Chapter 503: Giving Wings to Nanyang (First update, please subscribe)
On the empty road, a BMW motorcycle roared forward at high speed.
The speeding motorcycle soon arrived at Nanyang Aviation Industry Company, a large factory located in the southwest of Chang'an. This company was formerly known as the Italian Savoia Marchetti Company and the French Southwest Aircraft The company was formed together, and together they laid the foundation of the Nanyang aviation industry.
The motorcycle stopped in front of the company guard. After a brief inspection, the motorcycle drove into the company. He parked the car, took off his goggles and helmet, and tidied his hair in the rearview mirror. Zhao Shaojie Then he left the building, and soon he came to the studio.
Dozens of engineers from Italy and France are busy here. As an assistant engineer, Zhao Shaojie spends most of his time studying, as do most other Chinese engineers.
The reason why Nanyang Aviation Industries was able to complete the design and production of the "Super Giant" transport aircraft, C95 passenger aircraft and FX1 jet fighter was entirely due to the technical teams hired from Italy and France. Not only the technical team, but also the company's technical workers Thirty percent of employees are of European origin, which can be seen from the "Little Italy" and "Little Paris" near the company.
“We should use under-wing engine pods.”
As soon as he entered the office, he heard Zhang Tingpeng discussing with Chief Engineer Satista. Zhang Tingpeng is the only one in the company. One of the fifty-six Chinese engineers, a member of the first Allied search team, he started interning at Savoia Marchetti Company in 1944.
Satista looked at the new layout on the drawing and said.
“The Comet aircraft uses a wing-root layout. For the sake of safety, we should also adopt a similar layout.”
It all started with "Comet."
As the pioneer of jet airliners, the "Comet" airliner has indeed set a model for the world.
The "Comet" passenger aircraft has many innovative designs, such as swept wings, pressure cabins, large square windows, etc., allowing it to cruise at an altitude of 13,000 meters at a speed of 740 km/h, which was faster than that of the time The piston aircraft was more than twice as fast. Moreover, the "Comet" passenger aircraft also has an elegant appearance and comfortable interior facilities, bringing passengers an unprecedented flying experience.
Boeing's development of jet airliners was inspired by the "comet", and the same was true in Southeast Asia. Unlike Boeing, which only saw the actual "Comet" passenger aircraft at an air show, Nanyang Aviation Industry Corporation started cooperation with de Havilland as early as last year. When the Comet passenger aircraft made its first test flight on July 27 this year, engineers from Nanyang Aviation Industries were on site to observe the test flight.
Subsequently, through the exchange and learning between engineers at De Havilland Company, the German and Chinese engineers in the group soon believed that they had mastered the key technical essentials of the jet airliner, that is, backsweep. It considers the choice of wings and engines, and believes that there is still room for optimization on these two points.
After they returned to China, Nanyang Aviation Industries began the development of jet airliners.
“Chief Engineer Sa, noise, compared to locating the engine at the wing root, using the engine pod under the wing will make the noise in the cabin smaller and the passengers will be more comfortable.”
< br>Wang Lun, who has been an intern at Boeing Company in the United States for three years, has participated in the XB47 project and is naturally familiar with engine pod design.
“Passenger aircraft must consider the comfort of passengers. Although its speed exceeds 740 kilometers, considering Nanyang’s special geographical location, whether it is flying to Europe or North America, the distance is about 12,000 kilometers. Taking into account the transfer time, the flight time is almost 20 hours. When passengers need to stay on the plane overnight, reducing noise is an issue we must consider.”
In fact, the reason why Nanyang Aviation Industry Corporation. I am very interested in jet airliners because the distance between Southeast Asia and Europe and the United States is too far. Take the C95 large four-engine passenger plane manufactured by the company as an example. Although its maximum range reaches 500 kilometers at a time, its cruising speed is only 342 kilometers. From Chang'an It takes up to 57 hours to fly to Europe. Although this includes transfer time at the airport, it is really too long.
Because of this, how to shorten the intercontinental flight time has always been a very important issue for Borneo Airlines.
So when it comes to jet aircraft, Air Borneo seems to be very concerned about it. After all, the speed advantage of jet aircraft cannot be ignored. This is completely different from the attitude that European and American airlines do not take it particularly seriously, even if they have no experience in operating jet airliners. Moreover, for such a hot technology, it is still unknown whether it is safe, reliable and what the operating cost is.
But Air Borneo needs an aircraft that can reduce the flight time to less than 24 hours.
Because of this, even though they have tasted the benefits of piston aircraft, it is different from European and American airlines who think that piston airliners like DC-6 and Constellation are quite sufficient. After Air Borneo learned that the "Comet" jetliner had succeeded in its test flight, it set its sights on it.
Of course, there is another underlying reason - Li Yian's support for jetliners also determines the company's development direction.
“Chief Engineer Sa, I think what Mr. Zhang and Mr. Wang said is very reasonable. We don’t necessarily have to stick to the rules and blindly follow the British design. And from the perspective of engine maintenance, The wing root layout is not conducive to maintenance, and our users are airlines.”
As the company’s chief aerodynamic expert, Hans Walker also expressed his support for them in a timely manner. An aerodynamic expert who has presided over the development of a variety of jet bombers including the Junkers-287 jet bomber, he naturally looks down upon the British wing-root layout.
After Walker mentioned "user", Satista thought for a while and then said.
“Okay, but in the end it still depends on the results of the wind tunnel test. After all, the layout of the wing root engine nacelle is beneficial to reducing drag and requires lower engine thrust.”
"Haha, that's already the old emperor's calendar."
Hans Walker, who has been in Nanyang for three years, although his Chinese is still a bit stiff, can quote a common saying.
“You forgot that when the President visited the UK this time, he ordered the RB.80 engine. This jet engine has a thrust of up to 9,250 pounds. I heard the accompanying company representative mention that in Luo. We are also working with them to develop an engine with greater thrust. After it completes the test run, BMW will also produce a new engine. The biggest advantage of using an engine pod is that we can adjust the structure of the pod at any time to adapt to the new engine. As for drag..."
It is well known that the performance of the engine determines the performance of the aircraft. With more advanced engines, naturally there will be better aircraft.
As the company's chief aerodynamics expert, Walker thought for a while, walked to the drawings, and looked at the aircraft borrowed from the drawings. Its body and wings all borrowed from the design of the "Comet".
"We can reduce its drag by further improving the design of the airframe and wings!"
As an assistant engineer, Zhao Shaojie listened to the discussions of the engineers, and just like that, they During the discussion, the basic structure of a new jet airliner was taken shape. Soon Zhao Shaojie and his colleagues made a wind tunnel model and began to conduct wind tunnel testing. In the following days, the model The prototype was designed in detail based on the wind tunnel test results. However, difficulties were encountered in the design of the landing gear, control surfaces, and wing-mounted engine nacelles. Although the progress was hindered, the project was still progressing in an orderly manner.
In order to promote the progress of the project, Nanyang Aviation Industries has also fully cooperated with de Havilland, introducing sub-project technologies including new landing gears and hydraulic control systems. These two technologies are also A new technology specially developed by de Havilland for the "Comet" passenger aircraft.
To a certain extent, Nanyang Aviation Industries’ jetliner project is the only jetliner project in the world, and these two jetliner projects have had in-depth cooperation from the beginning. Research in Nanyang has benefited to a large extent from the United Kingdom.
It is through such fruitful international cooperation that Nanyang Aviation Industry Company, which has only been established for a few years, has been able to grow rapidly. And in the past few years, it has launched a variety of aircraft including the C95 passenger aircraft.
(End of this chapter)