Chapter 943 We Can’t Just Let the Chinese Do Everything, Right? (4K)
And at the same time Chang Haonan was digging holes for his competitors.
Paris France.
His partners are also getting into trouble at this time.
In a conference room of the Dassault Group, several engineers were reporting the development progress of various components of the Falcon Z business jet to Serge Dassault and Charles Edelsteiner as usual -
Although the project is considered a joint development between four companies, after all, Dassault is responsible for the overall planning and design of the aircraft, so in terms of specific work, they do occupy a position similar to a domestic "original engine factory".
The first person to speak was a technician responsible for liaison with Snecma Group:
"Currently, Snecma and China Aerospace Power Group have officially determined the research and development schedule. The new engine series will be named SeA. According to different thrusts, there are currently three basic models: SeA350, SeA500 and SeA650. In the future On this basis, the thrust can be further subdivided.”
"Are the three models... developed in parallel?"
Ed Steiner expressed concern.
In his plan, Falcon Z should be a short and fast project that will fly for the first time within two years, so it should not be too big.
Fortunately, the other party shook his head:
"No, priority is given to the SeA650 with the highest thrust, which is a model with a thrust of 6.5 tons. It is used to adapt to the Z9 solution, which is the largest in our Falcon Z project."
Ed Steiner finally felt relieved.
The Z9 solution is the largest model in the entire series of products, and it is also the model he plans to launch first.
The maximum take-off weight of the 40-ton class is even close to that of China’s C808 regional airliner.
As a business jet, it is an absolute giant.
Correspondingly, its range has reached more than 12,000 kilometers, meeting all requirements for transoceanic flights.
You can even take off from Paris and go directly to the West Coast of the United States without refueling.
Of course, in actual operation, few people actually need to carry out such exaggerated flights.
But in order to compete with its dominant competitors, mainly Bombardier and Gulfstream, Dassault must create a benchmark product.
Just like Airbus must develop the A380.
I can't sell it, but I can't live without it.
"But... use the core engine of the M88 to remove the afterburner and build a 6.5-ton civilian engine..."
Dassault, who was sitting at the head of the conference table, held the half-smoked cigar in his hand and asked:
"Can this development progress really match ours?"
You can’t blame Dassault for having such concerns.
As the saying goes, once bitten by a snake, you will be afraid of ropes for ten years.
The lesson of the M88 engine that almost killed the Rafale is still vivid in my mind, and it is indeed difficult for people not to think in a bad direction.
The technician who had just reported did not answer immediately, but pondered for a moment.
The main problem with Dassault is...
Not easy to answer.
He is only responsible for liaison, and is not an engine designer. Naturally, he cannot guarantee other people's work.
But as a worker, you have to consider your boss’s concerns...
Therefore, after pondering for a moment, he chose to explain from the side:
"I heard that in order to ensure the progress of research and development, the team leader of China rejected Snecma's request to participate in the research and development of the hot end, and only allowed them to participate in the design of the fan and casing..."
The meaning is obvious.
You can't trust Snecma who tricked Gust, but you can't trust the one who rescued Gust, right?
However, this person also had only a partial understanding of the situation.
Because the person who vetoed Snecma's request was actually not Liu Yongquan.
But Chang Haonan——
Although he had not directly cooperated with the French in his previous life, he had read a lot of relevant information.
To sum up, the French are not good at hot end research and development.
The SAM146 engine jointly developed by France and Russia has a hot-end design defect that results in the actual overhaul interval being only half or even one-third of the expected indicator, and there are also hidden dangers in reliability.
Having experienced such an incident before and after, Chang Haonan was naturally worried about letting Snecma get involved too deeply.
Fortunately, some minor errors and omissions will not affect the persuasiveness of this explanation.
Dassault did not continue to ask, just nodded, and then picked up the cigar again.
Seeing that the topic about engines came to an end, Ed Steiner took over the conversation again and gestured towards the other side of the conference table:
"Brody, tell me about the avionics system."
The engineer known as Brody pushed up his glasses, then sat up straight and replied:
“Thales Group used to be one of the main hardware suppliers of passenger aircraft avionics and flight control systems, so there are no obstacles in this regard, and most of the hardware is even available on the shelves.”
"So, all their energy is currently focused on the development of the underlying software program. Our company has a technical team of about 50 people who are cooperating with Thales. Although there is no actual progress yet, it has been used An old Falcon 900 flight simulator has been used as a test platform, and the first version is planned to be tested by March next year.”
"..."
…
"call--"
After listening to a full round of reports, Ed Steiner took a long breath and relaxed back in his chair:
"It seems that our partners should be able to keep up with our preset schedule and realize the first flight of Falcon Z before 2004."
"Then, we will follow the original plan..."
Just when Edsteiner was completely relieved and ready to roll up his sleeves to work hard, a slightly deep voice suddenly interrupted his talk:
"Wait a minute..."
Edsteiner had to stop.
Looking at the source of the voice, he noticed that the person who just spoke was Didier Casore.
Head of Dassault's aerodynamics department.
"Dr. Casore, do you have a question?"
"Yes."
Casore nodded and opened the notebook in front of him helplessly:
"Wings... The new high-speed wings planned for Falcon Z..."
"Some...maybe some serious problems occurred during the development process."
In just one sentence, Casore's forehead was already sweating.
Because before he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the conference room became anxious.
Especially Edsteiner, who had just looked confident.
He had been worrying whether several important subsystems of the aircraft would delay the development of the entire aircraft.
So, after listening to the reports from other liaison personnel, he felt relieved.
However, before he could be happy for too long, he found out...
He gave orders like a tiger, but in the end, he was the one who had problems...
This was quite embarrassing.
Everyone in the conference room either lowered their heads or raised their heads, always looking away, not looking at Edsteiner, whose face turned red and white.
On the contrary, Dassault next to him behaved normally.
After all, he was not embarrassed.
As for the problem itself...
Dassault did not think that a project that had only been officially started for more than two months could cause any earth-shattering chaos.
At most, he could start from scratch.
Therefore, he asked on behalf of Edsteiner:
"Don't worry, tell me the specific situation and whether there are any possible solutions?"
Casore was taking out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat at this time. When he heard his boss's question, he quickly answered:
"A few days ago, we sent the engineering documents related to the new wing design to the responsible personnel of each partner for backup as usual."
"Originally, this was just a normal operation that would be carried out every week. As a result, about two days later, someone suddenly replied to us with an urgent email, which said that there were errors in the modeling and design calculations we completed using the new method, and provided detailed verification methods."
"Then..."
"Then we tested it according to what he said and found...there was indeed a problem..."
"There were violent oscillations during the calculation process. Although there was no divergence in the end, the reliability and accuracy of the results may have been...cannot be guaranteed."
After listening to this description, Edsteiner suddenly felt dizzy.
Aircraft design must be blown in the wind tunnel before it is truly implemented.
And the basis of his plan to race against time is to use a highly completed initial design to compress the time for trial and error in the wind tunnel.
But if the calculation accuracy of the design process cannot be guaranteed...
Let alone compression, it may directly lead the design direction astray. Instead, it is better to rely on experience and try slowly.
"Is there a solution?"
He asked quickly.
"The development cycle we submitted before was estimated based on the premise that the new algorithm is feasible... But now the entire numerical calculation tool has a problem, so it may be difficult for us to solve it in a short time."
Casore felt that he was going to be numb.
Who dared to think that COMSOL would directly release software with some missing functions, and there would be no reminders before calculation?
He forced himself to take a deep breath, barely stabilized his mentality, and then continued:
"At present, the safest way is to switch back to the old wing shape with traditional design, but the cruising speed will be reduced to a level similar to that of competitors... about 900km/h, and the range will be reduced by about 3%."
"Of course, we can also change the calculation tools and calculation methods, and start from scratch to design a new wing, but the progress... will be affected by at least 4-6 months."
Edsteiner was at a loss for a moment.
He signed and agreed to use the more radical new COMSOL software in wing design.
And now that the radicalness has gone wrong, at least he can't put all the blame on his subordinates.
He is not British.
"Can't it be faster?"
Edsteiner still holds on to the last glimmer of hope.
High speed is a very important publicity gimmick in his plan, especially at the time when the Concorde is about to retire. A business jet that is close to the speed of sound but has the same fuel economy and noise as other aircraft will definitely attract the attention of target customers.
If it is gone, it will be a pity.
"It's difficult."
Casore shook his head:
"In fact, I have always wanted to complain about one thing, that is, the adaptation between our own CATIA and Torch Group's TORCH Multiphysics is not good, so every time we have to spend a lot of time on model error correction and reconstruction. This time we switched to COMSOL because they can directly be compatible with our engineering files..."
"In short, if the task must be completed according to the original timetable, then I am afraid that the entire airfoil calculation work must be handed over to Torch Group itself. Their numerical calculation business department should have engineers with the most experience in calculations at present, and use it with our brand-new Supercomputer hardware will increase efficiency a lot..."
After hearing this suggestion, Ed Steiner couldn't help but hesitate:
"But this is one of the most important tasks in aircraft design... If you find someone else to do it, relying on suppliers will definitely not work..."
"If we add a partner, we have to get the approval of three other companies. Moreover, Torch Group is just a software company, so it doesn't know anything about wing design..."
"Actually... it might not be that troublesome."
Casore suddenly spoke again:
"Although Torch Group is a software and computing services company on the surface, I checked its background before and found that it is actually our partner, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Aerospace Power Group..."
In 2001, the ownership structure of unlisted companies was not actually that easy to check.
Moreover, the Torch Group was transferred to the Aviation Power Group later.
Therefore, Kasore obviously did a lot of homework to find this kind of news.
"Is there such a thing?"
Ed Steiner was also a little shocked.
However, Casore's next words were even more striking:
"And I also found out that the general manager of the Torch Group and the person in charge of our Falcon Z project at the Aerospace Power Group... they..."
"They are...the same person."
For a moment, the entire conference room fell silent.
"That is to say..."
After a long time, Brody, who had just reported, broke the silence:
"The email you sent for backup was actually sent to the developer of TORCH Multiphysics himself?"
"This should be……"
Kasore nodded:
"In other words, luckily it was given to him."
"If we had not discovered this calculation problem in advance, but had waited until we started blowing the wind tunnel to realize that something was wrong, it would not have been as simple as delaying progress for several months..."
And Brody also followed up and said:
"If it were him, he might really be able to complete the design plan within the original time."
Everyone's eyes turned to Ed Steiner.
As the overall person in charge of the Falcon Z project, his opinion is crucial at this time.
And Ed Steiner’s heart is also at war between heaven and man——
On the one hand, he feels that Falcon Z is ultimately a French project and cannot be left to the Chinese.
But on the other hand, if you want to maintain the original development progress, there seems to be no other option.
If other subsystems have been developed by then, everyone will stop and wait for Dassault's overall design...
It seems even more shameful.
"anyway."
In the end, it was Dassault who helped Ed Steiner out:
"As Dr. Casore said just now, if we plan to improve the compatibility between CATIA and TORCH Multiphysics in the future, we will have to cooperate with each other sooner or later."
"So this time... let's treat it as a way to get closer in advance!"