Chapter 170 The Interests Behind the Passenger Aircraft
After all, the discussion about Embraer was just an incident, so it didn’t take long for the topic between the three of them to return to the large aircraft production line in Shanghai.
"No matter what, Hufei's final assembly line and production line must be maintained as much as possible. This is the main tone set by the above."
Ding Gaoheng's words made Du Yishan next to him feel relieved. Take a breath.
In the latter's view, if the top management hopes to preserve Hufei's large aircraft production capacity, then at least there should be nothing to worry about in this regard. At most, they can continue production at a loss, or convert some production. Just practice on less advanced models.
During the most difficult period of the year, various manufacturing plants in the aviation industry basically survived in this way.
But this is not the case for Chang Haonan, who knows the subsequent plot.
He knows very well what some people are capable of doing.
China’s civil aviation market is a scale of several thousand mainline aircraft.
And in order to ensure safety, Chinese airlines, especially passenger routes, will rarely operate old aircraft that are too old.
So this is still a market that is forced to refresh every 8-10 years.
As for the external procurement of aircraft, whether it is Boeing or Airbus, there is a huge chain of interests hidden behind it.
If nothing else, the public relations expenses incurred by these two companies every year amount to ten figures.
Once China is able to manufacture its own passenger aircraft, especially mainline passenger aircraft.
Even if the design of the passenger aircraft is still foreign, and even if the model is not that advanced, China's civil aviation market will definitely use aircraft produced by itself first.
Like those MD82s purchased in the past few years, and the MD90s originally planned for the future.
In this way, the space left for other companies to "compete freely" will become smaller.
It also means that the "profit space" left for those compradors will become smaller.
And this is what those people don’t want to see.
Therefore, internal enemies are even more active than external enemies in disrupting the development of the independent aviation industry.
They will never give up just because of the tone set above.
Sure enough, Ding Gaoheng went on to say:
“What the Civil Aviation Administration of China means is that if the MD90 project loses its prospects due to Boeing’s acquisition of McDonnell Douglas, then Airbus can be considered in the first two years. The AE100 passenger aircraft solution that the government has been recommending to us..."
Hearing this, Chang Haonan sneered inwardly.
Exactly the same as the operation on the original timeline.
The AE100 project has not even been discussed yet. The reason Airbus approached Hufei was because it was not sure whether a mainline aircraft the size of a regional aircraft would have market prospects, so it wanted to find a partner to share the risk.
Once the project improves, we will definitely find a way to get rid of the latter.
It is true that China and Europe have common interests in the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger case.
But it is another matter when it comes to developing an independent aviation industry.
What happened in the previous life also proved that this idea was not successful. After abandoning Shanghai Airlines, the A318 passenger aircraft that Airbus took out only sold about 80 aircraft and was hastily discontinued. The airlines that bought this model also It was quickly chosen to be retired. In fact, a 100-seat passenger plane is a pure clown for China's passenger flow density, and it is impossible to support the demand for major domestic routes.
Furthermore, the take-off weight of the AE100 is only 60 tons, which is overkill for Hufei’s production line.
In short, choosing AE100 to inherit the MD90 project can be said to be the worst solution. It is even worse than biting the bullet and continuing to make MD90 at a loss.
In addition to deliberately destroying China's aviation industry, I can't think of any other reason.
What Ding Gaoheng just said continues:
"As Comrade Xiao Chang said just now, we have no initiative in choosing to cooperate with Airbus. The other party's current upward momentum is very strong, and there is no need to completely produce an aircraft in our country."
"But the only ones I can mobilize at present are the forces related to the Science and Technology Commission system. There is no way to compare with the civil aviation in terms of resources."
Obviously, Ding Gaoheng needs more sufficient reasons to go to the top. Prove why AE100 is a dead end.
And this is actually a super question for him.
Because in the field of civil aviation industry, especially in terms of development routes that have nothing to do with specific technologies, there is no such thing as the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
It was entirely because of the aviation industry standards controversy that Chang Haonan caused a few months ago that Ding Gaoheng and the Science and Technology Commission had the opportunity to enter the game in an all-round way.
He himself has a background in aerospace and missiles. There is no chance of buying in these two fields. Obviously there is no room for compradors to survive, and naturally he has never experienced such a scene.
It is not surprising that we need a foreign aid who is reliable and has excellent professional knowledge.
I'm afraid this is the main purpose of finding Chang Haonan and Du Yishan.
The discussion just now on how to deal with the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger should only be regarded as an additional question.
It's just that Chang Haonan failed to answer the additional questions.
Now, he is going to complete the required questions.
“During the Xiangzhou Air Show this year, I saw this AE100 solution. I also consulted some Airbus technical staff.”
Chang Haonan definitely cannot curse directly in Ding Gaoheng’s office The comprador is harming the country. It is too offensive. If a passing outsider hears it, it may cause unnecessary trouble to the director of the Science and Technology Commission.
But it was impossible for him to directly predict the fate of the AE100 without any basis, so he had to start from the air show he had just participated in:
"First of all, Airbus has only produced one model, which has not even entered the overall design stage. Judging from my professional perspective, no matter how efficient the engineers are, it will take 2-3 years to complete the process from design to design. The entire process of mass production, so even in terms of project progress alone, it is impossible to follow the MD90 project that may be terminated at any time. "
"Secondly, according to the data given by the other party at the air show, The AE100 only has 100-110 seats, which is about two-thirds of the A320. However, the occupation of airport resources is at the same level as the latter, and there is no advantage in terms of operating costs. Perhaps it is suitable for some European countries with less passenger traffic. There is still demand for routes, but it will definitely not become mainstream here.”
“Finally, it’s the problem just mentioned. It is obviously impossible for Airbus to build it according to my country’s aviation industry standards. A new aircraft, this means that if Hufei chooses the AE100 project, it will have to adopt a new set of manufacturing and assembly standards, which may not be beneficial to the development of our country’s aviation industry in the long run.”
Ding Gaoheng nodded repeatedly after hearing a few words, obviously quite satisfied with this set of answers.
But Chang Haonan knew that this was still not enough.
When discussing this kind of practical problem, you can't just raise the difficulties without giving solutions.
So the Science and Technology Commission still needs to come up with a more feasible plan.
(End of this chapter)