Chapter 488 Someone in the Court Is Easy to Do
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Alan Wilson first came to the headquarters of the company named after the founder de Havilland himself. This was the first time the two met. De Havilland himself was sixty-seven years old and had been engaged in aircraft manufacturing and design for a long time. , dating back to the First World War.
After shaking hands with this pioneer in the aviation industry, Alan Wilson introduced himself without any embarrassment. He was Pamela Mountbatten’s fiancé. Didn’t you ask for advice?
"De Havilland! Hello Mr. Allen, do you work in Whitehall?" De Havilland's hands were very strong, just like the hands of working people.
"Not now, I am the consul of the Boston Consulate. Pamela is in Australia, and I can't come to observe this trial. I happen to be away from North America recently, so let me come over." Alan Wilson said with a humble look. Paying tribute to this aviation pioneer, "Actually, we should have met a long time ago. When Pamela came to see the old gentleman, I was still working in British India. I couldn't come in person, so I could only ask her to come, just like she asks now I came here to witness the trial voyage."
De Havilland said oh, it turned out that General Mountbatten's daughter who came to the door rashly had received advice from Alan Wilson, and then he heard, "As for the money Pamela took out, of course it is also mine, but this It’s not important, it’s all about contributing to the aviation industry.”
"The changes that Miss Pamela proposed to make on the passenger plane were also Mr. Allen's opinions?" de Havilland asked with a frown. Seeing Allen Wilson nodding, he asked, "Mr. Allen has design experience?"
"No, but having some social experience allowed me to see some problems, so I intervened through my fiancée."
Faced with some unkind questions, Alan Wilson did not get angry and simply admitted that he had indeed used Pamela Mountbatten, the second-generation British top power who was not easy to mess with, to interfere in the design of the Comet airliner.
The design flaws of the Comet airliner were corrected, and the Comet airliner that was staying at the airport was about to undergo a test flight.
The appearance is very different from the original version. The position of the engine is not in the belly of the fuselage, but under the wings. The window that caused the Comet to disintegrate has also been corrected.
The Comet is a four-engine jet airliner, with the engines placed on the left and right wings respectively. This is also the conventional arrangement in later generations. As for the original plan of placing it under the belly of the aircraft, it would greatly increase the maintenance cost and has been abandoned.
Civilian jet engines have only been around for less than ten years. Some are modified from military engines, and their reliability needs to be improved. The reliability of piston aircraft engines in the same period has not improved much compared to the World War II period.
A dual-engine configuration like that of later generations would not be able to provide sufficient thrust. After all, the current engine cannot be compared with the power it will have in a few decades. In the face of safety and economic benefits, the former must be considered first.
Mature twin-engine engines only have to wait until the Boeing 737 appears, and it appears as a regional airliner. That's right, when the Boeing 737 airliner first entered the aviation industry, the mainstream in the aviation industry was the three-engine model.
At the same time, aircraft engine technology has improved, both in terms of thrust and reliability. It has been possible to produce engines with a thrust of more than 100,000 pounds and less than one shutdown per 100,000 flight hours. Therefore, large twin-engine aircraft have been launched one after another, which can use less fuel. Carry more passengers and cargo and fly longer distances.
This led to the development of the Boeing 737 passenger aircraft, which changed from a regional aircraft to a mainstream route choice.
Obviously, de Havilland, who now knows the inside story, finally approved the revised plan due to the intervention of Pamela Mountbatten, who was closely related to the safety of the aristocracy. It can be seen that the initiator still inevitably wants to have some connotation, and what he said Outsiders, you don’t understand airplanes.
Alan Wilson really didn’t understand airplanes, and he simply admitted it, and then asked, “Mr. de Havilland, it’s true that you understand airplanes, but you don’t understand the world. If you don’t understand the world, what will happen?” Failure."
"Does Mr. Allen want to tell me, this old man, that the earth is round?" de Havilland's tone was teasing.
"So, Mr. de Havilland, what do you think jet aircraft need most?" Alan Wilson asked disapprovingly.
"Performance, convenience, and epoch-making significance." De Havilland directly stated a few of his thoughts.
"Especially reliable!" Alan Wilson added with a smile, "When the Hindenburg became a big fireball, the airship disappeared from the sky in just a few years. Jet aircraft is a high-tech industry, but it is also Not only is the UK the only country that has this technology to build it, not to mention the US, Canada also has its own jetliner project called the C-102 project."
The world's second jet airliner was made in Canada. Unfortunately, because it was the second, it was forgotten by history. Even its name is not known. The emergence of the C-102 project is also related to the United Kingdom, because Canadian engineers during the war saw When I saw the Rolls-Royce jet engine, I immediately decided that it would be a good-looking jetliner.
De Havilland still had an air of disapproval. Alan Wilson then asked the second question, "Once something happens to this plane, competitors will make a big fuss out of it. This is a new Industries and countries with technological reserves are all scrambling for the commanding heights, and will do anything to achieve this. As a senior Whitehall civil servant, I can assert one thing right now. I wonder if Mr. de Havilland will believe it. ?”
"What's going on?" De Havilland looked questioning. He didn't know what kind of medicine this man who was more devious than Pamela Mountbatten was selling in his gourd.
"The United States will definitely find an excuse to ban your achievements from entering the United States." Alan Wilson said in a positive tone, "To protect the United States' own aviation manufacturing industry, this is bound to happen."
This is what the United States did historically after the Comet was launched. It found any excuse to ban domestic airlines from purchasing the Comet until Boeing caught up.
De Havilland is just an aircraft designer. Not to mention the aircraft manufacturing industry, which is still in its early stages, has many problems and excuses are easy to find. Even decades later, how many immoral things has the United States done to protect Boeing?
After a short conversation, de Havilland confirmed one thing, that is, Alan Wilson is more difficult to deal with than Pamela Mountbatten in terms of language. This is of course, regardless of who taught him?
As for the placement of the engine under the wing, Alan Wilson also gave a convincing explanation. Since the engine is mounted under the lower wing, closer to the ground, and is a separate nacelle, there is no need for the engine to be placed in a separate nacelle. Maintenance operations will become more convenient, and the operating status of the engine will be easier to observe when starting and stopping.
The weight of the engine is the largest part of the fuselage structure. The position of the engine has a great influence on the weight distribution of the aircraft. The wing-mounted structure places the engine directly on the main wing that provides lift, and the position of the main wing is generally near the center of the fuselage. So it will provide better weight balance.
As for not placing it in the most balanced belly, that is because the engine is too close to the ground, so sometimes it is necessary to turn the wings upward or change the shape of the engine nacelle to avoid collision with the ground. In addition, if the engine is too low to the ground, it will be easier to inhale. foreign body.
Finally, de Havilland was speechless. He even felt that no one knew more about aircraft design than Alan Wilson.
With the fuel injection completed, the test pilot entered the Comet jetliner under the watchful eyes of the two people. After a while, the roar of the engine came, and the test flight of the world's first jetliner officially began.
The thrust generated by the engine pushed the Comet's huge fuselage, moving bit by bit on the runway, getting faster and faster, until it rose up from the ground and took off with a deafening sound barrier.
Alan Wilson and de Havilland, who already knew each other somewhat, looked pleased as they watched the Comet passenger plane getting smaller and smaller in the sky, and finally turned into a dot.
"As long as reliability can be guaranteed, I believe it can still meet the demand in the European market and major colonies." Alan Wilson's eyes are full of expectations. "After all, the current world situation is relatively beneficial to Britain. If reliability is achieved If it is guaranteed, try to keep the selling price as low as possible and seize the market first. We can take advantage of this favorable time to lower profits and force competitors to have a harder time grabbing the market. After occupying the market, huge after-sales service can also offset part of the cost. You can make money slowly and capture the market first.”
Again, taking advantage of the exclusivity period in the past few years, the Comet airliner can occupy as many markets as possible, and it will be more advantageous in the future competition with Boeing.
"If we expand production capacity and the aircraft cannot be sold, it will have an impact on the company's funds." De Havilland said with some embarrassment, "You must know that such a big thing is not cheap, and the backlog of one aircraft is a huge amount of money. "
"I think I can solve part of the problem. The relations between commissioners in some of my colonies are pretty good, including but not limited to British Togo, British Sudan, British Malaya, British Cameroon, and the British Gold Coast..."
After naming more than a dozen colonies, Alan Wilson said, "In fact, the Middle East market can also be won, not to mention Europe. I can help in Whitehall."
"Now I know why Pamela looks at you differently for Allen." As soon as de Havilland heard about Allen Wilson's connections, he immediately said that the two were a perfect match and a perfect match.
Although it may be a little embarrassing to admit it happily, de Havilland has to say that there are people in the court who are easy to do.
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