Return to Hong Kong Island for a Century

Chapter 314 Shattered (First Update)
American has a very developed small aircraft manufacturing industry, including Cessna, Beechcraft, Piper, and the later famous Cirrus, which was founded in 1984.

These aircraft companies have decades of history and a relatively rich product line, including single propeller engines, twin propeller engines, jet aircraft, turboprop aircraft, and so on.

The test broadcast by CBS has greatly angered these companies.

Because all the companies in Amer believe they are the best, no one has ever done a propeller bird strike test before, since most of these companies use wooden propellers.

On the one hand, Amis has very rich timber resources, and on the other hand, Amis has a tradition of using this kind of wooden propeller.

Most importantly, there is a mature and complete industrial chain, with factories that specialize in making such propellers.

Therefore, wooden propellers are used in single-engine small aircraft and even twin-engine propeller planes.

Who's going to test wooden paddle blades? Are they crazy?!
And what?

That is because these small planes are loud and slow, making it difficult for them to collide with birds during takeoff and landing, since birds aren't stupid.

Turbofan engines are different. Turbofan engines allow aircraft to travel at speeds far exceeding those of birds. Moreover, turbofan engines draw in air in large volumes, which can attract birds within a certain range. In fact, even humans can be sucked in.

The chances of such a small aircraft colliding with a bird are extremely low.

Moreover, the speed is over 200 kilometers per hour, which is faster than many birds, so the chance of colliding with a bird is very, very small.

This is one of the reasons why no one conducts bird strike experiments.

Of course, many people don't understand, especially many viewers.

Small planes costing tens of thousands of dollars are unaffordable for most ordinary Amis people unless they have their own hangar and land. Otherwise, the annual maintenance and downtime costs would be a huge expense.

A small plane now costs $40,000, while Ami's bus drivers earn $3.30 an hour.

Therefore, most people do not understand this principle.

Of course, even if someone who can afford a plane understands this principle, if one side has conducted tests while the other hasn't, which one should they choose?

To be honest, Nick understands Amy's psychology best.

In Li Song's view, wasn't it just a bird flight test?
However, Nick believes that if Aramco's aircraft manufacturers do not have this, it will give the Aramco people the impression that their own aircraft manufacturers are not good enough.

Isn't this the capitalist's shoddy workmanship?

Everyone else is using this test, why aren't you?

That definitely won't work.

Moreover, in the minds of Amei's people, they still value all kinds of tests, especially safety test data.

Furthermore, these aircraft manufacturers, including Aramco, have previously stated in television interviews and newspapers that the quality of crowdfunded small aircraft, priced so low, must be subpar.

They also said that the Dongfeng aircraft could not be manufactured by certain countries in a short period of time because their own aircraft manufacturing projects were canceled, and they had to ask McDonnell Douglas for cooperation and General Electric's engine technology.

Moreover, the cars they manufacture themselves are not good enough, so they have to import a large number of cars every year.

Everyone says it's just a gimmick by Li Song, and that the crowdfunding campaign without a deposit is a way to evade legal responsibility.

But I never expected this!

Li Song's side has actually started playing with security testing and standards?
Nima!

What is this for?
Why is it different from what I expected?

Why is it called a standard?
These aircraft manufacturers knew that after CBS broadcast the test, there would definitely be suggestions to conduct similar safety tests in the future.

Because the proposed safety standards are the easiest to pass.

Anyone who objects will be held responsible for any safety incidents.

Politicians will naturally try to capitalize on this to attract attention.

Aluminum alloy propeller blades are not a difficult task for these aircraft manufacturers, who have fully mature technology and industry.

Therefore, companies such as Cessna, Beechcraft, and Piper announced in the newspapers the following day that they would conduct propeller bird strike tests and invited major media outlets to broadcast them live on Sunday.

The reason it was Sunday was because the propellers still needed to be manufactured.

For the next few days, CBS broadcasted news reports every night about various topics, including stress tests, high-temperature tests, low-temperature tests, and so on.

On Saturday, two Tomcat aircraft prototypes, shipped from Hong Kong Island by cargo plane, were unveiled. The wings and fuselage of the two aircraft were unpacked.

There are also parts from three other aircraft, one of which is unpainted and is only on display.

CBS also stated that it would update the testing progress every night and invite members of the crowdfunding club to the club to experience it firsthand.

The club's three technicians also returned, because they found the assembly to be too simple; anyone who wasn't an idiot could assemble it by following the instructions.

Because the instruction manual uses assembly diagrams directly, and also includes related color stickers.

In other words, during assembly, corresponding parts of two components have stickers of the same color to prevent incorrect assembly due to orientation or other issues. Three technicians mastered the assembly technology at the BMW factory in just one day. Moreover, it uses modular, integrated die-casting manufacturing, resulting in 80% fewer parts compared to similar small aircraft models.

Of course, the instruction manual also includes safety standards for small aircraft from some Eastern countries.

However, it kept the relevant departments on the mainland extremely busy because the incident happened quite suddenly.

On Sunday, in Kansas, Aramco's several aircraft manufacturers jointly set up a testing lab.

The equipment layout used appears to be the same as the bird strike test of the Tomcat aircraft shown on CBS.

Both are driven by compressed air.

Of course, for safety reasons, these reporters were all behind wire mesh and bulletproof glass.

Furthermore, the three companies used live streaming, with several TV stations broadcasting live from here, and they even specially invited a host.

Nick was also invited, of course.

"Mr. Nick, is there anything wrong with these devices?" Nick was also invited here, and then invited up on the live stream to check the equipment.

"I'm sorry, I don't really understand, but I think it's fine." Nick was a little embarrassed because he really didn't know anything about testing equipment.

"So, are there any problems with these chickens used for testing? These are all chickens selected by the supermarket that meet the weight requirements." The host then pointed to the chickens used for testing. There were several baskets of chickens, and the weight of the chickens in each basket was labeled.

“Yes, no problem.” Nick nodded.

"Thank you, Mr. Nick. Hello everyone, this is the site of a bird strike test conducted jointly by Cessna, Beechcraft, and Piper."

"Our aircraft manufacturing company prioritizes safety. This test used the same six-cylinder horizontally opposed aluminum alloy engine as the Panda aircraft, and also adopted aluminum alloy propellers."

"The three companies have pledged to add aluminum alloy blades to the subsequent aircraft manufacturing process, which customers can choose to purchase freely."

"The other three companies will also launch unibody casting and modular aircraft designs, giving users more choices." There's a lot the host didn't say in that statement.

The first aluminum alloy blade is an optional extra and costs additional.

Secondly, the one-piece casting of the machine body is also an optional feature, which will cost extra because this one-piece casting requires molds and customized equipment.

In addition, the entire production process needs to be redone, including after-sales maintenance, which also requires retraining.

There are too many costs involved.

This is the advantage of being a latecomer. If the companies that came before want to change, they have to overturn their existing technologies and processes, discard many of their existing equipment, and add new equipment, which adds up to a huge expense.

Then the CEOs of several companies came up and said that Amer's small planes have the highest safety standards.

Then the testing began, starting with the Cessna's engine. The testing was all conducted by third-party personnel.

The host began, “The engine is running. As a leader in single-engine small aircraft, Cessna sold more than 2,000 of these small aircraft in 1980, averaging nearly seven a day, including Sundays, of course.”

"Our testers have prepared five chicken legs, each weighing 50 grams, to simulate the impact of a small flock of birds in flight. However, some TV stations use only one chicken leg for their tests, which is not scientific. As we all know, many birds are gregarious," the host said.

"Five chicken drumsticks were placed inside the air cannon."

"Now it's time to witness it. The engineer pressed the switch..." The engineer was also operating the switch outside the testing lab.

Bang!
The next second in the live stream, you can see the air cannon spraying air, propelling the chicken leg out with a loud bang.

boom!
The next second, a trail of sparks appeared on the wire mesh in front of the bulletproof glass in front of the host.

The host was startled and quickly squatted down.

"My God, what happened?" the host exclaimed in disbelief.

The other reporters behind the bulletproof glass were also startled. Then they looked at the engine blades and saw that they were gone. The engine had stopped, but the blades were gone.

“Fragments, blade fragments.” Nick pointed to the wall on one side of the laboratory. The wall was protected with wooden boards, mainly to prevent the broken chicken pieces from sticking to the wall. In addition, the blades would be broken in the end during the test, and the wooden boards could prevent the blade fragments from bouncing back.

"Oh!" Then the viewers in the live stream saw the paddle fragments embedded in the wall, like shrapnel, embedded in the wooden board.

Everyone gasped in shock. What?
Many people think it's impossible; it's just a 50-gram bird, and this thing is only an egg.

It actually broke?
Broken?

Cessna's CEO turned green with rage.

Because I had confidence in my own products, and because of the time constraints, I didn't have the opportunity to test them myself first.

"Sorry, there's been a small problem, it seems to be the engine... uh, let's look at Beechcraft's test." The host was trying to smooth things over, but almost said the wrong thing.

Nick was also a bit confused. That's impossible. It can't even handle a 50-gram chicken leg.

Could it really be that the propeller blades produced by Cessna in an emergency were defective?
(End of this chapter)