Return to 2000: Captain of the Great Powers

Chapter 368 Kawasaki Heavy Industries!

"Boss, is there any new progress on the Trent 1000?" Carl Horstein cried out inwardly when he saw Clark Lorenz's serious expression.

The three major manufacturers of aero-engines have surpassed each other one by one.For example, the newly developed PW6000 engine recently developed by Pratt & Whitney is to seize the Trent 900 market.Because the Trent 900 has just entered commercial use before, it has an advantage over Pratt & Whitney’s PW4000 engine in the latest field, so Pratt & Whitney must create a new engine to resist the emergence of the Trent 900, which is the PW6000 .

When the PW6000 was released, Pratt & Whitney knew that Rolls-Royce had the Trent 1000 project, but it hadn't reached the flight test level yet. It only had one more ground test session than the PW8000 engine, and it was actually not much ahead.

Therefore, in terms of progress, there is not much difference between the two.In terms of the latest engine, PW6000 is slightly ahead of Trent 900, which has caused Pratt & Whitney to maintain continuous suppression of Rolls-Royce in the release of new products.

But as Xu Cang helped the Trent 1000 complete the flight test, everything changed.

Originally, according to Pratt & Whitney's prediction, at least three years later, the Trent 1000 will have a relatively high degree of confidence in completing the flight test.

According to the regulations, as long as you have completed the ground test, you can even apply for a flight test the next day, as long as you are brave enough.However, the completion of the ground test is only the minimum standard for flight tests. At least in Clark Lorenz's perception, no large engine manufacturer has dared to conduct flight tests immediately after the ground test is completed.

Therefore, Pratt & Whitney is optimistic about suppressing Rollo.

However, this conventional R&D process did not happen on the Trent 1000. After completing the ground test, the Trent 1000 was immediately put into flight test after a short adjustment, which was Xu Cang's time.As we all know, the test results are very good, and now the speed of the Trent 1000 is directly raised.

Ground testing can represent the operating conditions of some engines, but in any case, there is a difference in the operating environment when installed on a ground stand and installed in an aircraft wing pod.Regardless of whether it works well on the ground test, it might work in the sky.

Therefore, the flight test is to try out this difference bit by bit.

The ground test is actually the same as the training of recruits in the military camp. Some experience can be summed up, but it is hard to say whether it is useful or not. Fortunately, this kind of training will not be dangerous.

The flight test is to go directly to the battlefield. The experience of blood and fire from the battlefield can really save lives. The only disadvantage is that your life will be lost.

Although an accident on a test flight has less impact than an accident on a real flight, even a wealthy aero engine manufacturer cannot afford to crash the plane like this, and if the test pilot dies accidentally, the problem will be even bigger.

Therefore, the actual situation is that after the simplest initial training, recruits will not be sent to the battlefield immediately unless it is particularly urgent.

But Luo Luo is different. Once the recruits are trained, they are sent directly to the battlefield, and the most dangerous ones are sent, because Luo Luo has a full set of initial flight tests.As a result, after all the flight tests, there was no problem at all. It belongs to the fact that the recruits have full dodge points on the battlefield without even scratching their skin.

It is the most dangerous for recruits to go to the battlefield for the first time. The Trent 1000 made its debut in such a dramatic way.

Originally, Clark Lorenz thought he still had a lot of time on the PW8000, but now it seems that his ass is on fire.

"It is said that the first commercial prototype of the Trent 1000 is about to be produced."

"What, the prototypes are out?" Carl Horstein's face changed drastically.

The prototype is of course not the final model, but it shows that the major problems of this engine are gone, and the rest is minor adjustments.

"It's too fast, too fast, why is it so fast?" Karl Horstein's face was extremely heavy. Luo Luo's research and development speed far exceeded his expectations. If this news is true, then their situation is indeed quite embarrassing up.

"If we can go through the first flight test so smoothly, the speed is faster than them." Clark Lorenz's face was extremely solemn: "Although the power system of the 787 matches the PW4000-112, the British Airways incident It still has some influence, although for some reason, they will not change the power configuration blatantly, but maybe like the 777, they only use PW4000-112 in the initial version, so we can only drink some soup for the 787 project.”

Carl Horstein frowned unceasingly: "Is the 787 project so important? The 777 project had a lot of noise at the beginning, but after it was put into commercial operation, the sales volume was actually the same, tepid. Boss, maybe we don't need it." Follow the 787 project and forcibly disrupt the development process."

What Karl Horstein was worried about was that Clark Lorenz would go up and compete with Rollo forcibly, so that his investment would be greatly increased.Although the current financial situation of Pratt & Whitney is much better than that of Rolls-Royce, some things still need to be cautious. If the multi-billion dollar investment in aero-engines is in vain, even for Pratt & Whitney, it will be unbearable. of.

"You don't understand, the Boeing 777 project did have some misjudgments, but the Boeing 787 project must not be underestimated because of this." Clark Lorenz's face was very solemn: "With the scale of the 787 model, it is actually more straightforward than the Boeing 777." Airbus 330, as far as I know, among other things, in terms of fuel consumption, Boeing 787 is expected to be 330% lower than Airbus 20.00."

"20.00%!" Carl Horstein was stunned: "How could the efficiency be improved so much? It would be terrifying to exceed 5.00%. 20.00%, Boeing is talking nonsense."

"Can you talk nonsense about this kind of thing? If they talk nonsense, then they won't be able to do business in the future." To be honest, Clark Lorenz doesn't understand how Boeing can achieve such a terrifying fuel price ratio, but If Boeing dares to say that, it is basically believable.

Carl Horstein took a long time to digest such amazing news: "If there is such an exaggeration, then the Boeing 787 has a crushing advantage over the Airbus 330, and the two are not at the same level. "

"The analysis department predicts that the sales volume of the Boeing 787 will be at least 1000 or two hundred. This is a very scary number. We must share enough cakes in this large order."

In this way, Karl Horstein understood Clark Lorenz's worries.The Boeing 787 pie is too big, and everyone wants a piece of it, especially on the premise that Pratt & Whitney is already on board. They don't want to be squeezed into a corner of the ship, or even be driven off the ship.

"As long as we can complete a complete flight test in a short period of time, then with our strength, it is possible to catch up with the Trent 1000."

"But now we can't even pass the ground test, and we can't get a flight test permit at all." Carl Horstein said worriedly: "Moreover, there are many problems with the PW8000 engine now, and if the flight test is forced to be carried out, the risk factor is very high. "

"Isn't that the reason why we spend a lot of money on Xu Cang? If the problem is good and the safety factor is high, we still need him?" Clark Lorenz snorted, "I will follow up with the flight test permit. People from the FAA have talked about it, so the problem should not be too big."

Karl Horstein knew that Clark Lorenz was going to use some off-the-box tricks.However, although this method is not common, it is not a rare thing, and he is not surprised.

The ground test phase is originally a process of exploration. Even if something goes wrong in the flight test later, it cannot be held accountable to the FAA that issued the flight test permit. After all, before the engine is finalized, all problems are expected.

However, Carl Horstein was worried about another question: "What if Xu Cang sees it?"

What Xu Cang mentioned to Pratt & Whitney before is that the flight test can only be carried out after the engine has completed the ground test, which is a very normal requirement.Now, Clark Lorenz plans to use some special means to pass the ground test faster and transition to the flight test. Before that, Xu Cang will check the ground test documents. If they directly cut off the cooperation, Pratt & Whitney would not be able to say anything. This is a risk.

But Clark Lorenz obviously didn't care much: "It's okay, he is a pilot, how can he understand the records of the ground engine test, you just ask the technical department to polish it a little bit."

Anyway, Clark Lorenz's idea was very simple. He tricked Xu Cang into heaven and completed the first flight test under the escort of Xu Cang.Once this kind of test is done, isn't it more effective than ten or a hundred ground tests?

However, if Xu Cang is not saved and his life is threatened, then that is not what he needs to consider.

From Clark Lorenz's point of view, this is what Xu Cang does. In the future, he must pay extremely high rewards, and it is only natural that he should be rewarded as much as he takes risks.

Of course, it’s okay to do nothing like the previous Trent 1000 flight test, as long as the results are satisfactory.

"Should we change the test records?" Carl Horstein was a little worried: "Should this technical record also be changed?"

Clark Lorenz smacked his lips: "Why don't you understand? The ones sent to the FAA must not be changed, and the ones shown to Xu Cang will be changed separately later. There are more than 200 pages of ground engine test records, all of which are written Can he understand the data?"

Hearing what Clark Lorenz said, Karl Horstein was visibly relieved.If the technical records sent to the FAA are falsified, it will be a big problem.Change it for Xu Cang, it is a commercial problem, and it is not so serious.

"I understand."

"By the way, what did Bombardier say?" Clark Lorenz changed his subject: "I heard that Boeing sued them to the Trade Commission?"

When it comes to other people's affairs, Carl Horstein obviously just watched the fun and didn't think it was a big deal: "I heard that it may be judged as dumping. Bombardier has lowered the price of the CS300 too low, and it has already touched some of the dumping. condition."

"Oh?" Clark Lorenz pursed his lips, "Then Bombardier might be in serious trouble."

With the strength of Boeing, if there is no problem, it can create problems out of nothing for you. Now you may really have a problem yourself, so Boeing should not use this to make a fuss?
In fact, it is also understandable from Bombardier's standpoint.After finally being able to enter the U.S. civil aviation market in one fell swoop, it is probably to make a good start. It is too compromised with Delta’s price requirements, but it has left a big handle.

As long as it is classified as dumping, Bombardier will basically bid farewell to the US market.

The U.S. market is dying, and the European market is home to its direct competitor, Airbus. It is estimated that it is not easy to develop.

Originally thought it was resurrection from the dead, but I didn't expect it to be a return to light.

"Boeing's report is dumping tsk tsk tsk, which is a bit clever." Clark Lorenz sighed.

Unlike other commodities, aircraft are rarely involved in dumping.Generally, it is the kind of low-end products that are involved in dumping, so basically no one will move CS300 closer to dumping.But Boeing really had a flash of inspiration and grasped this rather obscure handle.

"I heard that Boeing didn't come up with it himself."

Clark Lorenz was a little surprised: "Who is it?"

"It's Xu Cang!"

On the top roof of Bombardier C-Series Corporation in Canada, the president, Ryan Varit, listened to the secretary's report with a livid face, before saying a word after a long time: "Xu Cang? He's a flyer, and he understands business matters? "

The secretary lowered his head, not daring to look directly at Ryan Varit: "It is said that Xu Cang informed Lance Tamil through the president of Boeing Asia Pacific."

Ren Valit drank the coffee in his cup, as if he wanted to extinguish the growing anger in his body, and placed the paper cup on the edge of the roof. He leaned on the railing with both hands, and sighed: "I shouldn't have promised at the beginning. Delta puts the price down that low."

Even in such a huge civil aviation market as the United States, Delta is a giant company with high bargaining power.Buying an airplane from Boeing has always been the most favorable standard.Now patronizing your CS300 aircraft, that is respecting you, asking Bombardier with the same preferential standards, isn't that normal?
In this transaction, Bombardier was the weaker party, and under pressure, it had to accept Delta's price request.

However, at that time, there were voices within the company that such a low price might trigger an anti-dumping investigation. However, in order to open up the US market, Ryan Varit still took a chance.Moreover, there is another important reason, that is, the field of aircraft sales is hardly targeted by the anti-dumping department, and colleagues rarely pay attention to this aspect.

Since the popularity of jumbo jets, there have been almost no anti-dumping investigations on such commodities, which gave Ryan Varit a mentality of taking advantage of loopholes.

As a result, taking advantage of this loophole, he fell directly into Boeing's trap, and now he is unable to move, and the end is extremely uncomfortable.

"We didn't have a choice then, though, did we?" whispered the secretary.

In Europe, Airbus can only dream of Bombardier's death. It is relatively difficult to enter Europe.Relatively speaking, Boeing's previous response to Bombardier's CS300 was acceptable. Even when Airbus and Pratt & Whitney sanctioned Bombardier before, Boeing stayed out of the matter.

Under such circumstances, taking advantage of Boeing's unpreparedness and placing a big deal with Delta under his nose, it will bring back a huge wave of blood.The reason is that Ren Valit finally agreed to Delta without dragging.He was worried that the delay would be too long, so he was cut off by Boeing.

It is an established fact first, and it doesn't matter if Boeing knows it later.

Unexpectedly, after the contract was signed, Boeing could still use the trick of anti-dumping investigation, which really hit Bombardier's Achilles heel.

"Forget it." Ren Valit scratched his head: "What did the Trade Commission say?"

"According to the current situation, anti-dumping investigations are inevitable."

Ren Valit let out a long breath, his shoulders drooped a little: "Is there anything else?"

"Except for the orders of Korean Air, all the orders from East Asia have been cancelled. In addition, some orders from East Asia's Challenger and Global Business Jets have also been cancelled."

"The order for the business jet was refunded?"

Although Bombardier is under pressure in the mainline airliner market, it is still quite strong in the regional airliner market, such as business jets, and is a peerless twin with Embraer.However, there are so many cancellations of business jets in East Asia, which really surprised Ren Valit.

You must know that the income of Bombardier's aircraft department is relatively scarce now, and business jets are the most important of them.If there is a problem with the business jet, the situation will be troublesome.

"Yes, it's mainly the Chinese market, almost all of them have unsubscribed." The secretary whispered: "Also, I heard that Embraer will launch their latest Legacy 600 at the Pan Paulo International Air Show at the end of this year. It is a super medium-sized business jet, and it is reported that the catalog price of this business jet is more than 700 million US dollars.”

"700 million dollars?" Ren Valit's eyelids twitched wildly: "The price is so low?"

Depending on the size of the aircraft, business jets can be classified as ultralight, light, medium light, midsize, super midsize, large and extra large.

Among them, the super medium-sized one can already carry more than ten passengers, which can be applied to the demand environment of most business jets.

Legacy is a series. Previously, the Legacy 450 was a medium-to-light model, and the Legacy 500 was a medium-sized model. Now the Legacy 600 is a super-medium model, which basically covers all stages of business jets.

For a Legacy 600 business jet that is close to a large business jet, $700 million is definitely a pretty cheap price.

The Bombardier product that is close to the Legacy 600 is the Challenger 600 business jet, but the catalog price of their CL-600 business jet is nearly 600% higher than the price of the Legacy 40.00, which is an extremely exaggerated price gap. It has been able to influence the customer's choice of aircraft.

"How can they keep the price down so low?"

Everyone in Ryan Varit is stupid. It is quite normal for the price of similar products to fluctuate by [-]%.Embraer's business jets are not a newcomer, and they have a good reputation in the world. There shouldn't be such a crazy price-cutting behavior.

Moreover, if you sell the plane like this, will you really not lose money?

"It seems that AVIC will provide fuselage components for the Legacy 600." The secretary said softly: "The price of AVIC's aviation materials is very low, which will save Embraer a lot of costs. In addition, when the new aircraft is released, there are some It is also normal to have a strong price reduction promotion. The low price of 700 million is due to the influence of two factors."

"Aviation Industry, AVIC, damn it, they went to find Embraer." Ren Valit cursed, but after a while, he still mentioned: "Have you sent someone to talk to AVIC?" negotiate?"

Although I hated to death in my heart, I still have to obey the softness that should be obeyed.

I used to think that AVIC was a dog licking, coming and going when called.Now that AVIC has quit after fulfilling the last contract, it is only then that they feel the seriousness of the problem.

"After AVIC informed us that we would not renew the contract, we were pushing for a contract renewal, but AVIC seemed to have no willingness to communicate with us at all. Recently, they didn't even meet each other."

The muscles on Ren Valit's face were a little stiff, and he didn't know how to answer this sentence for a while.

"After we delivered Scandinavian Airlines' order, the fuselage parts in stock will be consumed, and we need to find a new fuselage parts manufacturer."

"A new fuselage component manufacturer?" Ren Valit thought for a while: "Which are the more reliable fuselage manufacturers now?"

The secretary was already prepared: "The German branch of Airbus is in charge of manufacturing. We don't even need to think about it. Boeing's fuselage parts are made by Kawasaki Heavy Industries. It seems that we can fight for it, but the price must be higher than that of AVIC. Industrial is higher."

Ren Varit was somewhat prepared for this: "There is no way. If AVIC's communication fails, then we can only find an alternative. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, I will go to Japan in person, and I must We must win over this component supplier, otherwise subsequent orders will not be completed.”

"Kawasaki Heavy Industries." Ren Varit's expression was very solemn. He had never dealt with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and he didn't know if it was good to talk there.

If Kawasaki Heavy Industries makes things difficult for it, Bombardier's aircraft department is really quite dangerous.

Bombardier has three major departments, namely aircraft, railway trains and urban mass transit.

When developing business jets before, the aircraft department was relatively profitable, but as the future was bet on the C-series aircraft, the situation in the aircraft department took a turn for the worse. This department has begun to dislike the aircraft department.

Moreover, Bombardier's labor unions have recently begun to move around.In recent days, due to lack of funds, the department has been laying off staff, and there are many problems with severance pay.If the financial situation does not improve in the future, employee problems will accumulate more and more. If there is a sudden outbreak, it will be a big problem.

Fortunately, after the amazing performance in Europe, orders for Bombardier CS300 aircraft still increased a lot. Even if they lost the US market, if they can do the rest of the order, they can barely make ends meet.

Then the next point is the attitude of Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

If Kawasaki Heavy Industries is willing to help, there is room for everything to turn around. If not, Ren Valit will not dare to think about it.

At the same time, on the other side of the ocean, at No. 3-1-1, Higashikawasaki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe City, Japan, in front of the main department of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Li Rongcheng, the former president of Boeing Asia Pacific, stared at the number plate at the door with great interest—Kawasaki Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. company.

He recalled what Xu Cang had told him, and couldn't help but sigh: "Why do you make me such a villain?"

(End of this chapter)