Chapter 1017: Shocking Leader for a Whole Year
As the first model of the SeA series engine and the core power of the entire Falcon Z project, the delivery ceremony of the SeA650 can be described as full.
In addition to the four major project participants, as well as Paris Aviation Services and China Silver Deer Airlines, which are currently confirmed as the first users of Falcon Z, even French officials sent representatives to attend.
Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
The conservative senator from Vienne was appointed as the new head of government by Jacques Chirac last month.
The obvious reason why such a big boss came in person is that his constituency contains many aviation manufacturing suppliers, involving a total of about 20,000 voters, so he has always been a die-hard supporter of the French aviation industry.
And he owns a Falcon 900 private jet.
But in fact, at least another equally important reason is that Raffarin has always been known as the so-called "pro-China" in the political arena.
Of course this does not mean that he really likes China.
It is because behind the People’s Movement Alliance to which he belongs, there are a large number of financial backers who have reaped the dividends of cooperation with China in the past few years.
Some simply started out because of this.
Alliances formed out of common interests are often stronger than those formed out of emotions.
So, the first thing Raffarin did when he arrived at the scene was to take Liu Yongquan and several other company representatives and take a photo with the SeA650 as the background.
The skills of French reporters are indeed commendable.
The choice of angle is very good.
The receiver with diamond pattern shines in the sunlight.
On the engine bracket below, there are two national flags of China and France.
In front of the engine, a dozen people crossed their arms and held hands, looking happy and happy.
The publicity effect is full.
Although in the development of this model, Snecma and Dassault were "forced" to make a lot of concessions to China.
But as far as the entire Falcon Z project is concerned, the French still make a lot of money -
As estimated by Dassault Civilian Department in the past few years, China's business aviation industry has developed extremely rapidly after 2000.
The top group of wealthy people have begun to purchase their own private jets one after another, while those at a lower level have also driven the development of the business aviation industry through leasing.
This part of the business almost exclusively belonged to Bombardier and Gulfstream in the past, but with the emergence of the Falcon Z project with Chinese origins, North American companies' monopoly on fixed-wing business jets is gradually being broken.
In addition, the demand for special-purpose aircraft platforms such as aviation medical and telemetry surveillance...
In short, it is a market that, although not as good as civil aviation, is definitely more potential than pure arms sales.
Of course, it’s not easy for Raffarin to come here, and he definitely can’t just take a look at the engine and be done with it.
So after the entire ceremony, I also asked about the status of the Falcon Z itself.
"The original schedule is all on track. It is planned to make its first flight before the beginning of next year, mass production and delivery by the end of next year, and at the latest the first half of the next year."
Talking about the progress of Falcon Z , Ed Steiner also showed a look of relief.
Although many obstacles were encountered during the research and development process, and even many tasks that were originally scheduled to be completed by themselves were forced to be handed over to China, in any case, the leadership was still in the hands of Dassault.
On this basis, the entire project was neither over budget nor overdue.
It's even possible to arrive in advance.
In the context of declining engineering efficiency in recent years, it is simply the pride of France.
“Very good.”
Sure enough, after hearing this answer, Raffarin nodded with satisfaction:
"The current government official planes are a few Airbus A319CJs. They are too old and the range is too short. They can't even fly directly to Washington or the capital, and many times we don’t have that many entourages..."
Although the words may sound a bit off-topic at first glance, but combined with the context of the conversation, it is obviously a clear hint.
The business jet fleet may need to be updated.
Although the bulk of them definitely belongs to Airbus, there is a high probability that it is the Airbus A340 with a long enough range.
But as long as you can spend some money to lobby, it shouldn't be difficult to get some of the pie.
Ed Steiner quickly caught the baggage:
"The largest model in the Falcon Z series can accommodate 14 passengers and can fly up to 12,000 kilometers..."
< br>There are many ways to convey benefits in private, and it is impossible to discuss the black-box transaction part in such a public way.
So, Ed Steiner just quietly reported the range and passenger capacity of Falcon 8Z, indicating that he had the ability and willingness to be a new supplier——
< br>
Of course, what he is interested in is not the few single-digit orders, but the advertising effect in the business jet industry.
Rafarin is also a thousand-year-old fox, and immediately praised:
"Compared with those business jets in the past, the performance is indeed very good."
Then another conversation. Transfer:
“I wonder when you are going to release the specific performance data of this model?”
Today's delivery ceremony is actually a semi-public event. After all, many media and industry peers have been invited.
But as a product, it definitely needs a more suitable promotion platform.
"Soon, Your Excellency, it should be in a few days..."
Ed Steiner replied, showing a smile at the same time:
"In a few days? ”
In fact, Raffarin was thinking about the Farnborough Air Show to be held next month.
The answer turned out to be even earlier than that.
“Well, next week, the European Business Aviation Show will be held in Geneva, Switzerland.”
Ed Steiner explained:
“The Farnborough Air Show The content is too complicated. Regardless of the professional day or the public day, most people's attention will be on military aircraft and large passenger planes from Boeing and Airbus. Instead, this small but exquisite exhibition is filled with idlers and others. There are relatively few visitors, and the visitors are very purposeful, which is more suitable for the promotion of Falcon Z.”
"We have specially prepared a cross-sectional model of the Falcon 8Z and a full-size model of the SeA650 engine. Now it has been packed and ready to be sent to Geneva for the exhibition..." "..."
……
The air show is actually mainly for users.
After all, business jet customers are very busy and do not have much time to pay attention to scattered aviation industry news.
Even a business airline that specializes in business jets cannot look at so many suppliers around the world every day.
So a special occasion is needed to provide them with news.
But for those in the industry in the true sense, what was revealed in this delivery ceremony was enough to judge a lot of things...
The next day.
Birmingham, UK.
Rolls-Royce headquarters.
Luke Norris hurriedly found Professor Roger Elinor who had just assigned the next stage of tasks to the technical team.
As a professor at Cranfield University, the latter has not actually joined Rolls-Royce, but he comes to Birmingham in person every 3-4 weeks to confirm the development progress.
"Hello, Professor Elinor."
After stopping the other party, he first said hello pretending to be relaxed.
But Elinor didn't take this trick at all. He just waved his hand slightly impatiently:
"If you have anything to do, just tell me..."
He took over EJ200 a few years ago. At the time of the project, I thought it was just an ordinary little job filling holes for young engineers who were becoming increasingly unreliable.
Only when we actually started working did we realize that although there was only one pit on the surface, there were a bunch of invisible traps around it.
I couldn’t decide which foot was missing and I fell straight into it.
In four or five years, the EJ200 will be adjusted to a usable state, but there is indeed still a considerable gap between the paper performance that was promoted back then.
For this reason, Elinor even had to postpone his retirement plan.
Therefore, some irritability is inevitable.
"Professor, here is a promotional material given by Snecma. The content is quite detailed, so I would like to ask you to analyze it..."
While speaking, Norris raised his hand from under his arm. A piece of information was found in his briefcase... Strictly speaking, it was a book of information.
Seeing the sincere attitude of the other party, the latter really couldn't refuse, so he had to take it:
"Snecma...is it the M88 engine again?"
But as soon as he finished speaking, Before Norris could answer, he had already noticed the content on the cover.
SeA650 engine.
Strictly speaking, this is not exactly a promotional material.
It's also a bit like a technical manual.
Of course, it is impossible to involve any specific technical details -
The French themselves have not yet fully understood it.
But it is similar to users, mainly maintenance personnel.
Because this kind of thing needs to be distributed in large quantities, it is impossible to keep it secret.
Technical manuals for almost all civilian engines can be found on the second-hand market.
So, Snecma directly modified it based on it to see if it could be sold to other users besides Dassault.
It was natural that the British got it.
Eleanor flipped through it briefly and felt that the thickness was a bit shocking, so he frowned:
"I am just the technical consultant of EJ200, this is considered extra work..."
"We can add more money."
Six words directly answered all the professor's dissatisfaction.
In fact, the main reason why he has not given up his job despite high blood pressure is that Luo Luo does not care about how he behaves in other places, but the money is indeed adequate.
"Let's go and sit in the office for a while..."
Elinor walked to his office while flipping through the information in his hand:
"To be honest, although it is indeed much more detailed than ordinary promotional materials, I don't think this thing is too big..."
At this point, his voice stopped abruptly.
Even the steps stopped.
Norris, who was walking next to him, was unprepared and almost tripped to the ground when he made a sudden stop.
He turned to look at Elinor.
But he found that the latter was staring at a certain page in the booklet.
Even the blue irises vibrated slightly.
“Professor?”
Norris tried to shout.
After a while, he heard the response.
It's just a question:
"I remember you said before that the core engine of this model...is shared with the M88 engine?"
"That's right."
Norris nodded.
Elinor’s expression became serious:
"But the combustion chamber outlet temperature given here is nearly 100°C higher than the previous data of M88-2?"
(End of Chapter)