Chapter 394 One person drives an industry
“By the way, I remember that the Persians asked us to improve the F14 before.”
When it comes to the Persian Air Force, Chang Haonan also recalled the situation a few months ago, so he asked Zhong Shihong:
“So, are you already upgrading the TF30 engine?”
No matter how you say it, the F14 is an aircraft from nearly 25 years ago. Even if China is not as good as the United States in terms of comprehensive development of the aviation industry, there will be no problem in most places if it wants to renovate or improve such an old model.
The only trouble is motivation.
Although the TF30 engine performance is very good.
But again, it is a serious turbofan.
And the main flaws are the unreasonable design of the compressor and poor matching of the flying engine. The production and manufacturing process is still quite good.
So it can't be said that it is easy to upgrade TF30.
“It hasn't started yet. In fact, even the specific improvement plan for power has not been determined yet.”
Zhong Shihong shook his head:
"We just shipped a TF30 from Tehran some time ago that has reached the end of its life. We are inspecting the situation. In short, because there is no original technical data at all, it is really difficult to upgrade the technology. We are currently discussing with the other party whether it is simply a life extension maintenance. , it is better to wait until the domestically produced turbofan 9 is produced and then give them a new engine.”
The prototype of the turbofan 9, the SPEI MK202, has an afterburning thrust of 9.2 tons, which is slightly smaller than the 9.4 tons of the TF30-P-412. However, the former still has considerable potential for increasing thrust. The key point is that the performance under working conditions must be much more stable, at least There is no need for pilots to practice the art of shutting down and restarting a surge engine during maneuvers before takeoff.
In addition, the length and diameter of the turbofan 9 are smaller, which not only meets the fitness requirements, but can even be the same as the F4 after the engine change, saving space and increasing some fuel carrying capacity.
Or add an auxiliary power unit (APU) to the rear half of the fuselage to generate electricity—
Since the F14 was designed too early, the power consumption of the high-power radar was not fully estimated, resulting in a tight power supply situation.
In short, it is a huge advantage no matter how you think about it.
The only problem is that although the current progress of the domestically produced turbofan 9 cannot be said to be perfect, it is at least some distance away from the Persians' expectations...
“It all depends on whether the Persians can afford to wait. For us, we can't make much profit from overhauling or upgrading. The main benefit is to increase our popularity.”
Chang Haonan's personal interest in the F14 is just for curiosity. After all, he has never really been exposed to any type of variable-sweep wing aircraft. However, from a practical perspective, the overall performance of this model actually does not meet the requirements of the times.
The huge dead weight, low reliability and high maintenance time caused by the complex mechanical structure cannot be solved by simply changing the engine.
The F4 upgrade project, which is large in volume and has low technical difficulty, is actually the main source of profit.
Zhong Shihong nodded in agreement:
“This is true, so the main plan we are promoting here is to wait a little longer and then directly change the engine. This will increase the combat effectiveness even more, and it will also help our engine to get its name out there.”
If it had been left to the past, this kind of engine, which had not even been installed and tested, would not have been considered at all, even if it was just a prototype of a domestically produced model.
But times have changed.
The success of the Turbojet 14 and the subsequent series of results produced by the Seiko Project have made everyone more optimistic about the progress of the Turbofan 9.
“By the way, speaking of the Seiko Project, how has the progress been in the last two or three months?”
Although Chang Haonan is known as the general consultant of the Seiko Project, he has not been directly involved in specific projects for a while because he has been busy with Project 10 and software design and other issues recently.
“After all, it has only been half a year, and many projects have just started, but some specific technical results have been produced, especially in welding and casting processing.”
When it comes to the Seiko Project, Zhong Shihong's tone obviously became much more solemn.
The main reason why he was promoted from the director of the technical department to the deputy general manager was actually this precision engineering plan.
At this time, another person next to me took up the conversation:
"Mr. Chang, I think that compared to the specific new technologies, the more important value of the Seiko Project is to provide us with a relatively open communication platform. Before, the information was too closed, and everyone sometimes didn't know each other. Other people's research level has led to many repetitive projects.”
There are other people beside me who also think so:
"Yes, our factory turned a profit last month for the first time in the past five years, thanks to Mr. Chang's new technology and the platform provided by Seiko Project." Chang Haonan turned around and saw that he I remember that this person should be a production manager from Jianning 331 Factory, and his name should be Yu Fei.
The latter also immediately explained:
“We spent four months in the first half of the year updating technology and carried out a process upgrade on the turboshaft 8A engine, and finally achieved a relatively satisfactory technical index.”
“Is the turboshaft 8... used on the straight 9?”
Chang Haonan confirmed casually.
Compared with the turbofan engine that has attracted much attention, the two types of aviation engines with output shaft power, turboshaft and turboprop, have received relatively little attention. However, in fact, until more than 20 years later, they are still China Airlines. The biggest shortcoming in the power field.
“Yes, straight 9, and civilian model H410.”
Yu Fei nodded:
“The low cycle life of several key components of the original turboshaft 8A is only about 40% of that of the prototype Ahaye 1C. Once the weather reaches high temperatures above 30°C, the available power will drop off a cliff, which will not even guarantee the air quality of the helicopter. It was very difficult to take off and take off, let alone transport people and cargo, causing users to complain endlessly. "
"Before, Jiangcheng and Yangcheng, several cities with relatively good economic development levels, originally wanted to purchase a batch of police helicopters. After contacting Bingcheng, they brought a prototype aircraft for a test flight. The result was that the customers were frightened. Dare to use it..."
The people around him chuckled.
But I definitely don't mean to be mocking.
If I have to say it, it's self-deprecating.
In fact, similar embarrassing situations are not isolated cases. It can even be said that almost everyone engaged in aviation in this era has encountered similar scenes.
Let alone the civilian models, which have greater options for users to choose from, even the military models will be rejected.
“Fortunately, it was a coincidence this time. The first batch of our improved new engines just rolled off the production line and completed testing. We quickly shipped two units and replaced them, which was barely accepted by customers.”
“General aviation is indeed a big market. If this area can be well maintained, there will definitely be great potential in the future.”
Chang Haonan was quite pleased to hear this story.
After all, users are accustomed to this kind of thing, and it is actually difficult to change it in a short period of time.
Especially in general aviation, the user scale is often not very large and they are not very cost-sensitive.
So much so that in the previous life until the 2020s, there were almost no domestic models of police helicopters in major cities in China, and most of the market was occupied by companies such as AgustaWestland and Eurocopter.
And now it is undoubtedly a good start.
It's a pity that the size of the Z-9 is really not enough, and the Z-8 model has huge fundamental problems. Unless the entire aircraft can be redesigned like the Z-8L later, it may be difficult to save it.
In addition, Lanxiang Machinery Factory, which produces turboshaft 6, is considered to be first-rate weak even in the aviation power system. Even Chang Haonan almost forgot about it when he wrote the report before.
In short, it can only be said that there is a long road ahead.
At this moment, the sound of high-heeled shoes tapping on the ground came from far and near.
“Director Chang!”
Chang Haonan turned around and found that it was a venue staff member.
“Director Chang, our conference is about to start. Regarding the specific agenda, Mr. Liang still has some things to confirm with you. In the background...”
Looking at Chang Haonan's leaving figure, Liu Yongquan once again touched his bald head out of habit:
"Mr. Chang has driven our entire industry forward by himself..."
(End of this chapter)
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