Chapter 943 You can’t just leave everything to the Chinese, right? (4K)
While Chang Haonan was digging holes for his competitors.
France, Paris.
His partners are also getting into trouble at this time.
In a conference room of the Dassault Group, several engineers are reporting on the development of various components of the Falcon Z business jet to Serge Dassault and Charles Edelsteiner as usual. Progress——
Although the project is considered a joint development between four companies, after all, Dassault is responsible for the overall planning and design of the aircraft, so in terms of specific work, they do occupy a position similar to a domestic "original engine factory".
The first person to speak was a technician responsible for liaison with Snecma Group:
“Currently, Snecma and China’s Aerospace Power Group have officially determined the development time. According to the table, the new engine series will be named SeA. According to different thrusts, it is currently preset as three basic models: SeA350, SeA500 and SeA650. In the future, the thrust can be further subdivided on this basis. ”
"Are the three models... developed in parallel?"
Ed Steiner asked with concern.
In his plan, Falcon Z should be a short, flat and fast project that will first fly within two years, so it should not be too big.
Fortunately, the other party shook his head:
“No, the priority is the SeA650 with the highest thrust, which is the model with a thrust of 6.5 tons, used to adapt to our Falcon Z project The largest Z9 plan.”
Ed Steiner finally felt relieved.
The Z9 solution is the largest model in the entire series of products, and it is also the model he plans to launch first.
The maximum take-off weight of the 40-ton class is even close to that of China’s C808 regional airliner.
As a business jet, it is an absolute giant.
Correspondingly, its range has reached more than 12,000 kilometers, meeting all requirements for transoceanic flights.
You can even take off from Paris and reach the West Coast of the United States directly without refueling.
Of course, in actual operation, few people actually need to carry out such an exaggerated flight.
But in order to compete with its dominant competitors, mainly Bombardier and Gulfstream, Dassault must create a benchmark product.
Just like the reason why Airbus must develop the A380.
I can not sell it, but I can’t live without it.
“But... use the core engine of the M88 to remove the afterburner and build a 6.5-ton civilian engine...”
Dassault, who was sitting at the head of the conference table, took the half-smoked cigar. Holding it in his hand, he then asked:
"Can this development progress really match ours?"
We can't blame Dassault for having such concerns.
As the saying goes, once bitten by a snake, you will be afraid of well ropes for ten years.
The lesson of the M88 engine that almost killed the Rafale is still vivid in my mind, and it is indeed difficult for people not to think in a bad direction.
The technician who just reported did not answer immediately, but pondered for a moment.
The main question about Dassault...
It’s hard to answer.
He is only responsible for liaison, and is not an engine designer. Naturally, he cannot guarantee other people's work.
But as a worker, you have to consider the boss’s concerns...
So, after pondering for a moment, he chose to explain from the side:
"I heard that in order to ensure the progress of research and development, the team leader of China vetoed Snecma's request to participate in the research and development of the hot end, and only allowed them to participate in the design of the fan and casing..."
< br>The meaning is obvious.
You can’t trust Snecma who tricked Gust, but you can’t trust the one who rescued Gust, right?
However, this person also has only a partial understanding of the situation.
Because the person who vetoed Snecma’s request was actually not Liu Yongquan.
But Chang Haonan——
Although he had not directly cooperated with the French in his previous life, he had read a lot of relevant information.
To sum up, the French are not good at hot end research and development.
The SAM146 engine jointly developed by France and Russia has a hot-end design defect that results in the actual overhaul interval being only half or even one-third of the expected indicator, and there are also hidden dangers in reliability.
Having experienced this kind of before and after, Chang Haonan was naturally worried about letting Snecma get involved too deeply.
Fortunately, some minor errors and omissions will not affect the persuasiveness of this explanation.
Dassault did not continue to ask, just nodded, and then picked up the cigar again.
Seeing that the topic about the engine came to an end, Ed Steiner took over the conversation again and gestured towards the other side of the conference table:
“Braudy, tell me about the avionics system. ”
The engineer known as Brody pushed up his glasses, then sat up straight and replied:
“Thales Group used to be one of the main hardware suppliers of passenger aircraft avionics and flight control systems, so there is no obstacle in this regard, and most of the hardware is even available on the shelves.”
< br> "So, all their energy is currently focused on the development of the underlying software program. Our company has a technical team of about 50 people who are cooperating with Thales. Although there is no actual progress yet, A test platform has been built using an old Falcon 900 flight simulator, and the first version is planned to be tested before March next year."
"..."
...< br>
“Hu——”
After listening to a full round of reports, Ed Steiner took a long breath and leaned back in his chair relaxedly:
“It seems that our partners, It should be able to keep up with our preset schedule and achieve the first flight of Falcon Z before 2004."
"Then, we will follow the original plan..."
That's it. When Ed Steiner was completely relieved and ready to roll up his sleeves and go for it, a slightly rich voice suddenly interrupted his conversation:
"Wait a minute..."< br>
Ed Steiner had to stop.
Looking towards the source of the sound, he noticed that the person who had just spoken was Didier Casore.
Head of Dassault Aerodynamics.
"Dr. Casore, you have a question?"
"Yes."
Casore nodded and opened the notebook in front of him helplessly:
"The wing...a new high-speed wing planned to be used on the Falcon Z..."
"Development process There are some...perhaps some serious problems."
In just one sentence, some sweat started to flow on Kasore's forehead.
Before he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the conference room became anxious.
Especially Ed Steiner, who looked confident just now.
He had been worried before whether several important subsystems of the aircraft would delay the development process of the entire aircraft.
So, after listening to the reports from other groups of liaison personnel just now, I felt relieved.
However, before he could be happy for too long, he discovered that...
He commanded as fiercely as a tiger, but in the end, he was the one who had the problem...
This is more embarrassing.
Everyone in the conference room lowered their heads or raised their heads, always looking away from Ed Steiner, whose face was turning red and white.
On the other hand, Dassault next to him behaved quite normally. After all, it wasn't him who was embarrassed.
As for the question itself...
Dassault didn't think that a project that had only officially started for more than two months could cause any huge chaos.
If it’s great, just reset it to zero and start over.
Therefore, he asked on behalf of Ed Steiner:
"Don't worry, tell me what the specific situation is and are there any possible solutions?"
Ka Solei was taking out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat. When he heard the boss's question, he quickly replied:
“A few days ago, as usual, we sent the engineering documents related to the new wing design to the responsible personnel of each partner for backup.”
“Originally, this was just a normal operation that was carried out every week. After about two days, someone suddenly responded to us with an urgent email, saying that there were errors in the modeling and design calculations we completed using the new method, and also provided detailed verification methods.”
"Then..."
"Then we tested it according to what he said, and found...there was indeed a problem..."
"There was a violent oscillation during the calculation process, although in the end There is no divergence, but the reliability and accuracy of the results may not be guaranteed.”
After listening to this description, Ed Steiner suddenly felt dizzy.
Aircraft design must be blown into a wind tunnel before it is actually implemented.
The basis of his plan to race against time is to use a highly complete initial design to compress the time for trial and error in the wind tunnel.
But if the calculation accuracy of the design process cannot be guaranteed...
Not to mention compression, it may directly lead to the design direction being deviated. In turn, it is better to just rely on experience and try slowly.
"Is there a solution?"
He asked quickly.
“The development cycle we submitted before was estimated based on the premise that the new algorithm is feasible... But now there is a problem with the entire numerical calculation tool, so relying on us alone... I am afraid it will be difficult to complete it in a short time Solve it within.”
Kasore felt like he was going numb.
Who would dare to think that COMSOL would directly sell software that lacks some functions without any reminder before calculation?
He forced himself to take a deep breath, barely managed to stabilize his mentality, and then continued:
“At present, the safest way is to switch back to the old airfoil of traditional design, but the cruising speed will be reduced to that of competitors. Similar to...at about 900km/h, the range will be reduced by about 3%."
"Of course we can also change the calculation tools and calculation methods and design a new wing from scratch, but the progress... ...It will have an impact of at least 4-6 months.”
Ed Steiner had no choice for a while.
The relatively radical new COMSOL software was used in the wing design, which was approved by his signature.
But now that there is a problem with the radicalization, at least the responsibility cannot be placed entirely on one's own subordinates.
He is not British.
“Can’t it be faster?”
Ed Steiner still held on to his last glimmer of hope.
High speed is an important publicity stunt in his plan, especially now that the Concorde is about to be retired. The speed of Concorde is close to the speed of sound, but its fuel economy and noise are not as good as other aircraft. Business jets with no differences will definitely catch the attention of target customers.
It would be a pity if it disappeared.
“It’s difficult.”
Casore shook his head:
“Actually, I have always wanted to complain about one thing, which is our own CATIA and Torch Group The adaptation between TORC Multiphysics and TORC Multiphysics is not good, so we have to spend a lot of time on model correction and reconstruction every time. This time we switched to COMSOL because they are directly compatible with our project files..."
"In short, if the task must be completed according to the original timetable, then I am afraid that the entire airfoil calculation work can only be handed over to Torch Group itself. Their numerical calculation business department should have engineers with the most experience in calculations at present, and then cooperate with Our new supercomputer hardware will increase efficiency a lot..."
After hearing this suggestion, Ed Steiner couldn't help but hesitate:
"But this is one of the most important tasks in aircraft design... If you find someone else to do it, relying on suppliers will definitely not work... "
"If we add a partner, we have to get the consent of three other companies. Moreover, Torch Group is just a software company, so it doesn't know anything about wing design..."
"Actually, ...Maybe it’s not that troublesome.”
Casore suddenly said:
"Although Torch Group is a software and computing services company on the surface, I checked its background before and found that it is actually our partner, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Aerospace Power Group..."
In 2001, the ownership structure of unlisted companies was not actually that easy to check.
Furthermore, Torch Group was transferred to the Aviation Power Group only later.
Therefore, Kasore obviously did a lot of homework to find this kind of news.
“Is there such a thing?”
Ed Steiner was also a little shocked.
However, Kasore’s next sentence was even more serious:
“And I also found out that the general manager of Torch Group is responsible for The person in charge of our Falcon Z project...they..."
"They are...the same person"
For a while, the entire conference room fell silent.
"That is to say..."
After a long time, Brody, who had just reported it, broke the silence:
"The email you used for backup was actually sent to In the hands of the developer of TORCMultiphysics?"
"That should be it..."
Casore nodded:
"In other words, fortunately, it was sent to him."
"If we had not discovered this calculation problem in advance, but had waited until we started blowing the wind tunnel to realize that something was wrong, it would not have been a delay for several people. The monthly progress is so simple..."
And Brody also followed up and said:
"If it were him, then maybe he could really complete the design plan within the original time. ”
Everyone’s eyes turned to Ed Steiner.
As the overall person in charge of the Falcon Z project, his opinion is crucial at this time.
And Ed Steiner is also having a war between heaven and man in his heart——
On the one hand, he feels that Falcon Z is still a French project after all, and cannot leave everything to China. People do it.
But on the other hand, if you want to maintain the original development progress, there seems to be no other choice.
If other subsystems have been developed by then, let’s stop and wait for Dassault’s overall design...
It seems even more shameful.
“No matter what.”
In the end, it was Dassault who helped Ed Steiner out:
“As Dr. Casore said just now, if We plan to improve the compatibility between CATIA and TORCH Multiphysics in the future, and we will cooperate with each other sooner or later."
"So this time... let's treat it as a closer relationship in advance!"
(End of this chapter)