The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Jiang Hui shouted the slogan of comprehensive development at the group's summary meeting and directly established three new companies.

Naturally, various fields did not rest and were all trying to find ways to quickly implement these things.

Nanshan Chemical and Zhujiang Online both have their own directions to work towards. Even if it is difficult at the beginning, they all know what to do.

Interstellar technology is relatively special.

Jiang Hui had previously mentioned to the person in charge, Andre, the two major development directions: reusable rockets and drones.

At the same time, research on small and cheap satellite technology is being carried out.

None of these projects are easy to accomplish.

In particular, reusable rockets were an absolutely groundbreaking proposal in 1993.

This also means that the difficulty is also epoch-making.

Similar ideas have been proposed by others in the aerospace field.

Whether it is the Polar Bear or the United States, both are thinking about reducing space costs through reusable launch methods.

America's space shuttle is the product of this idea.

Polar Bear has developed similar products before, but they were not ideal in the end.

"Boss Jiang, this time when I returned to China, I got in touch with quite a few people and came up with some new ideas about reusable rockets."

A senior technical expert at the Andrei Kuznetsov Design Bureau, he chose to join the BMW Group in 1990.

He is now officially the general manager of Interstellar Technology, and is considered the highest-ranking expert among polar bear experts.

To a certain extent, Jiang Hui's arrangement can be regarded as buying a horse's bones for a large sum of money.

Let the polar bear experts know that working for the BMW Group not only offers good treatment, but also has opportunities for career development that are worth looking forward to.

There is no need to fly to America to develop.

"Oh?"

"What special gains did you get this time?"

The polar bear’s foundation is too strong.

Even though China has lost too much blood in the past few years, there are still many things worth learning from.

This is especially true in the aerospace field.

"There are more than a hundred NK-33 engines in the warehouse of the Kuznetsov Design Bureau."

"This was prepared for the N1 rocket, each rocket was equipped with 30 NK-33 engines."

"So a lot of NK-33s were produced at one time."

"It was only because of the complex piping design and vibration problems that the N1 rocket failed in all four test launches, and the plan to use the N4 rocket to launch the moon landing activities was eventually cancelled."

"All the relevant NK-33 engines have been sealed in the warehouse for years."

After Andre said this, Jiang Hui immediately became interested.

In recent years, the group has brought back a number of experts in the aerospace field from Polar Bear, and Jiang Hui has made some special efforts to learn about this industry.

“If it has been in storage for more than 20 years, can the NK-33 engine still be used?”

Many people may be unfamiliar with this engine, but it is definitely a classic in the history of world aerospace.

Even though it was a product developed by Polar Bear in the 1960s, it is still very advanced today.

After entering the 21st century, it is still being used by America and the polar bears until the inventory is consumed.

Now that we have the opportunity to buy back all these stocks, we can definitely make good use of them.

"No problem. At that time, these products were used to serve the moon landing project."

"Even if it is sealed, very complete preservation measures have been taken, which will definitely not affect its use."

"The key is that so many years have passed and the management is now in disarray. We have every way to buy it back at a low price."

"Normally, the production cost of an NK-33 is several million dollars. Even if it is clearing out the inventory, the price will not be less than 100 million US dollars."

"If we buy it back as scrap through special means, the price of one engine is estimated to be only $100,000."

"Of course, we will have to prepare several million or even tens of millions of dollars to manage the relationships between the parties involved."

Andre knew very well what the current situation was inside the Polar Bear.

As long as there is enough profit, there is absolutely no problem in buying some engines that have been in stock for decades.

Anyway, just let them treat it as scrapped when the time comes.

However, it will definitely cost money to get all the relevant people to agree to this approach.

Otherwise, why would people take risks?

"No problem. If anyone from their design bureau is willing to come, we'll take them too."

Thanks to Andre, Jiang Hui has a relatively good understanding of the Kuznetsov Design Bureau.

They are world-famous for developing high-thrust turbofan, turboprop and turbojet engines.

The engines of the Tu-95 strategic bomber and the An-22 transport aircraft are all designed and produced by them.

The engines of the Tu-22M3 "Backfire" supersonic bomber and the Tu-160 "White Swan" supersonic strategic bomber were also designed and produced by them.

In addition to aviation engines, they have also made outstanding contributions in liquid rocket engines, especially the engine of the N1 lunar rocket.

What Andre is discussing with Jiang Hui right now is purchasing the NK-1 engine used in the N33 lunar rocket from the other side.

"The technology of the NK-33 engine is very advanced, and even after several decades, it is not outdated at all."

“But the N1 rocket failed due to parallel reliability issues with the NK-33 engine.”

"Our reusable rocket does not require as many engines as the N1 rocket, but according to the plan you mentioned before, we still need 9 engines."

“Engine reliability will still be an issue then.”

Andre stated the problems faced by NK-33 in a matter-of-fact manner.

Compared with the Merlin engine used by Falcon 9, the technology of NK-33 is undoubtedly more advanced.

It adopts an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle, in which the pre-combustion chamber burns oxygen-rich fuel gas to drive the turbine pump. It is extremely efficient, but the technology is complex.

The Merlin engine, on the other hand, uses a gas generator cycle, which is simple and reliable but less efficient because part of the fuel does not enter the main combustion chamber.

In the past, the Falcon 9 rocket was very popular, and many websites had related articles.

Jiang Hui also watched it specifically.

Thinking of this, he immediately gave Andre an instruction.

"All these NK-33s can be bought back, but we can make some simplified improvements."

"Their original structure was too complicated. Although their performance was good, stable performance was the most important thing for our reusable rockets."

"Simpler solutions also mean lower costs and will be sustainable in the future."

"You go back and organize the technical staff to convert the NK-33 to a gas generator cycle engine to reduce the stability risk."

With mature technical routes to refer to, Jiang Hui certainly doesn't want to take a detour.

If you want to develop reusable rockets in the 1990s, the best way is to learn from mature solutions.

This is true for the engine and the entire rocket design.

Of course, if the current technology for some lightweight materials is not mature, we can decide based on the situation.

But at least Jiang Hui felt that things like the stainless steel shell were not a problem at all.

"No problem. If we just simplify the structure and reduce the performance, our current team has the capability to do so."

Andre was worried that Jiang Hui would ask him to solve the stability problem based on NK-33, which would be a headache.

What the Polar Bear has not been able to accomplish for so many years, Interstellar Technology certainly cannot accomplish with its current capabilities.

But if we simplify it and remove the unstable factors, it won't be difficult.

Addition is difficult, but subtraction is not a problem.

"You need to act quickly on this matter and get all the engines back."

"Who knows, someone in America might also want to take advantage of it."

Historically, the NK-33 engine was first used by the United States.

The improved AJ26 engine used on the Antares rocket is a technical modification of the stock NK-33.

This can significantly reduce costs.

For private enterprises, cost is an issue that absolutely cannot be ignored.

You can't ignore everything for the sake of performance.

……

Andre moved quickly.

Before he went to report NK-33 to Jiang Hui, he had actually already communicated with the Polar Bear.

As long as Jiang Hui agrees to move forward with the plan, things can start.

In less than a month, these engines were transported to China by rail.

Naturally, normal procedures must be followed to clear so many rocket engines.

The relevant departments soon learned about this.

"Xiao Jiang, someone I know in the aerospace department found me about those NK-33 engines."

"Is it possible to sell them two at a lower price?"

In the 1990s, the aerospace sector was not adequately funded.

If you purchase rocket engines through normal channels, the price will definitely be very high.

At least that's what they all think.

“What is a low price?”

The more than 33 NK-20 engines that we brought back cost only about US$ per engine on average, taking into account various expenses.

This price is absolutely super low.

However, Jiang Hui was a little unsure about what the low price mentioned by the aerospace department was, so he had to ask clearly.

"They can buy two at the price of 200 million yuan each. Do you think that's okay?"

The person who was looking for Zhu Jiansheng was his old classmate.

This favor is definitely a help.

Besides, they asked him for help on public matters.

Although it will affect the interests of interstellar technology to a certain extent, it is still within controllable range.

And this is also a way to make friends with relevant departments, so Zhu Jiansheng spoke to Jiang Hui.

"No problem, two machines for 400 million yuan, I'll subtract 100 million, so it's 300 million yuan."

Jiang Hui had no intention of making money from this matter.

If the other party knew that my actual cost was less than 200 million RMB, I don’t know what they would think.

So I just did myself a favor and reduced the price by 100 million yuan.

"Three million yuan for two?"

Zhu Jiansheng was not stupid and he immediately realized that something must be going on.

"You are not using abnormal means to get these engines back again, are you?"

Since his father-in-law asked this, Jiang Hui naturally did not hide too much.

“Polar bears still have a deep heritage.”

“There are still so many engines produced decades ago in the warehouse.”

"There are probably a lot of good stuff in various warehouses across the country."

In recent years, Zhu Jiansheng has come into contact with a lot of information related to polar bears.

The more I understand, the more I realize how huge the gap between the two sides was.

But the polar bear, which seemed so powerful, ended up with such a fate.

Regarding this matter, countless people from relevant departments have written countless articles to analyze and study it.

"Yes, the general manager of our Interstellar Technology came from the Polar Bear side."

"More than half of the company's R&D engineers were poached from them."

"In the future, we will continue to recruit people from various design bureaus so that Interstellar Technology can come up with products as soon as possible."

Jiang Hui reported his plans for interstellar technology to Zhu Jiansheng in detail.

As such a special company, many of Interstellar Technology's future development matters will inevitably require Zhu Jiansheng's help in coordination.

Otherwise, it would not be easy for a private enterprise to launch rockets and satellites in China in the 1990s.

There are many barriers in every aspect.

"Xiao Jiang, reusable rockets and Starlink satellites are definitely great products."

“But are you sure Interstellar Technology wants to develop these two products?”

“Would it be better to focus on developing drones?”

Zhu Jiansheng is well aware of how difficult these two major projects are.

If a private enterprise like Interstellar Technology were to touch upon such a project, it would definitely cost a lot of money.

It may not be possible to figure it out in the end.

That's why he thought Jiang Hui should reconsider.

"Dad, don't worry, I'm already mentally prepared."

"As for Interstellar Technology, I don't expect them to be able to make a profit in the next ten years."

"For me, the amount of money that BMW Group earns every year is more than I can spend in my 18th lifetime."

"In this case, we must use these funds to do something interesting and meaningful."

"Aerospace is the industry I will focus on developing in the future. Maybe in my lifetime, I will be able to travel to the moon or even settle on Mars."

After Jiang Hui's explanation, Zhu Jiansheng was speechless.

BMW Group, Zhujiang Technology and Lingnan Semiconductor are now all profitable.

Especially the BMW Group, its annual profits are very scary.

Such a large amount of money is scary whether it is used for further investment or kept in the account.

Interstellar Technology has launched two money-burning projects. Even if it burns hundreds of millions or even billions of yuan every year, it is not a big deal.

To some extent, spending more money might be beneficial to Jiang Hui.

Otherwise, as a rich man with so much money in your hands, what do you want to do?
Are you waiting for someone to fuck you?
It’s not a bad thing to occasionally do something stupid that makes everyone laugh.

"Okay, since you've made up your mind, I don't have anything else to say."

"Regarding the NK-33 matter, someone will contact your company later."

Zhu Jiansheng was quite satisfied with Jiang Hui's answer.

This favorite student and son-in-law never needs me to worry about anything. (End of this chapter)