Chapter 1281 Global Express (Second update, please subscribe)
"...Two years ago, when Soviet leader Khrushchev knocked on his leather shoes at the United Nations General Assembly and announced to the world, "We will bury You", and now, your Excellency will tell them at the United Nations General Assembly with the miracle of Nanyang - no, not only can you not bury us, but we will live better!"
came from the car radio The news made Xu Qingyun raise the corners of his mouth and said to himself:
"As expected of a group of reporters..."
The reason why he was so emotional was because he had seen Although he was very impressed by the scene of Khrushchev banging his shoes at the UN General Assembly during the live broadcast two years ago, he clearly remembered that Khrushchev said, "Down with the colonial system of slavery, we will eventually put it down." Buried.”
Moreover, the shoe-slapping was aimed at the Philippine representative, but now it has been transformed into this by reporters.
With emotion, Xu Qingyun said:
"Fortunately, I studied aeronautical engineering, not journalism..."
Is there journalism in the university? ?
Xu Qingyun is not sure. Anyway, science is science. As for journalism... it may be too metaphysical.
Just listening to the news, Xu Qingyun drove towards the company, and soon arrived at the Aviation Industry Corporation of China - the largest aviation company in Asia, and second to none in the world.
As the car drove into the parking lot, a C707 roared over his head. Now, C707 or C717 is delivered almost every day.
Jet airliners are becoming popular all over the world at a speed that is unexpected. They have replaced cruise ships and propeller aircraft. The company's C series aircraft is the big winner.
It is precisely with the help of these two passenger aircraft, C707 and C717, that Nanyang Aviation Industries has become the most famous aviation manufacturing company in the world, even in terms of scale, it is not inferior to large enterprises such as Boeing and Douglas.
Looking up at the planes flying in the sky, Xu Qingyun walked into the company with relaxed steps. Soon, he entered a hangar, where there was a plane that looked a little bit parked. Strange airplane. Near the aircraft, a group of engineers were surrounding, and they were conducting final inspections on the aircraft.
Today is the day for the test flight of this aircraft.
Looking at the prototype in front of him, Xu Qingyun couldn’t help muttering:
“Global Express!”
The world’s first supersonic passenger plane!
After Nanyang Aviation Industry brought the world into the jet age, the civil aviation industry turned its attention to supersonic passenger aircraft. It is expected that in the 1960s, airlines will need a aircraft that can fly long distances and reach their destination quickly. ground aircraft. Supersonic passenger aircraft were generally regarded as the future development direction at the time. The Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States all planned to develop supersonic passenger aircraft.
The British government has even established a Supersonic Transport Aircraft Committee to unite multiple companies to conduct research. France has a similar plan, and the progress is similar to that of the United Kingdom. To this end, the two countries even signed a government cooperation agreement on the development of supersonic aircraft to jointly develop supersonic passenger aircraft.
As for, why was Nanyang excluded?
Because the needs of Nanyang are different from those of Britain and France, the premise for cooperation between Britain and France is that the two countries have similar plans, which is a large passenger plane that can transport hundreds of passengers!
What about Nanyang?
Although research was initiated five years ago, Nanyang’s “supersonic passenger aircraft” is actually just a business aircraft! In other words, a slightly larger business jet.
"It's a pity that it can only accommodate 48 passengers."
At this time, Lin Tonghua walked up to him and said:
"What? You think it is too small?"
"Teacher."
As his student, when the teacher asked this, Xu Qingyun quickly said:
"It's not big, it can only carry 48 passengers."
This is something Xu Qingyun can't accept. After all, even the smallest C717 can carry nearly a hundred passengers.
“When it actually flies, it may carry even fewer passengers, or even only a dozen passengers per flight.”
Lin Tonghua said with a smile:
"As you said when you proposed this plan, the biggest problem of supersonic passenger aircraft at present is that it consumes too much fuel and the flight cost is too high. If you want to maintain operating costs, you must adopt high fares. Such high fares will make most passengers choose ordinary subsonic aircraft. After all, not everyone can afford the cost of supersonic flight.”
A few years ago, when countries around the world began to develop supersonic passenger aircraft, Nanyang Aviation Industries also wanted to join the effort. After all, as the world's largest jet airliner manufacturer, it would definitely lose ground if others took the lead. of.
So, Nanyang naturally wants to do it too.
After the report was submitted to Li Yian, he immediately thought of the "Concorde" in another world - the only officially operational supersonic passenger aircraft in the world.
During its operation, the Concorde flew at twice the speed of sound, but the price was the high ticket price of the Concorde. A round-trip ticket from London to New York cost more than nine thousand US dollars. Flying on the Concorde in person Flying to and from Europe and the United States has become a dream for many people since childhood.
Nine thousand US dollars in that era was almost equivalent to half the annual income of Americans! From this you can imagine how expensive the ticket price of the "Concorde" was. It is precisely because air tickets are expensive that the passenger capacity has always been seriously insufficient. Due to heavy losses for the airline, Concorde was eventually retired despite government subsidies.
After learning this living lesson, Li Yian will naturally not let Nanyang’s money go to waste. After all, the "Concorde" burned billions of dollars from Britain and France in the decades from its development to operation!
The research and development expenditure alone is as much as 500 million pounds!
With subsidies from the U.S. government, Boeing resolutely abandoned its supersonic passenger aircraft project after burning more than one billion US dollars.
This money... Nanyang can afford to burn it, but there is no need to burn it!
Therefore, Li Yian naturally needs to learn this lesson.
"So, you chose it!"
Lin Tonghua pointed at the prototype in front of him and said:
"According to the design plan, "Global Express" It can travel between major cities around the world at a speed of over Mach 1.8. Although this data is lower than the speed of Mach 2.04 of a fighter jet, it also shortens the flight time between London and New York to about 4 hours than that of ordinary civil aviation. More than half the time, so although the fare is expensive, it will still be popular with business travelers."
"And this speed..."
Lin Tonghua specially emphasized:
"Mach 1.8! This is also what you proposed. From the perspective of materials science and economics, this speed is the most appropriate. It is not twice the speed of sound, but it is The temperature is moderate, and no special design or special materials are required, which means a reduction in cost..."
This is due to the influence of supersonic aerodynamic heating, the supersonic fuselage skin temperature The changes are much greater for subsonic aircraft. When the aircraft reaches the cruising speed of Mach 2, the skin temperature can reach over 120 degrees Celsius, and the highest temperature area can even reach 207 degrees Celsius.
This requires the use of titanium alloy and other materials. As the tide rises, so does the cost. Therefore, Li Yian used a trick - Mach 1.8. At this speed, aluminum alloy can meet the demand, but 2200 The cruising speed of kilometers per hour is sufficient to meet the needs of most flight missions.
After a slight pause, Lin Tonghua said:
"In terms of product positioning, your judgment is very accurate. The speed of ordinary passenger aircraft is second. Both airlines and passengers are pursuing safety, comfort and low cost. Only some special guests will There are corresponding requirements for speed.”
In fact, this is also the fundamental reason why airlines launched supersonic business aircraft one after another after the Concorde was retired. It is because there is indeed a business demand in this area, especially As the economic ties between countries around the world become closer and closer.
Those business people can't wait to be in New York in the morning, London at noon, and fly to Hong Kong in the afternoon.
In this era of global village, not only another world has this need, but this world also has this need.
Of course, more importantly, Li Yian also has personal needs in this regard.
After all, whether in London or New York, there is his family. That's why he made this request. For rich people, what's the problem if the ticket price is several times more expensive?
People don’t care about this at all!
After all, no "boy" doesn't want to create a sonic boom cloud several meters high at an altitude of 18,000 meters. Moreover, for many business people, they do have needs in this regard. After all, time is money.
Based on the lessons learned from the "Concorde" aircraft, Li Yian gave a relatively safe plan,
"Moreover, compared with large aircraft carrying more than a hundred passengers, this This business aircraft technology is much simpler, and we can also use it for technical verification, just like we used the C717 for technical verification back then.”
As the chief designer of C717, Lin Tonghua often couldn't figure out whether C717 made C707 or C707 made C717. After all, many technologies are common between them.
But one thing is certain, it is precisely because of the success of the C717 that the subsequent success of the C707 was achieved. It was the C717 that brought the world into the jet era.
The "Global Express" in front of us is, to a certain extent, a technology verification aircraft. After all, it uses many of the latest technological achievements. Because of its smaller size, it has more Learn from the development experience of fighter jets.
Although there was no suitable engine at the beginning of the development, in order not to delay the development progress, BMW engineers decided to add an afterburner to the WP100 turbofan engine used on passenger aircraft and bombers. Cobbled together a turbofan engine. BMW Aircraft Engines made extensive improvements to the WP100 and added an afterburner and thrust reverse system, and finally developed a turbofan engine that was successfully used on this aircraft.
Although its afterburning thrust is only 14 tons, it can still achieve supersonic cruise with the help of three powerful turbofan engines. Of course, the more important thing is the WP100 engine, which is a reliable, low-price, and widely used aviation engine. From a cost perspective, it is also conducive to reducing the overall cost of the aircraft. After all, developing a new engine is not only time-consuming, but also expensive.
It was precisely because of this overall control of engineering research and development that it was able to complete the design and build the first prototype in such a short period of time!
"Teacher, you stand at a different height and see the problem more thoroughly."
After complimenting, Xu Qingyun turned his attention to this aircraft. It can be like Will the C717 usher in an era of supersonic passenger aircraft?
Although he didn't know the answer, his heart was still full of longing, longing for it to fly as soon as possible, and like C717, fly all over the world.
At 10 o'clock this morning, after repeated inspections by engineers, the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft, Global Express, which took five years to develop, was finally controlled by a test pilot. Down, taxiing on the runway, and then suddenly flying into the sky, although the first test flight did not perform a supersonic flight test.
But it still took the title of the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft without hesitation!
(End of this chapter)