Chapter 778 Help the French Create Gusts of Wind?
After the algorithm development work on manifold learning came to an end, Chang Haonan received two messages almost at the same time.
The first one came from New Jersey across the ocean.
The review results of the Annals of Mathematics came out -
No need to modify, publish directly.
According to the review opinions, although the paper still has room for improvement in writing habits and wording, compared with the impact that its content may have on differential geometry and even the entire mathematical community, too much attention should not be paid to these meaningless details.
Therefore, the editorial department decided to publish this paper in the next issue, that is, the 12th issue of the Annals of Mathematics in 1999, and use it as the back cover of the current issue of the magazine.
The final result was expected.
However, it was a surprise that it was so smooth that even a minor revision was not needed.
After all, this was the first time in his two lives that he had set foot in the field of theoretical mathematics.
Of course, receiving this email only meant that the paper was accepted.
In this era, there was no such thing as online publication or advance publication. If you want to see the paper, you can only wait until the magazine is officially published in November.
In other words, the Annals of Mathematics is still keeping up with the times and will publish an electronic version at the same time.
If it were in the past, or other journals, you would have to wait for the physical book to be mailed across the ocean.
Therefore, the impact of this article should take another period of time to show.
However, the name Chang Haonan has obviously gained some status in the mathematics community because of this article.
Because, along with the review results, there is also an invitation letter signed by Michael Lagstedt, a senior editor of the Annals of Mathematics editorial department.
Inviting Chang Haonan to Princeton to attend a mathematics annual meeting held in late December 1999.
Princeton University's status in the mathematics community is naturally needless to say, and being invited by the Annals of Mathematics editorial department can be regarded as a special honor.
But...
If Chang Haonan is just a simple mathematician, it would not be a bad idea to go out and see the world.
After all, although there are many Chinese mathematicians, there haven't been mathematicians with Chinese nationality who have made achievements in Chinese research institutions for some years.
But Chang Haonan's identity is complicated and special after all.
Even if he travels in China, he has to make itineraries and security plans in advance.
If it is not necessary, it is impossible to go abroad.
However, Chang Haonan did not reply to refuse.
There are still many weirdos in the mathematics world.
If he does not reply to emails or attend meetings, he may be regarded as a weird genius like Perelman.
But if he refuses directly, it will be more awkward.
The face of the Annals of Mathematics and Princeton must be given a little.
As for the second thing, it is the matter that Chang Haonan entrusted Zhang Liangping to do before, and the result has been achieved.
...
In the group meeting room.
Including Chang Haonan, the seven members of the leadership team sat on both sides of the conference table.
Since the formal establishment of the Aviation Power Group, this is the first time that such a neat lineup has been held.
"Comrades."
Zhu Linyu, who was sitting in the first seat, spoke first:
"This time, we convened everyone to hold a meeting, in addition to summarizing the work of each group in the past few months since the establishment of the group, we also want to discuss the cooperation between us and the French Snecma Group."
Zhu Linyu is the head of the group after all.
Whether Chang Haonan asked someone to investigate or asked someone to contact the French side, although it was within his authority, he must report to him.
Including this meeting, it was also suggested by Zhu Linyu to organize it after Chang Haonan got the investigation results given by Zhang Liangping two days ago.
Therefore, although the latter was not clear about the specific details, he had long known that Snecma had come to him to ask for cooperation.
But after hearing this, the other five people looked at each other, obviously a little surprised.
However, no one interrupted the leader's words in this situation, but just waited quietly for the next step.
"Comrade Haonan, please introduce the specific situation."
Zhu Linyu's voice drew everyone's attention to Chang Haonan.
"Okay."
Chang Haonan took out the materials that had been prepared long ago from his briefcase.
"The cause of this matter is that about half a month ago, China Aviation Technology Group received a cooperation invitation letter from Dassault Group China Region, hoping to work with Aviation Industry Group to develop a business jet with a longer range, and we, as well as Snecma Group, are also on the cooperation list."
"Of course, this matter sounds a bit strange. After all, the demand for business jets in our country is still in the single digits. Even if Dassault has laid out the blue ocean market in advance, there is no need to make such a big move."
"So, I sent a few experienced comrades to make tentative contacts with the other party to see what they are up to."
"Then we soon discovered that the business jet cooperation was just a not-so-clever cover. The French kept trying to find out our understanding of the CFM56 core engine in an indirect way throughout the negotiation process."
Speaking of this, Chang Haonan put a piece of paper on the projector's storage table.
It was a meeting minutes.
"CFM56?"
Lin Zuoming looked at Chang Haonan blankly:
"It seems that our group has no models developed based on this core engine?"
"Indeed, there is none."
The latter smiled:
"But the French may not think so."
Chang Haonan said and changed to another piece of paper.
It was the English newspaper I had read before:
"At present, the West's understanding of the WS-10 engine is still at the state before we re-established the project, that is, the state of benchmarking the F110GE100 engine, so naturally it is believed that it was developed based on the CFM56 core engine."
Hearing this, the others all showed expressions of laughter.
"It seems that our President Chang acted too quickly and caught others off guard..." Zhu Linyu joked with a smile. The conference room was suddenly filled with a cheerful atmosphere. However, the main topic had not been finished, so the serious atmosphere was quickly restored. "If I remember correctly, CFM56 should be jointly developed by Snecma Group and General Electric." Deng Shiyou, one of the deputy general managers, said: "Could it be that the French want to find evidence to hold us accountable for intellectual property infringement?" "That's what I'm going to say next." Chang Haonan took out another English report and put it on the projector. However, judging from the date, it should have been a newspaper from the first half of this year: "Because the other party has not made a clear statement, the following are all my current speculations." Although he said so, the other people still pricked up their ears. "In the first half of the year, after the Balkan crisis ended, GE announced that it would launch a compliance investigation into France's new generation military engine project, probably in retaliation for the French's first announcement of withdrawal from the Allied Forces. Although no official investigation results have been given so far, from the subsequent actions, it is equivalent to suspending technical support for the M88 turbofan engine currently under development by the French side and planned for the Rafale fighter."
"It should be emphasized here that the property rights of CFM56 belong to CFM International, a company jointly established by Snecma and GE, while M88 is a model developed independently by Snecma. After GE withdrew its support, the French side should have encountered unsolvable technical problems, which led to obstacles in the mass production of engines, including Rafale fighters."
In fact, the core engine of M88 is not completely equivalent to CFM56. In theory, it is "French self-developed", but a considerable part of the design refers to the two classic models of F404 and F110, and even some parts are simply universal.
"So..."
Lin Zuoming felt that he seemed to understand, but he also felt that the plot was a bit magical, so he hesitated for a while before continuing:
"The French used their own core engine and were strangled by the Americans. Just at this time, they saw that the WS-10 was installed normally, so they thought that we had a unique understanding of CFM56, so they wanted to seek technical assistance?"
There was a kind of...
indescribable beauty.
"At least, this is the most likely explanation."
Chang Haonan nodded.
Of course, he would not say it for sure, but everyone knew that it was basically close to the truth.
For a while, the conference room fell into silence.
No one knew what to say.
Emotional, just very emotional.
Especially old comrades like Zhu Linyu, who knew that we tried to find Snecma for technical guidance in the late 1980s.
As a result, after ten years, the identities of teacher and student have changed 180 degrees.
In the past, you ignored me, but now I...
Ahem.
"So, Mr. Chang, can we... really give the French the help they need in the field of turbofan engines?"
Finally, it was Lin Zuoming who broke the silence:
"After all, the WS-10 has nothing to do with the CFM56..."
Chang Haonan organized his words a little:
"Technically speaking, the core engine of the WS-10 is one generation ahead of the CFM56, so although we have not studied the CFM56 in depth, it is difficult to provide them with an immediate solution as the French hope, but if we really cooperate, it is no problem to help them improve the M88 and at least make the Rafale fighter jets go into mass production smoothly."
"Of course, we have to wait until the design of the WS-10 is finalized, otherwise we don't have that many people."