Chapter 840 Money Is Really Nothing

Probably got the news in advance. The leaders and workers of the Lingxi Provincial Aircraft Manufacturing Factory expressed great enthusiasm for the arrival of Fan Heng and others. Although Fan Heng should receive such a welcome due to his status, judging from the atmosphere at the scene, the workers The welcome given to the entire delegation must have exceeded the enthusiasm given to a standing deputy prime minister.

Moreover, many people found that instead of focusing on Fan Heng, everyone's thoughts were focused on Fan Wubing who was following Fan Heng.

Fan Wubing also noticed this, and couldn't help but think that this was probably because Lingxi Province had leaked the information about his inspection tour, based on his superstitious belief in Fan's Investment Group, the legendary savior of state-owned enterprises, and his belief in himself. The worship of God has led to the current situation.

In fact, Fan Wubing is indeed quite interested in the Lingxi Province Aircraft Manufacturing Factory. As the only large private group company in China that has been accepted by senior management to invest in military enterprises, Fan Investment Group can inject capital or capital into these state-owned military enterprises. Technical ability, this is the reason why Lingxi Province has very enthusiastic expectations for itself.

Whether it is XAC or Shenyang Aircraft, in fact, domestic aircraft manufacturers can now produce some small and medium-sized civilian aircraft, as well as some second-generation or even second-and-a-half-generation military fighters. However, they must be compared with international aircraft manufacturers. When comparing companies, the gap is relatively large.

In many key technologies, companies such as XAC and Shenfei cannot reach the level of high-precision technology. Therefore, it lacks the strength to aspire to the large aircraft project.

In fact, even during the Cultural Revolution, domestic large aircraft development capabilities were not weak at all.

China's first self-designed and self-manufactured large jet passenger aircraft is a transport aircraft. The aircraft has a maximum take-off weight of 110 tons, a maximum cruising speed of 974 kilometers per hour, and a maximum practical range of 8,000 kilometers. The cabins are arranged according to the three poles of full travel, mixed and full economy, and can carry 124, 149 and 178 passengers respectively. The transport aircraft was designed by the Shanghai Aircraft Research Institute, manufactured and assembled by the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Factory, and the landing gear was manufactured by the Shanghai Aviation Electrical Factory. It also received collaborative support from more than 300 units inside and outside the Shanghai Municipal Government and the Ministry of Aviation.

The development of the transport aircraft began in 1970, and the first test flight was successful in September 1980. Afterwards, development test flights and transfer test flights were conducted to prove that the transport aircraft performed well and met the design requirements. The successful test flight of the transport aircraft aroused strong repercussions at home and abroad. The aviation industry in the United States, Britain and other countries have commented that this is a major development of China's aviation technology, which has shortened the gap between China's civil aviation industry and the world's advanced level by fifteen years. When obtaining this highly complex technology, it can no longer be said that China is a backward country.

It was during the Cultural Revolution, which seriously disrupted the research and development work. However, under extremely difficult conditions, the majority of workers and scientific and technological personnel, with a sense of responsibility and professionalism to bring glory to the country, adhered to a pragmatic and scientific attitude, and worked hard day and night regardless of remuneration. , overcame various difficulties, and finally made the transport plane fly into the blue sky.

The successful test flight of the transport aircraft filled a gap in China's aviation industry. It is a major scientific and technological achievement. In terms of design technology, there are many aspects that are the first breakthroughs in the country. In terms of manufacturing technology, there are also many new processes that are used on aircraft for the first time in the country.

After a large number of tests and test flight practices, it has been proven that the transport aircraft has better handling and stability characteristics and safety. It is not easy to enter a tail spin and is easy to recover from the tail spin. It has good speed characteristics and its drag dispersion Mach number is better than that of similar aircraft. It has good airport adaptability. Under the current airport conditions, it can be used at more domestic airports than Boeing 7 and Trident aircraft. It also has great development potential, such as modifying the engine and lengthening the fuselage, which can improve its economy. If a large hatch is opened in the fuselage, it can be converted into a passenger and cargo aircraft or a military transport aircraft. It is also an early warning aircraft and an aerial tanker. Suitable candidates.

Through the development of transport aircraft, more than 100 results with application value have been achieved in China. However, due to the historical conditions at that time, when the design task of transport aircraft was proposed, long-term special aircraft were mainly considered. It is required to be able to cross oceans and have a range of 7,000 kilometers, resulting in an increase in the aircraft structure and fuel weight, and a reduction in the number of commercial vehicles.

After the successful test flight of the transport aircraft, it was difficult to continue the development work due to financial reasons. After the development was successful, the Shanghai Aircraft Factory wrote to the central leadership to report the development status of the transport aircraft.

The State Council has asked experts to conduct demonstrations on this issue and put forward suggestions for completing the entire development process. After the meeting, the Ministry of Aviation and the Shanghai Municipal Government proposed four plans for continued development, but they were not approved. From the following year, the development of transport aircraft basically came to a standstill.

Fan Wubing has always been worried about the domestic production of large aircraft. If large aircraft can be produced domestically, then his own airline can save a lot of money. Now he has purchased dozens of large aircraft from Airbus or Boeing. Hundreds of planes are indeed worth a lot of money. To be honest, he himself feels a little distressed. Instead of giving so much money to foreigners, he might as well invest tens of billions in China to build his own big planes. , which not only satisfies the needs of use, but also trains the design and manufacturing team, solves a large number of job opportunities, and makes the Chinese feel proud. It can be said that it serves multiple purposes with one stone.

In fact, the large aircraft project can train the work team. Whether in design or trial manufacturing, there are many problems that need to be solved, and more attention is paid to a cooperation mechanism. It often requires the collaboration of multiple companies, but in the current environment, it is really not easy to achieve this effect.

Fan Wubing's initial idea is to unite dozens of domestic research institutions and more than a dozen aircraft manufacturers to create a large aircraft project team. While processing parts for Airbus or Boeing, he began to rebuild the domestic large aircraft project and strive to produce large aircraft products that can be compared with Airbus and other aircraft products within ten years.

In fact, according to the current technical strength and production capacity, this goal is not set very high. The most critical step is to make the funds in place, and at the same time, to make preferential policies for domestic aircraft manufacturers in aircraft orders and focus on supporting them.

When inspecting the Lingxi Aircraft Manufacturing Plant, Fan Wubing casually mentioned the matter of transporting aircraft and expressed some doubts about the suspension of this project that year.

The chief engineer of the Lingxi Aircraft Manufacturing Plant, who had participated in the development of the Yun aircraft at the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Plant, was familiar with the experience of the Yun aircraft. Upon hearing this, he said to Fan Wubing, "Before the Yun-10 test flight, someone had proposed to stop the development. After the Yun-10 flight was successful, the people of the whole country were jubilant and proud. But some people regarded the Yun as a negative experience of forcing growth, saying that the development of the Yun was a decision-making mistake and a product of self-isolation, and the result was to want to achieve success overnight. If you want, you will not achieve it. This attitude is exactly the same as the negative attitude towards the shipbuilding industry at that time, saying that it is better to buy ships than to build ships. As for foreign countries, the American McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Company was also determined to defeat the Yun-10, otherwise they would not be able to enter and occupy the Chinese aviation market."

The American McDonnell Douglas Company succeeded in the business of assembling the Yun-10 in Shanghai, and then boasted in Fortune magazine about how they had made a billion-dollar business, saying that they cooperated with Shanghai because Shanghai had done the Yun project. If the Yun project was not defeated, it would be difficult for American aircraft to enter the Chinese market.

After the Yun was pulled down, in December 1986, the State Council Standing Committee decided. To redevelop a large domestic trunk aircraft, the aircraft selection, the designation of the general design unit, the selection of foreign partners, and the preparation of a feasibility report began. This feasibility report took six years to complete and was not submitted until the beginning of 1992. The development project also evolved into a Sino-US cooperative production.

In November 1992, the State Council issued a document, determined to develop a trunk aircraft with more than 200,000 seats, and finally implemented the cooperation with foreign countries to develop a large regional aircraft with 200,000 seats. Against this background, the competent department proposed a three-step plan. The first step was Sino-US cooperation in manufacturing and assembly/, the second step was Sino-foreign cooperation in development, which would be put into service in about 5 years, and the third step was to independently design and manufacture 200,000 seats aircraft, which would be realized in 2017.

In the first step of the three-step plan, McDonnell Douglas was merged by Boeing, and the McDonnell Douglas assembly line in Shanghai was on the verge of extinction. As a result, the materials worth tens of millions of yuan originally prepared for the third aircraft were used for rivet guns when preparing for the cooperation between Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Plant and McDonnell Douglas. It is conceivable what the workers who once proudly manufactured their own large jet airliners felt at this time.

In the second step of the three-step plan, Airbus unilaterally broke the contract and was fooled.

Last year, this three-step plan was completely unsuccessful, and the beautiful dream was hit hard twice. The result of China's aviation industry with independent intellectual property rights is still the Yun prototype that was successfully developed 20 years ago, almost completely forgotten, and parked alone in the factory.

The direct loss of Yun was obvious. The 15 years that the aviation industry spent on catching up in the research of large jet airliners have been set back. What is more distressing is that it has dealt a heavy blow to its morale and ambition to develop high-tech industries and broken up the team.

In those days, through the development of Yun, a scientific research and technical force had been accumulated, and a lot of valuable practical experience had been accumulated. They could have shown their talents on this basis and become the basic technical team for the development of civil aviation large aircraft, just like the situation of the aerospace department today. Unfortunately, Yun was cancelled and the country's decision-making on large aircraft has made this aviation science and technology team still not get a stage to display their talents and ambitions. After wasting 15 years, the development team that has accumulated rich systematic practical experience is facing the final disintegration today. However, after decades of development, the aviation industry, which has hundreds of thousands of employees, more than 200 enterprises, more than 20 aircraft and aviation engine manufacturing companies, and more than 30 research institutes, is facing an unprecedented and severe difficult situation of switching to civilian products, being unable to protect itself, having no way out, being laid off and transferred, and not being able to pay wages.

"Today's Airbus has become a giant challenging Boeing's monopoly in the United States, but our fortunes have failed halfway. On the other hand, the launch vehicles we developed ourselves are transporting American satellites to the sky today, earning foreign exchange for the country, and becoming "It is a symbol of national prestige and military might," the chief engineer of Lingxi Province Aircraft Manufacturing Factory said to Fan Wubing with some sadness, "Now, fifteen years after the demise, all mainline aircraft in China's sky are imported. Regional aircraft are also developed during the Cultural Revolution. In terms of military aircraft, the air defense is supported by dozens of Su-27s purchased from the declining Russia. The attempt to buy an early warning aircraft from Israel was given up by the United States. After the bombing of our embassy in Yugoslavia, we suddenly realized that China's military strategic position in the world has been significantly weakened. In the face of these huge contrasts, we must reflect on the failure of destiny and think about why. Are you responsible for the misfortune and the widening gap between our country’s aviation industry and the world’s advanced level?”

The conversation between Fan Wubing and the chief engineer made Fan Heng, who also came from a military industry company, feel a little sad.

The phenomenon of widening the gap between the aviation industry and the world's advanced level due to the failure of the operation is not isolated. The same situation also occurs in many other industries. For example, in the first thirty years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, our country made achievements and progress in controlling many diseases that seriously endangered people's health that capitalist countries could not match. In the next twenty years, many of these achievements and progress It has long been impossible to maintain, and some have even greatly regressed, and a series of new serious problems have arisen, leaving them in a dilemma of being helpless.

In reality, there are too many issues that need explanation and explanation. The more we fight against pornography, the more pornographic it becomes; the more we fight against illegal activities, the more illegal they become; the more we fight against corruption, the more corrupt they become; the more we fight against corruption, the more corrupt we become; the burden on farmers is reduced, and the burden becomes heavier; the result of the reform of state-owned enterprise contract management is large-scale losses and triangular debt; the result of turning losses around and increasing profits, and resolving triangular debt A large number of companies went bankrupt and were eventually sold. And so on, no one has come forward to give a decent explanation and explanation. How can we expect to give a clear explanation and explanation of the reasons and responsibilities for the premature death?

The untimely fate of the Chinese people, just like some setbacks in other fields, has made the Chinese people's ambition to catch up with the world's advanced level, the bright prospects of national rejuvenation, the ambition to stand on their own among the nations of the world, and the solemn commitment to make greater contributions to mankind. , all cast a thick shadow.

"Now is the time to make a decision." Fan Wubing said to his father Fan Heng, "I think it is necessary to reopen the domestic large-scale aircraft manufacturing project, reintegrate the country's aviation resources, and produce domestic self-sufficiency as soon as possible. The roadmap for large aircraft manufacturing is coming.”

"The amount of money that will be spent here is not a small amount -" Fan Heng said cautiously, "It is probably difficult to complete without one or two hundred billion yuan."

"Money really doesn't mean anything -" Fan Wubing said with some lack of interest, "In this matter, what does money mean?"

"Yeah, what's money?" Fan Heng said with some emotion after hearing his son's words.

What does money mean when it comes to the revival of national industry?