
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(End of this chapter)