Chapter 521 Can this also be called a MiG-21 modification? ? ?
Few people would have thought beforehand that during the preparations for the Singapore Air Show, the most eye-catching model was neither the Rafale nor the Super Hornet, nor the two Chinese passenger aircraft.
Instead, it flew more than a dozen sorties in three days, transporting many exhibitor models from all over the world to several An-124s at the Changi Exhibition Site.
Especially, when a medium-sized helicopter was pulled out of the cargo bay of the An-124, the reporters on the scene used almost half of the day's film on this scene.
This is not over yet.
The Americans, who felt that this was not going to work anymore, also pulled out a C5, removed the wings of the Black Hawk helicopter that could have flown from the Subic base next door, stuffed it in and airlifted it to Singapore...
This is completely an act of vindictiveness.
Volga-Dnepr's An-124 charges the cargo owner for each flight, while the C5 costs pure money.
Of course, the US military, which has a lot of money at this time, doesn't care about this little funding.
At this time, it is less than 10 years since the end of the Cold War, and giant transport aircraft such as the An-124 and C5, the dominant ones in the East and the West, have rarely met the public directly.
In addition, information dissemination is not developed enough, and there are not many people even seen in photos.
Definitely a top-notch person who can attract media attention.
Especially in the past few days, these two models, which are similar in size and purpose, only took turns to land here, but there was no head-on encounter between the needle and the wheat.
This made many media who wanted to take photos of the two in the same frame eager to try on the opening day.
As a result, both the United States and Russia stated that they had only arranged cargo routes according to normal plans before, and had no plans to participate in the exhibition of these two models.
As soon as the news came out, the French finally breathed a sigh of relief.
They have high hopes for this air show.
Due to the backstabbing behavior of the French during the Gulf War (the Iraqi army’s automated command system was imported from France, but it failed to function at all during the war), the reputation of French weapons and equipment has spread throughout the world, especially in the Middle East. There is a cliff-like decline within the country.
In addition, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the CIS countries engaged in indiscriminate dumping at unreasonable low prices, which has led to France’s arms sales in recent years not being very optimistic.
It takes time to restore word-of-mouth, so they urgently need to expand beyond the traditional market.
Although Southeast Asia and South Asia have been hit by the financial crisis, after all, a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, and it is always better than Latin America and sub-Saharan African countries...
"If I had known this, I shouldn't have done it from the beginning. Chartered flight transport..."
Guillaume Le Maire, the leader of the French delegation and vice president of the French Aerospace Industry Association, finally breathed a sigh of relief when he looked at the journalists around him who looked regretful.
In fact, most of the first few An-124 sorties that came over were transporting things to French companies.
For example, passenger planes are fine, but it is a bit difficult for fighter jets or helicopters to fly from France to Singapore on their own, not to mention that the Rafale is still a prototype.
So to save trouble, they simply hired Volga-Dnepr Airlines, which had a broken freight rate.
As a result, the latter quickly discovered that this was an excellent opportunity to advertise for themselves, so they sent many Russians’ own exhibition equipment.
Afterwards, the situation got a little out of control.
Fortunately, the opening ceremony was not robbed of its limelight.
The first four days of the Singapore Airshow, including the opening day, are professional days, open only to trade attendees.
If the attention in the past few days has been drawn to the United States and Russia, the subsequent public open days will not make much sense at all.
Who are the serious people who spend money to buy fighter jets?
……
As the salute sounded at the opening ceremony, the Singapore Air Force A4S attack aircraft and the French Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jets began a joint flight performance, which finally attracted the attention of the media and members of delegations from various countries. Force pulled back to the air show itself.
After confirming that everything was back on track, Le Maire moved his body and began to wander around the exhibition area of more than 70,000 square meters.
While scouting your competitors, also see if there are any possible deals.
According to his experience, equipment purchases in these third world countries are very random.
If the level and authority of the delegation sent over are high enough, they may spend money on a whim.
Although it is generally difficult to get any big orders, no matter how small a grasshopper is, it is still meat.
Retail and wholesale are both businesses, not shabby.
Perhaps because of the exhibition area and location being far away from the mainland, their two biggest rivals, the United States and Russia, did not bring much eye-catching equipment.
The multifunctional fighter Su-30, which was previously regarded as a huge threat, did not show up. Only a few Su-27s from the Warrior Demonstration Team came, and they would leave immediately after the performance.
As an "air show", the weapons and equipment exhibited by Russia are mainly anti-aircraft missile systems. The latest S300PMU2 is placed opposite the Mirage 2000 booth. Although there seems to be some intention to cause trouble, it does not constitute direct competition with France.
The Americans are still the same. Although the F18F is making its first public appearance, it is a carrier-based aircraft after all.
Except for a few countries, almost no one would buy a carrier-based aircraft for use on land...
After walking around for more than half a circle, Le Maire nodded with satisfaction and put his hands in his pockets. , as if there is no opponent.
Enjoying how lonely it was to be invincible, he slowly walked towards the last area in front of him -
The Chinese exhibition area.
At this time, Le Maire's mentality was already very relaxed.
It was his own suggestion to arrange Huaxia to become one of the three major exhibition groups through behind-the-scenes operations.
The main reason is to squeeze the participation scale of other major competitors such as Britain and Russia.
Judging from the actual results, this strategy is quite successful.
Although Huaxia has shown some potential for rapid development in the past two years, the starting point is too low after all. Even if they are given an exhibition area of 15,000 square meters, they can only display some uncompetitive things.
“Cockpit model of the third generation fighter FC10...”
"The door made for the Airbus A320..."
"The horizontal tail made for the Airbus A320..."
Le Maire watched the flowers along the way, driving away tigers and devouring wolves for himself The wisdom nodded secretly.
Although this is the Chinese exhibition area, many exhibitors are participating as suppliers, and the most important supplier is Airbus.
It is no exaggeration to say that the few tens of meters just entering the venue can even be regarded as an extension of the French exhibition area.
After wandering for a short distance, a twin-engine propeller regional airliner made Le Maire's expression change slightly.
MA60 passenger aircraft.
Has proven to be a strong competitor for the ATR42/72 aircraft.
And since China has signed mutual recognition of airworthiness for regional aircraft with the EU and the United States, there is no way to set up obstacles in terms of procedures.
“The market for propeller regional aircraft is not big, and ATR is not coming this time, so it’s okay, okay…”
Flamel consoled himself in this way.
He did not take a closer look at the 100-seat regional passenger plane called C808 next to it.
Everyone in the know basically knows that this is actually a Tupolev aircraft with a different paint job.
What’s more, there is no manufacturer of large regional aircraft of this level in Europe (even the UK).
This should be a problem for Brazilians or Canadians to worry about.
Moving on, Flamel's mood improved again.
"FBC1, a fighter-bomber similar to Tornado, has too single function and poses no threat in the field of arms sales..."
"F7MG...is the Chinese F7, which is also the Soviet-made MiG-21 The improved version...is too backward and poses no threat..."
"The F7F...is another...improved version of the MiG-21?"
He looked up at the lower jaw in front of him. The fighter in the air intake feels that the world is a little crazy.
Of course, it does not pose a threat to Mirage 2000.
Not to mention Gust.
"FTC2000..."
Le Maire frowned and looked over and over at the display board in front of him and the aircraft behind the display board.
I recalled the MiG-21 in my impression.
At this time, he really wanted to capture a Chinese colleague and wait for him to question him -
"Can you call this an improved version of the MiG-21?"
(End of this chapter)< br>