Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1536 New Strategic Transport Aircraft (rd update, please subscribe)
No one will give up the fat meat in their mouths, and no one will give up the cow that can produce milk unless it is absolutely necessary. This is basic common sense.

For Britain, if economic conditions permit and if there is no internal or external pressure, they will never give up their colonies. After all, they are the family property of the great empire for hundreds of years.

But times have changed now.

After all, after the end of World War II, both the Soviet Union and the United States took the disintegration of the British and French colonial empires as their basic point. Perhaps the two superpowers had conflicts on some issues, but they were consistent in their position of disintegrating the British and French colonial empires.

It can be said that the weak post-war Britain was like a piece of fat meat, being coveted by others.

This was true for the Soviet Union and the United States as well.

Not to mention them, even their own people were watching from the side, waiting for the opportunity to eat a mouthful of grease.

For example, SEA has been working hard over the years to get a share of the empire's legacy.

No, as a loyal subject of the empire, SEA has always been committed to safeguarding the interests of the British Empire. This is not only the attitude of the official top brass, but also the same for enterprises.

"We need a transport aircraft with a range of no less than 7000 km!"

In the meeting room of Nanyang Aerospace Industries, Air Force representatives put forward their demands.

"Its load capacity should be over 70 tons, and it can carry heavy tanks..."

During the military representative's introduction, Zhang Tingpeng, an aviation engineer, just smoked silently. He knew why the military issued this development order when the New Year arrived.

Due to economic constraints, the military has always been relatively conservative in the development of weapons and equipment. For example, it only developed a single-engine F2 fighter jet. As for heavy fighter jets, it reduced costs by introducing modified F4s.

Even the 3x interceptor developed by Aviation Industry Corporation of China in cooperation with the United Kingdom is an "international fighter" and has basically nothing to do with the military. After all, the military did not pay for that aircraft.

As for transport aircraft, when aircraft such as the "Super Giant" were seriously outdated, the military did not consider developing new transport aircraft to replace them, but instead introduced the C130 transport aircraft from the United States.

It is not only because the C130 transport aircraft has superior performance, but also because it is assistance provided by the United States under the "Joint Defense Program". The more important reason is that the military hopes to reduce the procurement cost of armed equipment.

When it comes to reducing costs and increasing efficiency, the military has always taken practical actions. While the military requires the development of heavy weapons such as tanks and artillery, the army's light weapons such as the AR15 rifle and the M240 machine gun are all purchased patents or authorized for production, which greatly saves research and development costs.

As for transport aircraft, developing one requires several hundred million yuan in research and development funds. In this case, the military is more inclined to cooperate with foreign countries and also introduce them to reduce military costs.

However, the military was apparently disappointed in the development of transport aircraft. Last year, the US C141 conducted a test flight while the military was waiting, but it was in vain. The C141 was too slender and not suitable for transporting vehicles.

The military, which had originally planned to solve strategic transportation needs by introducing the C141, was extremely disappointed because it did not meet their needs.

So, in this case, they can only develop it themselves.

What Zhang Tingpeng is looking through now is the development indicators of the new tactical transport aircraft.

Looking at the report in his hand, he said:
"The new transport aircraft must have the same short-field takeoff and landing capabilities as the C-130; the aircraft's landing gear and high-lift device enable it to take off on a 2438-meter runway and land on a 915-meter runway when fully loaded; the full-load range is at least 4500 kilometers; the fuselage must be able to accommodate large items, including the VT2 main battle tank under development; the aircraft must be able to enter and exit the crowded apron at will, and be able to back up on a 2% slope when fully loaded and with two-fifths of fuel. ..."

Looking through the draft requirements for the CX strategic transport aircraft proposed by the military, he frowned and said:

“The requirements are very strict!”

A military representative said:

“Yes, these performance indicators have very high requirements for power and aerodynamic design, but as in the past, we only want the best!”

In this way, the military in the conference room was making demands, and the engineers were writing and drawing from time to time, as if they were clearing their thoughts.

"...Now, we have a strong demand for a new transport aircraft. Is it okay if we hope to see a prototype test flight within 24 months?"

24 months!

Is this a joke?
When there was an uproar in the conference room, Zhang Tingpeng, the chief engineer, was still smoking silently as before, and spoke after a while.

"Let's try our best."

Zhang Tingpeng, who was a member of the first task force, is an aviation engineer, but he still maintains a military style.

"Then I'll trouble you all."

By the time the meeting was over, he had basically come up with a plan in mind. In fact, he had already had a plan long before. Sometimes, people always need to make some preparations in advance.

Many years ago, facing the obsolescence of the super-giant transport aircraft, he had already begun to design a new jet transport aircraft.

The plan proposed by the military now only reactivated his previous idea.

As soon as the meeting ended, someone walked up to Zhang Tingpeng. As a student of Zhang Tingpeng, Zuo Mingjie revealed his true thoughts in front of his teacher and started complaining to him.

"Teacher, you see, the military has finally remembered us. In the past, you repeatedly asked them to develop a new type of transport aircraft, but they always refused with various excuses."

"Yes, I am worried now, but what about before? What did you do then?" Zhang Tingpeng said in a very calm tone while listening to the complaints of his colleagues and students:

"There is no way. Military transport aircraft are different from passenger aircraft. We don't have much demand for long-range military transport aircraft like this, and the market is not broad.

I have calculated before that even if we can win some orders through export, its total production will not exceed 200 aircraft, and the average research and development cost for each aircraft alone is more than 200 million..."

Zhang Tingpeng, smoking a cigarette, looked at everyone and said:

"When you add in manufacturing costs and corporate profits, our products simply have no competitiveness in the international market.

If we can’t export, the cost will only be higher.”

After saying this, Zhang Tingpeng said:

"This is also the reason why the military imports a large number of weapons from abroad, because it is really expensive to develop them on their own."

"Teacher, I know what you are talking about. It is what the protective equipment company advocates, focusing on the big and letting go of the small."

The so-called "grasping the big and letting go of the small" means developing some core cutting-edge weapons and equipment by ourselves, and the subsystems of weapons and equipment can be introduced through international cooperation.

In fact, this is also the biggest advantage of being in the Western world, that is, we can directly import a large number of weapons and equipment subsystems from Western countries and integrate them into our own weapons, thereby reducing overall costs.

At this time, no country realized that such cross-border military equipment cooperation was actually the last straw that broke the camel's back in the arms race.

Because the Soviet Union wanted to develop everything for the army!
"So, when we develop transport aircraft, we must also implement this principle. How can we focus on the big and let go of the small?"

Zhang Tingpeng said while looking at his colleagues and students present.

"Just like when we were developing passenger aircraft, we can introduce relatively mature subsystems from the United States and Europe through international cooperation, and then integrate them into our transportation mechanism."

Of course, this approach can be ridiculed as a pure assembly product, but by introducing mature subsystems, the development cost can indeed be greatly reduced.

Moreover, after the establishment of NATO, the United States promoted unified weapon standards within NATO, ranging from the specifications of rifle ammunition to the standards of logistics processes and tactics.

This allowed the United States to gather NATO allies in a short period of time to act as the U.S. military's thugs, and also allowed this set of standards to spread among Western countries and be accepted by most Western countries.

Therefore, under NATO's weapons standards, many subsystems can be used interchangeably, which eliminates the need for repeated research and development.

This is precisely the biggest advantage of the military equipment system of Western countries led by the United States. However, not everyone can recognize this advantage, let alone now, even in the new century.

On the contrary, there will be many people who complacently mock these countries for having weapons that are simply assembled goods.

In this way, everyone discussed in the conference room for a long time, and soon they finalized some basic parameters.

After the meeting, he stood in front of the map and used a ruler to draw a circle on the map, seemingly with his homeland as the center. He soon found his destination and drew a circle in East Africa with a pen.

Zuo Mingjie looked at the teacher with some confusion and asked.

"Teacher, what are you calculating?"

"Speculating on the military's destination."

"what?"

"From the perspective of range, the military needs a transport aircraft that can fly directly to East Africa,"

Zhang Tingpeng put away the ruler and said:
“That is to say, the minimum standard for an aircraft is to be able to fly from the mainland to airports in the Nairobi area.”

As he spoke, Zhang Tingpeng nodded, and he basically understood the military's true thoughts.

"Teacher, you mean that when we design an airplane, the minimum standard is to follow this requirement."

Zuo Mingjie thought about it and finally understood the teacher's intention. The teacher circled the total itinerary on the map, and then found the corresponding destination to figure out the military's intentions.

From a geographical point of view, the military does not need transport planes to fly to North America on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, nor does it need to fly to South America. Firstly, this is unrealistic as the flight is too far. Secondly, there is no demand in this regard. Even if there is an occasional demand, aerial refueling by tanker aircraft can meet this need.

Since this direction is ruled out, the only option left is the western route, one is East Africa and the other is the Middle East, and SEA happens to have certain interests in these two regions.

“Yes, as engineers we have to understand the customer’s thinking.”

Looking at the map, Zhang Tingpeng continued.

“Only in this way can we build an aircraft that truly satisfies our customers.”

(End of this chapter)