Chapter 915 M88-3 Engine Upgrade Plan
Although it had just experienced a round of economic crisis, the 2001 Paris Air Show quickly showed its huge influence.
On the one hand, due to the superposition of various factors, the financial crisis originating from Asia in this timeline did not expand to the level that swept the world in the previous life. Three years or so is enough to partially recover. The stronger countries can take a breather.
And more importantly, due to the sudden occurrence of the Allied Forces operation and the dramatic results that followed, many medium-sized countries realized that-
Although the Cold War has It is over, but for small countries, the end of the Cold War is the beginning of danger.
Moreover, it is really useful in national defense construction.
In the Balkan Peninsula, anti-aircraft guns from the 1950s can shoot down a B2. If they had more advanced equipment, I don’t even dare to think about what they could shoot down.
Although the starting point and thinking path of this idea are actually biased, after all, the results of the B2 really have little to do with the anti-aircraft artillery.
But the final conclusion is correct anyway.
As for the arms race, once one country starts to engage in it, other countries that have no idea will also follow suit.
Therefore, even before the public opening day of the air show ended, the news of the first order had already spread.
Some media broke the news that a certain North African country purchased a large number of improved Su-27SM and Su-27UBM from Sukhoi and has signed a detailed supply contract.
Compared with the basic models exported to China, India, Indonesia and Annan in the past, these two new models have greatly improved in terms of avionics, bomb load and mobility.
Even the radar has been replaced with a flat-panel slot antenna that is more in line with the requirements of the times.
This news was quickly confirmed by Algeria and Sukhoi.
And the former also stated that this round of procurement not only involves the Air Force, but also includes 6 battalions of Buk anti-aircraft missiles and two F22A frigates from China.
It can be seen that this country, which has just recovered from civil strife a few years ago, has become a lot richer by relying on the nationalized oil and gas fields.
Seemingly using this as a switch, in less than half a month, more than ten countries have officially announced new equipment procurement decisions, or at least have clear timetables and options. range of plans.
Austria and Norway stated that they will purchase EF2000 as their new generation main fighter aircraft.
Morocco signed a contract with Lockheed Martin to purchase 25 F16C/D fighter jets from the latter to deal with air threats from neighboring countries.
The Greek Air Force did not specifically state its aviation equipment update plan, but decided to upgrade some of the 5V55R missiles mixed in the S300 air defense system to 48N6E.
In this way, the S300 only needs to be deployed on Crete, and the range can cover the entire southern Aegean Sea and the sky over Cyprus.
The Turkish Air Force, subject to the cooling of relations with the United States, is unable to further purchase more F16s and can only temporarily respond with strong protests.
Saudi Arabia has included F15, EF2000 and Rafale into the selection scope at the same time.
The Thai Air Force has publicly stated that it has inspected Sweden's JAS39C/D and China's J-10E, and believes that the latter is more in line with its tactical needs, but it has not yet decided whether to maintain the original 24 aircraft or reduce it to 12 shelf.
Brazil announced an arms renewal plan involving 36 aircraft and more than 1,500 pieces of various types of ammunition. It will also choose between JAS39C/D and J-10E.
South Korea has determined that its F-X plan to replace the F4 and F5 fighter jets will not conduct public bidding, but will directly finalize the model as F15K.
Even China, whose international image has gradually transformed from an equipment importing country to an equipment exporting country, also quietly signed the third batch of S300PMU2 procurement contracts for a total of 12 battalions...
In short, everyone who eats meat eats meat, and those who drink soup drink soup. No matter how bad they are, they can still rub the bottom of the bowl.
But there is only one exception.
That is France as the host of the air show.
After deliberately postponing the air show for two months and performing a fierce operation, let alone eat meat and drink soup to the bottom of the bowl.
I didn’t even smell the fragrance.
Of course, Airbus still made a lot of money as usual.
But this is obviously not the same thing.
Is the money the most important thing in arms procurement?
Of course not.
It’s about expanding your influence!
Why does Thailand actively consider the J-10E?
Performance is only secondary.
The core reason is that in 1998, China became the pinnacle of Asia's finance, while Japan, with its stronger economic strength, declined at the speed of light.
Although the core reason for the former was to protect Hong Kong Island, objectively it did prevent Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, which was the first to bear the brunt, from sliding into an even more uncontrollable abyss.
This kind of equipment procurement will obviously in turn enhance China's influence in countries of the same size.
For example, the choice of the Brazilians is obviously affected by this.
However, many countries that were originally equipped with Mirage series fighters, such as Morocco and Saudi Arabia, have decisively abandoned Dassault’s subsequent models in this round of equipment updates.
This is obviously not a good trend.
In short, watching others successfully close deals at their own air show, the French really experienced the feeling of being NTRed.
So, after the air show ended, they naturally started a round of review.
First of all, the EU’s development momentum in these years is absolutely incredible, and it even (thinks it) shows signs of overtaking the United States.
France has always regarded itself as the leader of the European Union, so its international influence must be stronger than in the past.
So the current situation is definitely not because France is failing.
Well, it must be a problem with the product.
Of course, Dassault itself recognizes this.
After all, at the air show, Rafale’s performance was indeed inferior compared to the EF2000 next door.
Therefore, except for the French Navy, which is eagerly waiting for the dumplings to be cooked, and has purchased a batch of 12 mass-produced Rafale M aircraft in F1 technical status, the rest of the orders will be delivered after they are upgraded to F2 technical status.
The most important one is naturally the power upgrade that Ed Steiner had already thought of on the day of the air show.
The sea level thrust of the M88-2 is only 7.6 tons. In order to reduce its own weight, the ejection nozzle further reduces the working condition adjustment range.
Compared to the EJ200, which has a thrust of 9 tons in the basic model, it really pales in comparison.
So much so that even in the low-altitude and low-speed maneuvers that he is best at, he was beaten. Therefore, Dassault, who learned from the painful experience, quickly put the pressure on Snecma.
For the latter, Party A's request is like a reminder.
In this case, the Chinese happened to have an almost ready M88-3 plan in hand.
You don’t even have to worry about which choice to make...
...
So, early September.
Just when Chang Haonan had arranged his work for the next month in advance and was waiting to see whether the big news would come as scheduled, he suddenly received a request from Liu Yongyuan to come to the capital to report to him.
"Mr. Chang, Snecma suddenly expressed yesterday that it hopes to speed up the work with us and put the next improved version of M88 into mass production as soon as possible."
Liu Yongquan said A memo of the meeting was placed on Chang Haonan's desk.
According to regulations, this kind of international cooperation needs to be submitted to the group headquarters for approval at startup and major nodes, but the intermediate process can be independently decided by each secondary unit.
However, Chang Haonan is the chief designer of Turbofan 10 after all, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is the founder of China’s aerospace industry in the new era.
Therefore, Liu Yongquan was accustomed to asking him for instructions and reports.
“In such a hurry?”
Chang Haonan took the folder with some confusion and opened it:
“Didn’t M88-2 just go into mass production, Snee? Are you not going to familiarize yourself with the production process?”
If we go by what China calls it, the current progress of M88-2 is similar to that of Turbofan 10. Both have completed the design and finalization but have not yet reached production. Finalize.
Logically speaking, we should not consider further upgrades so soon.
And one more thing.
Chang Haonan has basically arranged the technical solution for the M88-3. In addition to performance upgrades, the more important thing is to use this improved model to help China test some technologies, and to use the design of special-shaped air film holes. By the way Start a business exporting turbine blades.
But the problem is that the annual production capacity of nearly 200 engines at Liming Factory is "planned production capacity."
It hasn’t landed yet.
Currently, only the prototype machine in the Torch Laboratory is undergoing trial production.
When the ultra-short laser processing equipment is finalized, Liming Factory will set up the production line. Optimistic estimates will not be until the second half of next year to the beginning of the next year.
So the original timetable was for the M88-3 to be put into production after mid-2003.
Then Snecma will discover that new turbine blades are being built too slowly.
At this time, China comes again as the savior.
Perfect.
However, looking at the eagerness shown by the French now, it feels like the entire progress will be at least a year ahead of schedule...
Liu Yongquan did not think so much of Chang Haonan, but just answered whatever he wanted. :
"I guess it was after the Paris Air Show that I found out that there were no orders coming in, so I became anxious."
"No orders coming in?"
Chang Haonan briefly recalled the news he heard during this period, and found that he seemed to have never heard the part related to Dassault:
"It seems that there is really no..."
But then, Chang Haonan changed the topic:
“But to be honest, this actually has little to do with the performance of the aircraft... The main reason is that there is a problem with Dassault Rafale’s publicity strategy, and the other one is that it is not targeting the right market. You are like In a country like South Korea, it is obvious that only American aircraft are available. No matter how hard we try, we cannot win..."
"Well...but I heard from comrades who came back from the air show that Rafale and Typhoon are the same. The performance gap is quite obvious during the flight performance.”
Liu Yongquan said.
Although the Aviation Power Group did not send a delegation to participate in the exhibition, as an old man from the head office, Liu Yongquan has many acquaintances in the aviation industry group next door, and it is inevitable that he will interact with them at work.
"What kind of maneuverability can you see in the flight performance..."
Chang Haonan couldn't help but complain:
"They are all fancy moves at low altitude and low overload, and at most they are just... Look at the power level and agility, Typhoon..."
At this point, he suddenly paused.
Chang Haonan originally wanted to say that Typhoon's EJ200 actually has a design flaw. Although the paper data is superb, there is a missing support point in front of the engine fan, which may cause the casing to deform during large overload operations. If it is too large, it will damage the compressor blades, so the actual maneuverability cannot reach the design level at all.
However, even the British army may not be aware of this flaw at the moment. It was only later that the Typhoon repeatedly gave incredible and disastrous performances in many simulated air battles, which led to it being exposed.
He knew the flaws of M88 without having been exposed to M88 before. This performance was already outrageous.
However, I can barely explain it, saying that it is a reasonable deduction from the problems of the CFM56 core machine.
But the EJ200 is a newly designed thing from the inside out, and it's a bit scary to be able to point out detailed problems thousands of kilometers away.
So, Chang Haonan had to change his words:
“For a multi-national joint research and development project like Typhoon, there is a lot of room for wrangling in later upgrades and maintenance. You will regret it when you buy it back...”< br>
Liu Yongquan did not doubt that he was there, but replied:
“But after all, Typhoon has already received several orders, so it is inevitable for the French to be anxious...”
"Okay..."
Chang Haonan didn't say anything more:
"You should have received the technical plan I wrote to you before?"
Liu Yongquan Nods:
"I got it, use a three-position skip-shaped air film hole similar to the turbofan 10 to improve the atomization ability of the fuel nozzle in the combustion chamber, further increase the temperature in front of the turbine, and then compress the high-pressure air The outer edge of the machine blade is redesigned to control boundary layer separation..."
"Just follow that. The air film holes and fuel nozzles are ready-made. You just need to re-adapt the compressor."
Chang Haonan said, closing the document again and putting it back In the drawer next to it:
“However, we can’t help the French work overtime in vain. Remember to increase the strength of Dassault and ask them to quickly stabilize the photoelectric pod’s gyro-stabilized platform and the uncooled Bring out the technology of thermal imaging cameras..."
(End of this chapter)