Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

Ren Zhong did not expect that the demand for helicopters would be so strong, and there were so many potential users in China alone.

After returning to the research center and spending half an hour to understand the situation, we decisively upgraded the original plan of one Z-5 production line to three Z-3 production lines! We built one each in Fengjing, Jincheng and Yuzhang, plus a pilot production line in the research center in Yanjing, which means that there are four production lines in pulsating production. This will more than double the original production capacity. The annual output in the initial stage of pilot production will soar to more than 5 aircraft. After entering the mature production period, the annual output will double again to more than 4 aircraft!
After all, all the machine tools and equipment used in the production line can be produced by Dongda itself, so it’s a bit of a waste, but Ren Zhong is now optimistic about the helicopter industry. The domestic market is so good, so the international market may be even better.

Ren Zhong, who had been unable to find an opportunity to expand into the international high-end industrial products market, suddenly had a bold idea.

Otherwise, for the high-end segment, we can start with the Z-5 helicopter. The style of selling this thing is much higher than that of selling cars. If this succeeds, it will be of great benefit to the overseas sales of Dongda's large-scale industrial electromechanical products.

Although people’s perception of Todai has greatly improved due to its weapons and nuclear submarines, in the civilian products industry, clothing and food are still the most common products!
Maybe there are some things in special areas, such as roll-on/roll-off transport ships, but these are industry-specific products and are still a bit far from truly civilian-grade industrial products.

In terms of properties, this helicopter is right in between industrial products and civilian-grade products. For ordinary people in the West, it is a truly high-end product.

Just do it if you think of it.

. . .

Helicopter Research Center.

"Professor Zhu, there is an important change in the matter of the Z-5 helicopter," said Professor Zhu Jiaren, director of the Ren Zhongtong Helicopter Research Center.

"We are now going to produce a civilian version and carry out a large-scale civilian transformation of the current Z-5. First, in terms of avionics system, we will produce a simplified version completely for the civilian market. Second, in terms of cabin layout, we will carry out customized development according to different usage scenarios. For example, for medical emergency, we will customize a medical layout that can accommodate two stretcher positions and six staff positions.

富豪版改造为4+2+1布局，2个老板位，4个保镖位置和一个尊贵的主人位。

For the pure passenger transport version, we offer a compact layout with 13 seats and a comfortable layout with 11 seats.”

When Professor Zhu Jiaren heard this, he felt a little dizzy. He really couldn't keep up with Mr. Ren's wild and imaginative ideas.

"Mr. Ren, let me write it down first. In principle, there is no difficulty in making these changes. However, we have not yet met our military needs. We have not yet met the needs for military avionics and weapon subsystems. Should the civilian needs you mentioned be put on hold?" Professor Zhu Jiaren suggested cautiously.

"No, these are the most important things for us right now. You should continue to expand the team and do both things at the same time. No, it's not enough to do both. You should give priority to the civilian sector because we will show our products to our customers in April. In April, June and September, I will make the Z-4 helicopter debut at several important occasions to open up the civilian market for our direct civilian customers."

Ren Zhong shook his head.

There are several important conferences this year, the most important of which is the Bandung Conference. In this Asia-Africa hand-in-hand conference, Ren Zhong originally had no ideas. However, since he opened his mind, he suddenly realized that he might be able to take this opportunity to make a large-scale layout.

After all, the University of Tokyo is now the undisputed leader of the Third World. It is reasonable for the leader to not only take his own Y-6 large passenger plane to travel there, but also take a helicopter produced by himself to travel around the city, right?

If we accidentally show off our skills in front of everyone, it will be very helpful for uniting our brothers in Asia, Africa and Latin America. If these brothers are sensible and buy one or two each, and these twenty or thirty countries sell twenty or thirty aircraft, won't the company take off directly?
Ren Zhong checked the prices of helicopters of this period. A helicopter like the Z-5, which starts at US$90, is a fair price. This is the price that Rogue Eagle sells to its own family. If such an advanced main helicopter is sold outside, at least a higher price will be required!
So it’s not too much to round off Ren Zhong to one million US dollars, right?

If we had twenty of these, the research and development costs would be recovered directly!

You should know that although the materials of this thing are expensive, at this stage, the materials and processing of Dongda’s domestic supply chain are all covered. At the current cost of Dongda, it is impossible to exceed 50 Dongda local currency. According to the current 1:3 exchange rate, selling one is equivalent to making a profit of more than 250 million yuan!

This gross profit margin can make many capitalists cry.

Of course, the biggest reason is that the R&D costs are too low. Now this model is basically obtained by getting the tape measure data from the main world for free. The biggest investment in the Bright Sword world is actually in the capture of raw materials and the trial adjustment of the processing production line!
Another important reason is that the Z-5 is a complete set of independent intellectual property rights of Dongda University in the world of Sword! The UH-1 project, which is still in the process of project establishment, will probably be shocked to death when it sees the news and compares it with its own sketches!

In terms of transport aircraft (passenger aircraft), although Dongda now has two locally independently produced models, the Yun-6 and Yun-8, these two models are from the Rogue Eagle and are just original copies, so Ren Zhong is embarrassed to ship them out!
But the Z-5 is different. Everything, even a screw, was made by Dongda in the world of Bright Sword, so Ren Zhong can promote it all over the world!

Even though there is no airworthiness certificate for America and Europe yet, these things can be certified and operated later. For third world countries, it is even simpler. They don't care about these certifications. As long as they can be used well, it's fine. To use them in their country, it is of course good to have these certifications, so don't worry. It doesn't matter if they don't have them.

"April?!" Professor Zhu Jiaren was stunned. How could it be possible in such a tight time? "No, Mr. Ren, the time is too tight. Although the technical difficulty of these requirements is not high, it will take a lot of time. We can't produce the actual products in such a tight time."

"Professor Zhu, you misunderstood. I don't need to use real objects for all the things I'm talking about. For example, you can use pictures or simulation models made of wood or plastic to show the cabin layout. The most important thing is that we need a helicopter that can fly outside to perform flight shows and demonstrate the real flight performance of our helicopter."

Ren Zhong shook his head and explained to Professor Zhu, "We have four prototypes. We will take one and modify and optimize it for civilian use to ensure it is more comfortable to ride. We will work harder on the paint job and cabin comfort modification to make it close to the first-class cabin level of airlines. We will let people go to the airlines to experience it, and then we will make the sofas in the cabin more comfortable and better looking."

Ren Zhong gave direct advice, "For this demonstration aircraft, we will follow the 4+2 layout, focusing on comfort and high-end. Of course, the helicopter must be extremely safe and reliable. In the next three public performances, there must not be any malfunctions. Before each performance flight, the team must conduct the most rigorous inspection to ensure that everything is correct."

This is the first step towards high-end products. Ren Zhong does not want to dig a huge pit with Dongda before taking off. After some communication, Professor Zhu Jiaren finally fully understood Ren Zhong's needs. To put it simply, on the basis of being able to fly now, on the one hand, he continuously tests and verifies safety and reliability, and on the other hand, he makes the aircraft as luxurious and comfortable as possible, of course not the kind of vulgar gold and silver plating.

According to Ren Zhong's suggestion, a refreshing blue and white coating was chosen for painting. In addition, the portholes and cockpit windshields were extensively renovated, becoming much wider than before to ensure an excellent panoramic view for the passengers on board. Now Dongda's polymethyl methacrylate production technology is very mature. For military use, this is a weak point on the helicopter that is vulnerable to attack.

The cabin adopts a beige color scheme, with comfortable beige sofas, which is soft, low-key and luxurious.

But for civilian models, these are plus points.

In order to reduce noise, efforts have been made in sealing and air conditioning to ensure that the noise in the cabin is lower than 80 decibels, ensuring that communication in the cabin does not require shouting. For military models, these are trivial details that will not be considered at all.

But civilian users are either rich or noble, and they don’t buy this thing to suffer.

After Ren Zhong's operation, the originally simple and tough Z-5 boy was turned into a private customized luxury product like a nouveau riche!
However, it is hard to say what the final product will look like without seeing the finished product. But in terms of the construction period, Professor Zhu Jiaren vowed that he would not miss the first appearance of the Bandung Conference.

Once you've finished your work, most people won't be able to coordinate with others.

Ren Zhong must take action personally.

In view of this, Ren Zhong went to see Staff Officer Ye alone.

"Old commander, I have something to trouble you with." Ren Zhong said straight to the point, "This is what we have done. Our latest helicopter has been tested, and the response has been surprisingly good. Many non-military departments have expressed demand for it. I thought that since there is such a great demand in the civilian field, we might as well expand the production capacity and vigorously develop the civilian version of this helicopter. We can customize it for medical treatment, rescue, short-distance passenger transport, and for the wealthy. We can take this opportunity to launch our high-end industrial products of Dongda in the form of helicopters, and establish the image of Dongda as a manufacturer of high-end industrial products."

"We estimate that the global market, especially the market for helicopters for wealthy people in the West, has a large potential, so we plan to promote our helicopter at the Bandung Convention, the Romantic City Aviation Exhibition and the Fog City Aviation Exhibition. We will try to sell our helicopter.

Especially for the Bandung Conference, I hope that the head of state can sit down in person and show his face to the leaders of other countries.”

Ren Zhong finished speaking in one breath and looked at Staff Officer Ye. He estimated that participating in the aviation exhibition would not be a big problem, but getting the leader to sit for it was a bit difficult.

"Brother Ren, your request is quite sudden. I remember that a few days ago you said that the production capacity was insufficient and that Old Chen had to wait in line. How come you changed your way and wanted to sell overseas in just a few days?" Staff Officer Ye said with a smile, "But this is a great thing. I absolutely support it. We will send someone to coordinate with your comrades on camera to handle all the formalities. Brother Ren had promised me that the car would go overseas, but now there is no sign of the car. It is not bad if the plane can go out first. We must publicize it on the front page."

"As for letting my old comrade demonstrate, can you guarantee its safety and reliability?"

Staff Officer Ye finally said seriously that this was no trivial matter.

"From now on, this helicopter will undergo a three-month rigorous flight test. At the same time, we will mobilize the strongest operation and maintenance team to conduct on-site close inspection and support. If everything can be ensured to be correct during the three-month test period, then there will be no risk of safety." Ren Zhong replied.

Of course he knew that this was of utmost priority, so in Professor Zhu Jiaren's work arrangement, safety testing was also the most important task. This task did not conflict with other tasks, so it was relatively easy to implement.

In addition, in terms of spare parts, according to the full set of process and size requirements, for wearing parts, at least two sets should be prepared to ensure safety.

After the successful test flight, the current Z-5 production line has begun to switch to trial production mode for the production of parts, that is, small-batch production. On the one hand, it is necessary to debug the efficiency and quality of the production line, and on the other hand, it is necessary to increase and optimize equipment in various weak links to ensure that the future commercial production line has stable and efficient production capacity and reliable quality.

These are still the hardware aspects. In terms of software, the deployment of engineers in key positions of each production line, the training of inspection personnel and the research of test verification processes must be carried out simultaneously on this production line. One position may need to be equipped with four or five supporting and backup personnel. Once this pilot production line matures, it will be ensured that each new production line has skilled engineers in key positions.

This is the model that Ren Zhong explored after leading research and development for many years.

For new product production lines, key personnel should be trained in the early stages of design and trial production, so that mature production capacity can be quickly formed after the production line is delivered.

"As long as safety is guaranteed, that's enough. I'm very confident in what you're doing. Okay, I'll personally coordinate this matter with my old comrades. You must get this advertisement out!" Staff Officer Ye said with a smile. Having worked in economics and technology for a long time, he understood a lot after Ren Zhong explained it.

"Thank you, old leader. We will definitely try our best to make a name for this high-end product, helicopter, and strive to gain both fame and fortune." Ren Zhong patted his chest and said. Now all he could do was to give the leaders absolute confidence.

However, judging from the performance of UH-1 in the main world, there is indeed not much to worry about. This is a hot-selling product with a production volume of more than 16000 units. Even if most of them are purchased by the Rogue Eagle military, don't even think about getting involved in this market. But relying on domestic market demand and the promotion of civilian products in the international market, Ren Zhong feels that there should be no problem in rounding off and selling 3000 units, right?

There are now 40 main divisions and 32 combined brigades, each equipped with 24 aircraft, which means more than 1700 aircraft. Each naval small flat-panel ship is equipped with 48 aircraft. In the future, there will be at least 4 small flat-panel ships. In addition, there will be needs for future aircraft carriers and destroyers with ship-borne helicopters, so there will be more than 400 aircraft. The rest will depend on the development of civilian and overseas markets.

(End of this chapter)