Return to Hong Kong Island for a Century

Chapter 313 Bird Strike Test
Nick was unsure how long it would take for the policy to be approved by the US.

But did you know that Aramco's aircraft manufacturing companies are already in a hurry?

Although the crowdfunding club has just been established, it already has more than 10,000 potential orders!

Especially after being featured on CBS, the number of potential orders surged!
The crowdfunding club has more than 40,000 members.

In other words, these 40,000 people are all potential customers for small aircraft.

Most of them were farmers.

Because there are over a million farmers in Amerin, of whom about 0.5 percent are large farmers and 99.5 percent are small and medium-sized farmers.

These farmers in Huamei typically manage over a hundred hectares of land, and some even manage several thousand or tens of thousands of hectares!

In addition, there are farmers from neighboring Canada and even some farmers from South America!

Many people also called to inquire.

Nick knew the impact crowdfunding for small planes would have on small aircraft manufacturers like Amer.

It is said that many customers who placed orders have cancelled them.

The company behind the small plane will certainly react.

So Nick was a little anxious!
Although Nick knew that crowdfunding the small plane would be a fatal blow to small aircraft manufacturers in the United States.

But so what? America is a capitalist society, a free market society!

Moreover, Nick believed he was fighting against capitalists!

Moreover, these small aircraft manufacturers don't get a single penny of their own money!

It has absolutely nothing to do with me!
I am truly bringing benefits to the farmers in Ami.

I can help tens of thousands of farmers solve their problems.

Nick is now the chairman of the board of directors of the Crowdfunding Club, whose members include a lawyer, a former congressman, and five large ranchers!
The club's funding came from a donation of one million US dollars from Li Song!

This one million dollars is the royalty income of Li Song from the National Treasures of Amerinda!

Nick rushed to Hong Kong Island and contacted Tin Ka Fai.

Tian Jiahui then called BMW directly.

Li Song originally planned to stay in Chang'an for a day and then go to Shanghai.

However, Section Chief Zhou relayed Nick's message!
So Li Song took a plane back to Guangzhou the next morning.

And Nick also came to Guangzhou from Hong Kong Island!
"Mr. Li, these are the legal documents and materials for the establishment of the crowdfunding club!"

"In addition, as a donor to the club's funds, the club will provide you with a detailed expense statement every quarter." Nick met Li Song after arriving at Yangcheng BMW Motorcycle Company and then presented the relevant documents.

"Okay!" Li Song nodded.

American charity is essentially a business. Many of America's charitable organizations serve as money-making tools for politicians, while others function as intelligence agencies in their external communications.
Some charities even tamper with the flour they distribute!
Even some biological experiments!
Then some medical institutions would use the guise of aid to obtain experimental samples from these people.

There were also some charity events that staged photo shoots!

Of course, there are also some genuine charities!

However, this is very rare; most charities are essentially businesses.

"Mr. Li!"

"I don't know how long it will take to successfully manufacture the Panda airplane."

"I've received information that some politicians in Afghan Azerbaijan are already drafting bills to protect the country's small aircraft industry and will impose high tariffs on imported small aircraft!"

"It could even limit the safety certification of small aircraft."

"So I want to get the Panda plane as soon as possible and send it to America for security certification!" Nick said somewhat urgently after handing the documents to Li Song.

"How long will it take for the bill to be implemented?" Li Song knew that it would take a long time for the bill on Amei's side to be implemented.

"I don't know, it depends on how fast they act." Nick was indeed a little anxious now, because the crowdfunding club had tens of thousands of members, the vast majority of whom were farmers, and mostly medium to large-sized farmers, with very few small-scale farmers!
These people have a lot of influence in America.

In any case, we must do a good job with this small plane.

In this way, the crowdfunding club can survive. If the first vote for the small plane is lost, the crowdfunding club will soon disband!
"Will this affect security certification?" Li Song asked.

“Mr. Li, you can take a look. Our crowdfunding club's board of directors not only has lawyers, but also a former congressman who was once a high-ranking official on the Aviation Administration Commission!” Nick knew exactly what Li Song meant by asking, so he answered.
"Okay, I just don't want the aircraft to be sabotaged during the safety certification process!" Li Song then carefully reviewed the documents.

Furthermore, it was discovered that the other farmers on those councils were basically city councilors from various cities.

"You can come with me and take a look!"

“I think your trip was worthwhile!” Li Song said.

The Panda aircraft is manufactured by BMW!
Although the Panda aircraft is not yet ready for mass production, prototype production is perfectly feasible.

The engines for the Panda aircraft have already begun mass production process debugging.

More than 20 finished engines have been produced, and more than 10 of them are undergoing various tests.

In addition, the one-piece casting of the fuselage has been completed and debugged, and finished products are undergoing various tests.

Another thing is the wings.

The wing frame was constructed using a die-casting technique, and then the skin was attached using rivets.

There are several reasons why rivets are used in aircraft skin.

On the one hand, the aircraft skin is made of aluminum alloy, and it is a very thin aluminum alloy. The welding process requires a high level of skill, and the performance will change after welding!
In addition, the high temperature variations in the operating environment of aircraft can cause changes in material properties!

If welding is used, the material will expand and contract with constant temperature changes, which will cause the weld to crack.

Another issue is that aircraft may encounter severe turbulence during flight, which could cause wing deformation.

It can also lead to metal fatigue!

Of course, the biggest advantage of using rivets is that they are easy to repair!
Replace whichever part is broken.

Li Song then took Nick to the Panda aircraft assembly workshop at the BMW factory.

There is also domestic experience in producing small aircraft, such as the domestically produced Y-5.

Of course, that one used a radial piston engine, and that aircraft had a double wing. Naturally, that aircraft had a much larger payload and more horsepower than the Panda aircraft.

Of course, the manufacturing process of the Panda aircraft is much more advanced than that of the Y-5.

"Nick!"

"This is the assembly workshop for the Panda airplane!"

"What you see now are the parts used in the Panda aircraft."

"You are free to take photos here!"

"This is a six-cylinder horizontally opposed engine, and its fuel consumption cost is only equivalent to that of a moderate single-cylinder motorcycle."

"I think this is great news for Amer's many customers!"

"Moreover, it uses an aluminum alloy engine, which is lighter than a cast iron engine and has better heat dissipation!" Li Song then led Nick to the assembly workshop!
Nick quickly grabbed his camera and took a picture!
Six engines have already been assembled on site!
"In addition, these are aluminum alloy propellers that we produce, which are more expensive than the wooden ones that America uses in many other places." Li Song pointed to the propellers again!
The blades can also be made of glass fiber or carbon fiber.

However, the manufacturing cost of glass fiber and carbon fiber is too high in the country right now!
Of course, wood can also be used, but wood is not as good as aluminum alloy in terms of corrosion resistance.

While composite materials do have advantages in terms of strength and lightweighting,

However, composite materials still have many shortcomings in terms of ductility.

Many of these small aircraft in America use wooden propellers, mainly due to cost considerations.

Li Song, not wanting to go through all that trouble, simply used aluminum alloy.

Furthermore, this is the biggest advantage of this aircraft: its fuselage is cast in one piece!
There are now six unibody, die-cast fuselages!

Nick then saw the one-piece cast fuselage lying to the side.

Most of the fuselage has been treated with anti-corrosion measures and has been painted.

There is also a one-piece cast body that is not painted.

I quickly grabbed my camera to document the unpainted body, because you could see there were no welds or rivets on it!

The holes have already been pre-drilled!

You can see the holes on the dashboard and other holes as well.

"That's fantastic!" Nick exclaimed as he took the photos.

Because the technology involved is extremely advanced!
Moreover, these integrally cast parts look like works of art!
Because the parts are cast in one piece and are very smooth.

"I dare say that no other small aircraft in the world uses this one-piece cast iron technology!"

"Our aircraft has a 12 percent lower empty weight than similar small aircraft!"

"This means our fuel costs will be lower, and it also means our payload capacity will be higher!"

"In addition, we have reserved working modules on the fuselage!"

"By replacing the pesticide module with ours, you can spray pesticides on the farmland!"

"By replacing it with our fertilizer module, it can release fertilizer!"

"These modules will be linked to the speed of the aircraft!"

"The faster the plane flies, the faster the spraying and fertilization can be!"

"The plane is slow, so the spraying speed and the fertilization speed are also slow!"

"This greatly saves costs!" Li Song then demonstrated the accompanying modules.

"Once the supporting modules are installed, all you need to do is start the engine with one button in the cab!" Li Song explained again.

Of course, to install sprayers and fertilizer modules, we need to remove the seats inside the plane first!
Then install the corresponding medicine storage facilities and fertilizer facilities.

Because these professional supporting facilities are specially designed.

Just like a facility for storing pesticides, it's not a single tank!

Because of the separate tank, the liquid would slosh around during the flight!
This could cause the aircraft's center of gravity to become uncontrollable, leading to an accident.

Furthermore, due to the size of the aircraft cabin door, it is impossible to install such a large tank!

Therefore, several tanks were used to form a medicine storage facility.

The same applies to fertilizer!

"I can license these supporting modules to Amer's factory for production free of charge!"

"Because the aircraft itself does not include these supporting modules!" Li Song said this mainly to reduce costs.

Also, most of these modules are made of plastic.

Currently, the cost of plastics in China is higher than that in other countries.

So Li Song simply and generously granted the license to others for free.

"Our aircraft uses a modular design!"

"Therefore, repair and maintenance are quite convenient!"

"Our propeller blades, wings, and fuselage are all made of high-cost aluminum alloy!"

"I believe this aircraft will become a classic!" "A Panda aircraft can be assembled within three days," Li Song said.
"We will also prepare some spare parts to showcase at the crowdfunding club!"

"And you can even assemble the plane yourself in the crowdfunding club!"

"Because it's as simple as assembling building blocks!"

Li Song then led Nick on a tour of the engine testing, temperature environment testing, lifespan testing, and extreme stress testing.

Another test is the blade collision test, which uses chickens of varying sizes.

To test what would happen if the engine blades collided with these chickens while they were running!
Of course, this thing has its limits; it has virtually no effect on small birds.

Large birds will still be affected to some extent.

Of course, this is more durable than a turbofan engine.

Because of the turbofan engine, it sucks in the carcasses of birds.

However, this type of horizontally opposed engine does not have this danger.

In fact, this experiment was not very rigorous.

Even among animals of similar size, the skeletons of one-year-olds and multi-year-olds are definitely different!
As anyone who has eaten chicken knows, chickens of the same weight can differ in age: an old hen or rooster can be several years old, while a chicken from the same year can be quite different.

"Mr. Li, may I record this video?"

“Of course!” Li Song then had the testers conduct the test, and Nick recorded it!
Of course, they used pre-killed chickens. It's not that Li Song didn't want to use live chickens, but if they used lighters now, and the US later used environmental protection measures to restrict the development of developed countries, a lot of people would stand up and expose their own dark history.

The West is making a big fuss about environmental protection, and they even talk about the greenhouse gas effect!
In fact, Western countries have long been aware that throughout Earth's history of hundreds of millions of years, there have been times when the temperature was more than ten degrees higher than it is now, and times when it was more than ten degrees lower than it is now.

To give a very simple example, in ancient times, there were elephants and rhinoceroses in the Central Plains of China.

And what kind of environment do elephants and rhinos live in now?
Furthermore, as the Earth's temperature rises...

The Loess Plateau in Northwest China is beginning to turn green again.

Moreover, research indicates that within the next two to three hundred years, the Loess Plateau will once again resemble the historically recorded landscape of towering trees.

On the one hand, China has done a good job in environmental protection, planting trees, returning farmland to forest, and returning farmland to grassland!
Another aspect is domestic energy policies.

Later, almost every household used electricity or gas.

It's both convenient and clean.

Of course, the bigger problem is that vast rural areas cannot retain people because the amount of arable land in the country cannot support farmers' income.

Of course, if you're just talking about having enough to eat, then that's fine in the countryside.

But if you want a better life, to enjoy a convenient living environment, and to have access to convenient medical care, then you have to work hard to earn money!
To put it bluntly, the simple matter of having enough to eat and wear has already surpassed that of most countries in the world.

Nick excitedly recorded the engine impact.

Then he couldn't wait to go back to America. As for the Panda plane, Nick needed to go back and recruit some technicians to come here and learn how to assemble it!

Then some of the Panda Aircraft parts will be transported to the crowdfunding club site for assembly and demonstration to potential customers, while also providing a series of news reports.

As for the finished Panda Airplane, the wings will be removed, and the fuselage and wings will be packaged and sent to America, where it will be assembled by America's crowdfunding club.

Then the crowdfunding club applied to the relevant departments of Ame for a safety assessment!

Nick returned to Hong Kong Island that same day, and then, carrying all the news materials, hurriedly went back to Amer International Airport.

This news material is enough to fill several follow-up reports.

After Nick returned to Ame, he then had the club recruit some technical staff.

The club was also planning to recruit some technicians to maintain the aircraft.

This plan was already in place, but it has now been brought forward.

Nick left the task of recruiting technicians to the others in the club and quickly started working on news material.

On Wednesday evening, February 25, 1981, CBS television broadcast a large-scale interview program called "Mysterious East".

On one hand, it's about the crowdfunding for the airplane, and on the other hand, it's about Li Song, an Eastern writer.

The novel "National Treasure" brings about various unexpected situations.

Even Amer's national archives have been thefted and even robbed!

These people's goal is the Declaration of Independence!

These criminals are at least smart, because the gift was kept in the National Archives!

Those brainless criminals simply robbed the fakes on display.

As for the buildings depicted in National Treasure, they are also frequently damaged.

So CBS produced a large-scale, continuous interview program.

The interview on Wednesday night was first shown to viewers in black and white video format.

In the black and white video, a machine is making the sound of it running, and you can see blades turning in front of the machine!

Then the video switched to the opposite side of the rotating propeller.

A person is holding a chicken, and it's a plucked chicken.

Then they stuffed a chicken into a cylindrical object.

Then the person closed the cylindrical object.

Then one hand pressed the switch!
In slow motion, the chicken emerges from the opening of the cylindrical object and crashes directly into the opposite paddle!

Then, in slow motion, the chicken is shredded to pieces.

The audience felt like they were watching a horror movie!
The president of CBS, watching the program in progress, said with some dissatisfaction, "If they used live chickens, coupled with bloody scenes, it would be much more attractive to the audience!"

"Yes!" The president's assistant nodded from the side.

But there's nothing we can do about it; this is a video Nick brought back, which has been edited!
If time allows, I wouldn't mind reshooting some footage in the East!
At that moment, the television screen switched to color, and the host's voice came through: "What you are seeing is a bird strike test of the engine of a single-engine propeller-driven small aircraft crowdfunding campaign initiated by CBS news reporter Nick!"

"Can Nick say something?" the host finally asked.

Hello everyone!

"I just came back from the BMW manufacturing plant."

"That's right, the small plane we crowdfunded is manufactured at the BMW car manufacturing plant!"

"This is a horizontally opposed six-cylinder aluminum alloy engine!"

"It's also the core power system of our small aircraft!"

"Its blades are made of aluminum alloy!"

"But in our country, most of the wood used is produced!"

"Comparatively speaking, aluminum alloy blades are not only lighter and more corrosion-resistant, but also perform much better than wooden blades. Of course, they are more expensive."

"What you just saw was a bird strike test."

"Bird strikes are usually caused by large airlines testing turbofan engines!"

"And only a small number of airlines conduct such violent tests!"

"And the plane that our crowdfunding club crowdfunded underwent such a violent test!"

"Select chickens of different weights and launch them through a device similar to an air gun!"

"Simulation tests show the results of birds hitting the engine at different speeds, weights, and angles."

"In addition, our crowdfunding club has already obtained two prototypes of horizontally opposed engines!"

"The manufacturing technology of these two horizontally opposed engines has reached the highest level!"

"It adopts integrated aluminum alloy die-casting technology!"

"Integrate the original dozens of parts into a few parts!"

"Anyone interested is welcome to visit our crowdfunding club, as we also conduct public testing!"

"The planes funded by our crowdfunding club are definitely not defective products as some people claim!"

"On the contrary, I want to tell everyone that the manufacturing technology of this aircraft is the most advanced in the world among similar products!"

"Everyone, please look at this photo!"

"This is the fuselage of our crowdfunded aircraft!"

"It adopts the world's most advanced modular design and integrated aluminum alloy die-casting technology!"

"No other small aircraft of this type in the world uses this advanced manufacturing technology."

"Our crowdfunding club will also showcase the fuselage components!"

The host then asked, "Nick, you said this plane was manufactured by BMW?"

"Yes."

"Mr. Li Song owns his own motorcycle manufacturing plant and his own car manufacturing plant!"

"The technology at their car manufacturing plant is arguably no less advanced than that of ours in China!"

"Moreover, Mr. Li Song is not one of those manufacturing plants in our country!"

"He truly cares about his customers!"

“Like this aluminum alloy one-piece casting technology, especially for such large and complex parts.”

“Our domestic aircraft manufacturers are unwilling to adopt this technology!”

"With the support of various high-end technologies, the Panda aircraft will be 12 percent lighter than similar aircraft."

"Everyone knows that body weight is closely related to fuel consumption."

"Moreover, with its lighter weight, its payload capacity will increase." Nick didn't mention that the prototype would be delivered to America within three days!

Because if we tell them in advance, it might encourage the other party to expedite the legislation.

Prepare to announce it in a couple of days, and then unveil the panda plane this Sunday.

Meanwhile, a safety assessment has been applied for, and other directors of the crowdfunding club are handling related matters.

We aim to obtain the safety permit as quickly as possible.

“Let’s look at the follow-up tests of this engine. I think the relevant professionals will be able to see just how excellent this engine is from the test results!” Nick added.
Then the TV showed the subsequent crash test footage.

Of course, Nick's screams were also heard in the video.

Before each test, Nick had to report the weight of the chicken and the speed at which it hit the ground!

Actually, this test isn't very rigorous, because engine speed also plays a role.

Moreover, in the video, after the chickens were smashed, chicken meat flew everywhere.

Nick also saw a lot of chicken bits on the six-cylinder horizontally opposed engine in the video.

And pick up these pieces of chicken!
Of course, protective measures were taken around the testing area!
The news from CB TV reached the aircraft manufacturers on Aramco's side, who then quickly contacted the relevant media outlets and began conducting similar tests.

But they messed up!

(End of this chapter)