Chapter 917 "Minor Repairs"

Compared to the aviation manufacturing industry that has attracted much attention, and the vehicle manufacturing industry that is closely related to the daily lives of ordinary people, the shipbuilding industry in the three amphibious industries of sea, land and air is actually a business with great influence, but its presence is not too strong.

At least it was like this before the advent of the self-media era.

Just like this time, a Norwegian company with the background of Xizhuoer Capital asked Huaxia Shipyard to produce LNG ships, a super high value-added product, and then the order was dramatically intercepted by a Korean company. It is actually quite shocking news in the industry.

After all, no matter how bad Xizhuoer is, it is also one of the top giants in the global marine engineering and energy fields. Moreover, the demand for LNG and LPG ships has indeed soared worldwide in recent years.

The outside world is not clear about the details of the negotiations between the two parties, so it is naturally impossible to judge whether it is a pit or a real business.

But Chang Haonan has not seen any relevant news reports for the public.

Only a few words were mentioned in some newspapers issued by the industrial sector.

Of course, this is a good thing to some extent.

This order from Xizhuoer cannot be accepted in any case, and it should be passed to the Koreans as a hot potato.

However, the details here must not be publicized through the media.

Then the onlookers can only see the most superficial things, thinking that the order was really taken away by Samsung Offshore Engineering.

Once public opinion begins to ferment, no one can guarantee whether there will be complications.

So there is an old saying in China, called making a fortune in silence...

Ahem...

In short, shipbuilding is not like building airplanes. No matter how fast the technological breakthrough is, it may not usher in a major node in a few months or even years.

If you want to see a result on the LNG ship, you have to wait for a year or two.

Therefore, after Hudong Factory has determined to avoid this pit, Chang Haonan did not continue to pay close attention to this matter.

After all, it is not his job. He just needs to be the second party of the BOG reliquefaction system.

It was the French who really added some extra workload to Chang Haonan in early September.

After reporting the situation in Beijing that day, Liu Yongquan turned around and reported his situation and requirements to his partners.

Snecma and Dassault were shocked after hearing this.

They knew that the Chinese had started research and development of a more in-depth modification immediately after perfecting the M88-2.

And the project was advancing very quickly.

But it was precisely because of the fast progress that everyone subconsciously thought that this should be a transitional model, which was the type with limited performance improvement but could be used immediately.

Therefore, the French Air Force dared to postpone the equipment update schedule and accept it after upgrading to the F2 technical status -

It was only expected to be delayed for a few months, which was not a delay for the project undertaken by Europeans.

And there were some fairly new Mirage 2000C/Ds on hand, unlike the navy next door, which could only use F8FR.

As a result, after a meeting with the 606 Institute, it was found that the upgrade plan the latter had taken out mainly involved three areas.

Turbine, combustion chamber and high-pressure compressor...

These three parts are usually referred to as the core of the aircraft engine...

Plus a new type of casing that reduces weight through diamond-shaped reinforcement ribs, and a tail nozzle that has been changed from an ejector type to a convergent-divergent type.

OK, you have changed the entire engine from the outside to the inside except for the fan and afterburner.

So you are going to just build a new one?

Therefore, when Ian Vesta saw this document at the technical meeting, he felt dizzy on the spot and almost fell down with his eyes black.

"Liu, I admit that your improvement plan is very... bold."

Vesta really couldn't find any other words to describe it, so he had to comment like this:

"But we... still hope to come up with this improvement plan as soon as possible to upgrade the Rafale to a more mature F2 technical state, as long as we can optimize some envelopes or a little thrust..."

"Mr. Vesta, you don't have to worry about the progress."

Liu Yongquan touched his bald head and showed a confident smile:

"Although from the technical documents, the parts involved in this upgrade and improvement are indeed spread throughout the engine, but in general, it is still a minor repair based on the M88-2, and will not change the underlying design of the core engine itself."

"Minor repair?"

Vesta picked up the memo on the table again and quickly flipped to the end:

"But... there are a total of 70 upgrade contents written here?"

"Uh... not all of them are important."

Liu Yongquan also looked down at the technical documents to hide the embarrassment that flashed across his face.

In fact, he specifically asked his subordinates to remove these 70 items, just to show that the workload of this upgrade was large, and to get some benefits from the other party.

Who would have thought that others would complain that the changes were too many.

After a pause, he continued to add:

"Moreover, the most important thing is that almost all of these are mature technologies that we have verified on other models. Now that they are applied to M88, the risks and development cycle are absolutely controllable."

This sentence is half true and half false.

The new air film hole design and combustion chamber atomizing nozzle can indeed be copied. Although the compressor cannot be copied as it is, the use of slits and curved sweep design to control boundary layer separation is also the idea that Chang Haonan has been using since the turbojet 14.

However, the new lightweight casing and the convergent-divergent nozzle with better low-altitude adjustment ability are all parts that Chang Haonan is going to use M88-3 as a guinea pig for verification and testing.

Of course, these two places do not involve the core part of the engine, so Liu Yongquan’s statement that the risk and cycle are controllable is not a lie.

"This..."

Listening to Liu Yongquan's assurance, Vesta hesitated a little.

To be honest, the progress of the improvement of 88-2 was so fast that the engineers of Snecma had not reacted before it was over.

As a result, many places can only be slowly understood after returning.

Now that M88-3 involves more improvement projects, it is also a good opportunity to practice.

Looking at Vesta who bowed his head and thought silently, the former knew that his attitude had begun to loosen, so he continued to increase the stakes.

"Mr. Vesta, when we had a meeting last time, you and Mr. Edsteiner mentioned that you hope to improve the performance of Rafale against EF2000 through this upgrade."

"In our opinion, if we really want to gain an advantage in the competition, we must make a major upgrade to the M88 engine."

He took out two more pages from the folder next to him and handed them to the other party:

"This is the expected performance index of the M88-3 model after the upgrade according to our plan. See if you are satisfied."

Vesta never expected that such a heavy thing had not been taken out just now, so he hurried to take it.

[Turbine pre-temperature, increased from 1740K to 1830-1850K. (Note: No need to replace the hot end material and thermal insulation coating)]

[Considering that the aerodynamic design of Rafale is not inclined to high-speed maneuverability, it is considered to further increase the total pressure ratio to 30.5 to enhance subsonic thrust and fuel consumption. 】

[The air intake per second is increased by 7% on the original basis, which is used to increase thrust and provide cooling...]

[...]

[After comprehensive calculation, it is expected that the sea level thrust will increase from 7600kg to 8400kg, the total weight will decrease from 830kg to 790kg, and the fuel consumption rate...]

This document is not long.

But Vesta was convinced before even seeing the second page.

Previously, Snecma's internal judgment and expectation was to increase the thrust by 5% based on the M88-2 and further optimize the output under high overload at medium and low altitudes...

And the result in front of us is a complete change that can be called a reborn change.

For this reason, even if there are some risks, it is definitely worth it!