Chapter 785: Controversy Caused by Torch Lab (Counting Yesterday's)

Facing Edsteiner's request, Dassault had a struggle in his mind.

The reason why he agreed so easily last time was because he wanted to use the name of cooperation with China to make GM change its mind, and he had no psychological burden.

But now he really wants to cooperate with China...

It is still difficult to make this decision.

Although the main body of the cooperation is definitely Snecma Group, Dassault will inevitably be affected by a joint research and development project like Rafale.

For example, the most direct one.

Serge Dassault has always hoped to make the Rafale fighter the second export business card after the Mirage 2000. Even after the first flight of the Rafale A prototype, he has begun to contact potential buyers everywhere.

But if the mass-produced model uses an aircraft engine with Chinese technology, then customers will inevitably have concerns before buying.

On the one hand, China was not famous for its aviation industry in the past. Even if the situation has changed in recent years, aircraft engines and complete aircraft are two different fields. It is difficult not to worry about the reliability of the Rafale fighter's power.

Of course, the technical level is actually secondary.

The more critical issue is that the export of weapons and equipment is different from general civilian products, and there are quite complex interests behind it.

For many countries, especially NATO members, introducing a fighter with Chinese origin into the main equipment of the Air Force is a risky thing -

Although from the current situation, this risk is only potential.

But it is enough to become a bargaining chip for some countries to abandon the Rafale and switch to F16 or EF2000.

But if they don't cooperate...

Then don't say it, even mass production of the aircraft will not be possible in a short time.

"Alas..."

Dassault, who was caught in hesitation, sighed.

The development of things to this point today is ultimately due to the fact that the technical route chosen by the Snecma Group in the past few decades was too conservative, or in other words, there was inertia.

They had always hoped to improve performance by digging deep into the potential of single-rotor engines, until they found that this approach was completely unworkable, and then they hastily turned to the dual-rotor solution by learning from General Electric's design. As a result, with almost no experience, they copied the design but ended up with a poor result, and finally came to this point today.

"I can't figure it out."

Dassault put his hands behind his back and continued to walk along the path, while Edsteiner hurriedly followed behind.

"It's OK for Americans, Russians and British. They have accumulated more aviation technology than us, so it's understandable that they can come up with better performance engines."

"But why do Chinese people..."

He spoke very quickly, and it was obvious that his mentality fluctuated a lot:

"Although Snecma Group has less technical accumulation in the field of twin-rotor engines, it is one of the major shareholders of CFM International after all. How can it be better than China, which only developed its first mass-produced turbojet engine three years ago?"

"And, as you said last time, China also found us in the past to seek technical information about the CFM56 core engine. Now it has been more than ten years..."

Edsteiner, who was half a body behind, did not respond.

Because it's not just Dassault who doesn't understand.

He doesn't understand either.

In fact, during this period, Edsteiner even specially sorted out some representative achievements made by China in the aviation field in recent years.

It can only be said that it's outrageous.

If a layman were to come, he might be blinded by the large number of cooperation projects with Russia, thinking that China might have reached some kind of agreement with the Russians, thereby obtaining a huge amount of Soviet technological heritage.

However, Edsteiner can see that although there are many models and technologies related to Russia, they are isolated from each other.

On the contrary, projects mainly based on China itself can constitute a relatively complete aviation industry system.

There are indeed some links, even key links, that are introduced from abroad.

But there is no doubt that the entire system itself belongs to the Chinese.

This is completely in line with the performance of a latecomer country in the process of technological catch-up.

The French aviation industry after World War II also developed step by step in this way.

So, there doesn't seem to be any tricks.

The only problem is.

Too fast.

The progress of the Chinese is really too fast.

Especially in the past four or five years, they can almost catch up with the progress of other countries in 20 to 30 years.

This gives people a very fragmented feeling.

However, as a technician, Edsteiner knows that there are some things that he can't understand by analyzing alone.

The rapid development of the Chinese people has become an established fact. It is useless for you to disagree.

It is better to take advantage of this.

Anyway, there are not many conflicts of interest between these two countries, which are nearly 10,000 kilometers apart.

Therefore, looking at the indecisive boss beside him, Edsteiner decided to give him a hard time:

"Mr. Dassault, in fact, before us, Eurocopter had already cooperated with China to design the main rotor and transmission mechanism of the NH90 helicopter."

His angle was very tricky.

He did not say that we have no other way to go.

First of all, it sounds very discouraging, at least it will make the other party feel worse.

Second, Dassault must know about this.

He just can't get over the hurdle in his heart.

And the best way to help him get over it is to tell him.

Eurocopter Group has also done it.

And it is also a military model.

So, there is no need to have a psychological burden.

Sure enough, Dassault, who was originally walking forward with his head down, stopped and looked at Edsteiner with astonishment.

That look contained at least two meanings.

First, "How could such a thing happen?";

Second, "How did you know about such a thing?" --

Although both are aviation companies, fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters are fundamentally different except that they can both fly, so the relationship between Dassault and Eurocopter is limited to "friendly companies" in the literal sense.

"I have a classmate from college who is in charge of the NH90 project at Eurocopter."

Edelsteiner answered directly without Dassault speaking:

"Their project was deadlocked due to technical problems, and China happened to be able to solve it... Well... It's similar to our situation."

In fact, the situation of NH90 is much more complicated. In addition to technical defects, there are also disputes in the process of multinational cooperation.

But now it is necessary to convince Dassault, so naturally we have to pick the key points.

"Then don't other countries that are participating in NH90 and preparing to purchase this model have any objections?"

"Why would they have any objections?"

Edelsteiner shrugged:

"On paper, 100% of the technology and parts of NH90 come from NATO member countries."

Looking at Dassault, who was still puzzled, he continued:

"In fact, there are many ways to whitewash the technology from China as our own. Of course, this requires the cooperation of China, but I think as long as we can sit down and talk, there is nothing that cannot be agreed upon."

Unlike Dassault, Edsteiner is not only a technician, but also a ruthless professional manager.

This means that he is rarely disturbed by unnecessary emotions.

Of course, he is more easily persuaded by interests.

Dassault's eyes turned, and although he did not give an answer immediately, his heart was obviously loosened.

The two stood face to face for a long time.

Finally, Dassault nodded slightly:

"Just do as you said and talk to them."

"But don't be too anxious and try to get better cooperation conditions..."

Hearing this, Edelsteiner finally smiled:

"Of course, I promise."

...

The uneasy October is finally over.

Although Dassault has agreed to contact the Chinese side, this big job is not something that can be bargained over in a few minutes like buying vegetables in the vegetable market.

The conditions proposed by both parties at the beginning were too different, and it was obvious that they had to go back and forth a few times before they could really start meaningful negotiations.

Therefore, Chang Haonan's main focus during this period was still on the Torch Laboratory and the mid-term inspection of the installation test of the turbofan 10.

Relatively speaking, it was a period of time that was not so labor-intensive and even a bit boring.

It's a pity that the tree wants to be quiet but the wind doesn't stop.

One day in early November, Chang Haonan was testing a manifold learning algorithm improved by Yao Mengna in his office as usual, when he saw Liu Chenchen appear at the door of his office with an angry face.

"Teacher Liu?"

Chang Haonan watched the other party wandering outside for several circles, and finally couldn't help but take the initiative to speak:

"If you have something to say, come in and talk?"

Liu Chenchen is the administrative secretary of the laboratory, but in the school, anyone with a regular position can be called a teacher.

So it's better to call her that in front of her.

"Professor Chang, this is too much!"

Liu Chenchen's eyebrows were raised, and her steps were so heavy that Chang Haonan even worried that the tiles on the ground would be crushed by her high heels...

After arriving in front of the desk, the former put a newspaper in front of Chang Haonan, and then turned 180°.

"On why China can't produce world-class scientific results-starting from a laboratory established in an unusual way..."

Chang Haonan directly read out the title of the report.

Although I haven't read the details below, judging from Liu Chenchen's angry expression just now, it's obviously talking about Torch Labs...

"So... it's talking about us?"

Chang Haonan just felt like laughing.

"Of course!"

Liu Chenchen couldn't laugh.

She joined such a promising research group right after graduation, and it was the time when her sense of belonging and collective honor was at its peak, plus...

It's a bit strange to say this, but the boss of the research group was her student when she was a counselor before.

In short, she was more angry than when she was scolded.

Chang Haonan looked down slightly and read the content at a glance.

It was almost the same as he expected.

It was a public intellectual article that was very consistent with the characteristics of this era.

Using his school-enterprise joint laboratory with special policies as a pretext to attack the entire social operation system.

In particular, it criticized the loopholes in the Torch Laboratory's fund management, believing that it was a complete waste of national funds for private benefit, and questioned why it occupied a large amount of funds but could not produce equivalent research and development results.

Finally, it also accused Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Torch Group of causing the loss of state-owned assets.

The speech was impassioned and could even be regarded as a manifesto.

No wonder Liu Chenchen felt red after reading it.

However, for Chang Haonan, who has experienced the era of Internet public intellectuals, the lethality is too low.

He can only be regarded as a public intellectual of the ancient tomb school.

Even Chang Haonan himself can write a better one...