Return to 2000: Captain of the Great Powers

Chapter 96 The savior of the Boeing Empire (please subscribe!)

"Boeing 777, tsk tsk tsk, I have thought about many ways of Boeing's decline, but I never thought it would be like this." Speaking of this, Li Rongxian almost burst out laughing.

The airliner market has great inertia. Once it fails to keep up with market changes at a certain stage, it is easy to fall down step by step.Just like the Boeing 737 series is benchmarked against the Airbus 320 series, and the Boeing 767 is benchmarked against the Airbus 330. As for the benchmark model of the Queen of the Sky, the Boeing 747 has not yet appeared, that is, the Airbus 380 that will be launched in a few years.

In the field of short- and medium-range passenger aircraft, Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 are in a tight fight.In the giant airliner market, the Boeing 747 has no rivals, but in the middle area, the Boeing 767, which was once placed on high hopes, was overwhelmed by the Airbus 330.

Based on the principle of not giving up an inch of ground, Boeing will naturally launch a corresponding model that can compete with the Airbus 330.The Boeing 777 came into being as the times require, but now the problems with the Boeing 777 have begun to seriously affect Boeing's overall layout.

The huge investment in the Boeing 777 has made Boeing start to ride a tiger. Whether to continue to increase investment to make the Boeing 777 a smooth output, or a strong man cut his wrists and directly stepped over the Boeing 777, and instead invested financial and material resources in the newer 7E7 project.

But the latter has two more difficult problems to deal with. Once the Boeing 777 is skipped, the investment in the past six years will basically be in vain, even for a giant company like Boeing.What's more, the 7E7 project is only within the scope of the plan. Even if it starts to invest a lot of money and enters the substantive promotion stage, it is still far from commercial use.At this stage, the Airbus 330 and the relatively unpopular Airbus 340 are not going to kill the Quartet. Why can't Boeing still pin its hopes on the old Boeing 767?

In addition, the wind direction of the airliner market is not the same. The Boeing 777 and 7E7 have been developed for more than ten years. Who knows that after the official commercial version of the 7E7 is launched, there will still be a place for medium and long-range airliners in the world airliner market?

If it is gone, Boeing will be in a huge crisis now!

From the perspective of Airbus, this is a great gift from God.

Seeing that Li Rongcheng didn't speak, Li Rongxian shrugged and didn't continue to ask the question of 7E7. Anyway, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get anything out of Li Rongcheng.It's not how firm Li Rongcheng's mouth is, but that even Boeing executives probably don't know much about the 7E7 news, after all, it only exists in the imagined model.

Li Rongxian mentioned that 7E7 was just to disgust his half-brother, after all, the opportunity to disgust Boeing is very rare.

Seeing Li Rongcheng's expression as if he had eaten a fly, Li Rongxian only felt that the pores all over his body were stretched out, what a relief!
Stretching, Li Rongxian began to get angry again: "Although the relationship is average, we are brothers anyway. Let me show you. EASA is not the FAA. If the Boeing 777 wants to obtain a joint airworthiness certificate, it is not necessary to get a joint airworthiness certificate." The two-year routine operation verification is over. EASA is likely to conduct a special situation simulation verification, but you have to be prepared. However, Boeing should have also received the news. It is really expected that EASA will come up with a What kind of trick?"

At the end, Li Rongxian couldn't hold back anymore and laughed out loud.

The civil aviation bureaus in various places will definitely take care of local aircraft research and development companies, just like the FAA to Boeing and EASA to Airbus.

If the Boeing 777 had a problem when applying for a joint airworthiness certificate from EASA, where would Boeing be given an extra chance like the FAA?

Of course, it cannot be said that the failure of the Boeing 777 in the FAA's verification flight has no effect on EASA. At least after getting the news, EASA's safety committee has firmly remembered the Boeing 777, and its innate impression of it is extremely bad. , the review activity will be more stringent thereafter.

In fact, everything has been figured out, just check with the pilot.If the inspector doesn't have a good impression of it, it's really nitpicking, and everyone will feel uncomfortable.

Don't think that Li Rongxian is kind enough to reveal some internal information to Li Rongcheng, but in fact Li Rongcheng doesn't know?Li Rongxian just wanted to see Li Rongcheng suffer.

"Okay, let's not talk about it." It's enough to be comfortable, and Li Rongxian will not be able to make further progress. At that time, Li Rongcheng will be so angry that he will lose his mind and everyone will not look good.He took a sip of the wine and asked casually: "I have something very strange. What are you doing in Jianchuan? What's interesting here? Shouldn't you be busy looking for the pilot who can put out the fire at this time?" ?”

Li Rongcheng was also able to keep his mind steady. He didn't explode after being ridiculed by his younger brother, and snorted: "Where am I going, and when will I report to you?"

After finishing speaking, Li Rongcheng wiped his mouth lightly, got up and left directly, leaving only Li Rongxian with a gloomy expression.

"What a difficult guy." Li Rongxian threw the fork heavily on the plate, making a loud noise, which attracted the attention of people around him.

Don't look at Li Rongxian has always been the active party in the conversation just now, trying his best to ridicule, but in fact it has no practical significance.Li Rongxian is not the kind of person who is immersed in venting his personal emotions. He really wants to anger Li Rongcheng in the early stage, so that he will be less wary when he lacks reason. The last question is his purpose.

To put it bluntly, although the entire Boeing empire is now prosperous and prosperous, it is only one pilot away from the decline of the empire. The FAA may be easier to handle, but EASA is not easy to fool here.Only with the FAA airworthiness certificate, without the EASA joint airworthiness certificate, the Boeing 777 is still a failed model.

Moreover, after EASA made it clear that it will conduct more rigorous verification, Boeing can only hope for a savior, an omnipotent pilot who can deal with all flight failures, on the premise that Boeing cannot significantly upgrade the 777 in the short term.

Li Rongcheng should be focusing on finding such a pilot at this moment, but why did he come to such a small place as Jianchuan at this critical moment?
To be honest, Li Rongcheng should be at the headquarters bases of Muhua Airlines, Tiannan Airlines and Guoda Airlines at this moment. That is where excellent pilots gather.What is there in Jianchuan City, some small airline companies with mixed capital?Branch bases of the three major airlines?It's clearly an insignificant place.

If it wasn't for the fact that Blue Sky Airlines had an order for Airbus 321, and Li Rongxian happened to be in China by the way, it was the first time he had heard of the city of Jianchuan.

For nearly 20 years, Boeing and Airbus had been in an inextricable battle.Unexpectedly, now Boeing's fortune for the next ten years will be tied to one pilot.

After gulping down the rest of the wine, Li Rongxian was silent for a while, looking at the mobile phone placed on the table, he hesitated for a while, picked up the mobile phone and made a call.

After the call was connected, Ma Cheng's voice came from the opposite side: "Mr. Li, I didn't expect you to call me."

"Mr. Ma, you have been very close to my elder brother in the past two days." Li Rongxian said with a light smile.

"Oh, it's all personal."

Li Rongxian smiled slowly: "If I want to ask why my elder brother came to Jianchuan, is it convenient for Mr. Ma to tell me?"

The opposite party obviously paused for a long time, and finally just responded with an awkward smile: "Mr. Li, this is a private matter, and it's not convenient for me to talk nonsense."

Of course Li Rongxian knew that Ma Cheng and Li Rongcheng had a good personal relationship, and he didn't expect to be able to answer a question. There must be a price for this kind of thing.

"President Ma, let's not talk about those twists and turns. You should have heard about the 777. In the future, the mid-range and long-range wide-body aircraft will be dominated by the 330. You should understand what I mean." Li Rongxian's expression gradually became calm.

Previously, if Li Rongxian talked to Ma Cheng like this, Ma Cheng would not stay for a moment, and hung up the phone directly.But now, the world is about to change, so you can't be so impulsive.

What Li Rongxian said was not a lie, but something that would actually happen.

After waiting for a while, Ma Cheng said: "Mr. Li and I are good friends."

However, before Ma Cheng finished speaking, Li Rongxian said directly: "The next order of 330 will be discounted by 5.00%!"

After this blow, Ma Cheng fell silent, and it took more than ten seconds before he said a word: "Mr. Li, you make it difficult for me to do this."

Having said that, Ma Cheng changed the topic again: "Mr. Li came to Jianchuan this time."

The facts were exactly as Wang Xuan said, the personnel from the Bureau did not show that kind of aggressiveness when they interviewed Xu Cang and Tan Heling, and the whole atmosphere seemed relatively harmonious.

Because on the flight data instrument after the incident, the bureau personnel found that when Lantian 9211 was in an abnormal dive state due to the influence of the airflow, the instantaneous maximum wind speed of the downdraft airflow was close to 90 meters per second, which was terrifying.Such severe airflow is beyond the control capability of the aircraft and cannot be controlled by the pilot.

As for the subsequent power system failure, the bureau also expressed great understanding.A total of 9211 lightning strike points were found on the 63 aircraft body, and this is only the damage exceeding the standard, and there are countless lightning strike points that did not exceed the standard.

When technicians inspected the aircraft circuits of 9211, they found that a large number of them had been burned, and the damage was quite serious, and it was of the kind that the pilot could not recover.

As for the engine stalling in heavy rain, the Bureau has no clear theoretical support.However, Xichang City below the airspace where the incident occurred encountered the heaviest precipitation in 60 years, which shows how terrifying the precipitation in the area where 9211 was located at that time.

There are indications that the incident was caused by objective weather.Of course, this is not to say that the crew has no problems, or to be precise, Blue Sky Airlines is responsible for this matter, that is, the regulations on flying around thunderstorms are not strict enough.

However, regarding this matter, the Bureau has also shown a certain degree of tolerance, because it is not that Blue Sky Airlines has vague regulations on flying around thunderstorms, but if you look closely, almost all airlines have relevant regulations. Where the expression or execution is unclear.

Compared with the problem of finding the crew, the bureau personnel prefer to discuss with Xu Cang and Tan Heling their thinking when dealing with the special situation.

Because many bureau personnel also have a flying background, once encountering such a situation, occupational diseases also like to substitute themselves into the corresponding scene, and they will also think about what they should do.However, when they learned about Lantian 9211 crew's handling ideas, they were all a little shocked from their own flight backgrounds, and they started to exchange experiences when they were eager for skills.

In that era, the management of flight was indeed becoming more and more scientific, but the older pilots actually believed in experience more.They never thought that Boeing's manuals could handle all failures, and of course, Boeing itself thought so.

If the manual can fix all the faults, is there any difference between a good pilot and a bad pilot?Just memorize the manual!

For this kind of experiential work, even the personnel of the bureau should absorb more of other people's "problem-solving" ideas to enrich themselves.In case I encounter a similar situation in the future, it may be a life-saving thing.

Looking at the later publicity materials, it is impossible to restore the situation at that time. Only by communicating with those who experienced it and those who dealt with it can we understand the situation at that time.

In such a state of mind, what was originally an interview with the bureau turned into a flight experience exchange meeting.

Who is Xu Cang?The future chief pilot of the Civil Aviation Administration of China will have a high level of insight in flight, even some very senior bureau personnel will feel a sense of enlightenment when they hear what Xu Cang said.

Moreover, Xu Cang was reborn with a golden decade of domestic civil aviation experience.To be honest, now is the wild era of domestic civil aviation, and various irregularities or loopholes in regulations abound.Xu Cang even revealed a little bit of advanced management experience, which can make bureau personnel feel like a treasure.

During the interview, the bureau personnel were accompanied by the safety supervision department of the company.Although Jin Fuli is an Airbus employee, he works part-time in the Safety Supervision Department, and his qualifications are relatively old, and he still knows some of the bureau personnel, so he was sent by the company to fight.

As a result, Jin Fuli was fascinated by Xu Cang's eloquent talk like a primary school student listening to a lecture.So much so that when he finally woke up, a feeling of remorse arose again. Why didn't he discover Xu Cang's genius earlier?

Not to mention Jin Fuli, everyone in the bureau was stunned by Xu Cang's words, so basically no one asked questions, and they all listened to Xu Cang talking alone.

Among them, when it comes to traditional navigation without any equipment support, the people in the bureau are even more listening.Nowadays, many pilots have almost forgotten the traditional navigation method under visual rules because they have been operating under instrument flight rules for too long.

Not to mention the traditional navigation that relies on visual conditions, even if it does not rely on integrated electronic displays, some young pilots may not necessarily be able to read the old-fashioned mechanical instruments.

Such deficiencies still need to accumulate more experience.And Xu Cang's excellent performance on traditional navigation in the 9211 incident is the core of this special situation handling. At this stage, bureau personnel also gradually began to ask Xu Cang questions, and Xu Cang answered them fluently, even in the later period. , Xu Cang began to jump out of the mistakes made by the bureau personnel in the question.

Usually, when the pilots are interviewed by the bureau, which one is not trembling, but this time it is Xu Cang who is in charge of everything.Seeing that Jin Fuli started to get greedy again.

Suddenly, amidst the gradually heated discussions, Jin Fuli's cell phone rang.This directly disrupted the atmosphere and rhythm, and made many bureau personnel somewhat dissatisfied.

Jin Fuli also knew that he was rude, so he wanted to hang up the phone, but after looking at the number, it seemed that it was from the flight team. After thinking about it, it would be bad if something happened, so he had to go out to answer the phone with a smile .

Only after answering the phone did I realize that the representative from Airbus came over suddenly, and the discussion was about the intention of Blue Sky Airlines to place an order for five Airbus 321s with Airbus.

A company of the size of Blue Sky Airlines must not be able to buy dozens of planes like the three major airlines. Buying five planes at once is considered a big order.However, in terms of price, Blue Sky Airlines has little room for discussion.Because retail investors like Blue Sky Airlines do not have a high status in the hearts of Airbus, if they like to buy or not, it is naturally a seller's market.

However, buying an airplane is not buying food, you can buy it when you think about it, but you will submit your purchase intention, and then the representatives of both parties will discuss the details before making a decision.

Under normal circumstances, such a small order would not allow Airbus headquarters to send any senior leaders over.But this time, I heard from the aircraft team that the Airbus representative who was killed suddenly was of a high level, so high that the leaders of the flight department were a little at a loss, so they could only ask an old man like Jin Fuli to take over the place.

Although Jin Fuli's administrative level is not high, the introduction of the first batch of Airbus aircraft for Blue Sky Airlines was decided by Jin Fuli at the Airbus headquarters.Therefore, the leader of the flight department felt that Jin Fuli could handle such a situation if he wanted to.

In fact, Jin Fuli didn't want to get involved in such nonsense, even if he could control the situation, he would inevitably lose his smile on such occasions.

But Jin Fuli agreed after repeated requests from the people in the flight team. If he disagreed, he even felt that the person on the phone was about to cry.

After tidying up his clothes a bit, Jin Fuli went upstairs to the fleet office.Before arriving at the place, I heard noisy movements from a distance, and then saw a lot of people gathered at the gate of the fleet office, including many leaders of the flight department and some leaders of the marketing department.

The faces of these leaders were full of half-smiles, surrounded by a slender young man, who was Li Rongxian, the person in charge of Airbus in the Asia-Pacific region.

After getting the news from Ma Cheng, Li Rongxian didn't stop at all, and went directly to the Blue Sky Aviation Base.

All the leaders were suddenly relieved when they saw Jin Fuli approaching. In front of this young man, these leaders were completely taken away. This is obviously unable to control the situation.

Jin Fuli is a careless person, he doesn't care about any Airbus leader, don't they all have one pair of eyes and two ears?

When he got closer, Jin Fuli was slightly surprised when he saw Li Rongxian's face with a little oriental color, but he didn't show it too much.Mixed blood is not uncommon in this day and age.

With the arrival of Jin Fuli, many leaders present fell silent.Naturally, Li Rongxian noticed the change in the atmosphere, and he immediately understood that Jin Fuli was the one talking about it, so he held out a slight smile and stretched out his hand: "Hello, I'm Li Rongxian, the head of Airbus Asia Pacific."

Jin Fuli raised his eyebrows. Although he is not a senior manager of the headquarters, he is not to be underestimated as a person in charge of a large district. No wonder these young leaders are a little short in aura.

Jin Fuli's face remained unchanged, and he reached out his hand to shake Li Rongxian: "Jin Fuli!"

Unlike the cowardly leaders around him, Jin Fuli looked neither humble nor overbearing, which made Li Rongxian think highly of him.

Letting go, Li Rongxian smiled and said, "I didn't come here to discuss the list this time, but I happened to be on the way, so I was summoned by the headquarters. This time, the sudden arrival should not cause trouble to your company, right?"

"No no!"

Before Jin Fuli could speak, the leaders around him began to deny it with a little panic.

Jin Fuli's face gradually became gloomy. Usually, these leaders are arrogant to the people below.In the end, he bowed his head to a foreigner. The difference was so obvious that he couldn't understand it.

Regardless of Li Rongxian's high rank, in fact, he has no effect on the interests of Blue Sky Airlines.Because Airbus gave almost no discounts to Blue Sky, and Blue Sky was self-aware and never delusional about it.

Since it is a reasonable transaction, it is enough to treat Li Rongxian with a normal attitude. Is it necessary to serve him like this?Or, if Li Rongxian is served comfortably, Airbus will offer a discount, which is impossible.

Hearing the flattering words from the leaders, Jin Fuli couldn't stand it anymore, and interrupted immediately: "If you're talking about orders, go to my office, it's not convenient to talk here."

Li Rongxian smiled slightly: "Please trouble Mr. Jin to lead the way."

Jin Fuli nodded, and went to his office on his own, without even waiting for Li Rongxian.Li Rongxian was not annoyed, and followed quickly. The two walked side by side, while some leaders followed, and some returned to their posts.

Jin Fuli and the two were walking in front when Li Rongxian suddenly said, "Mr. Jin, besides talking about orders, I actually have one more thing to do here."

"Huh?" Jin Fuli raised his eyebrows, flashing a trace of surprise: "Is there anything else?"

He couldn't figure out what else Airbus representatives could talk about if they didn't talk about orders, could they talk about ideals in life?

"That's right." Li Rongxian lowered his voice: "When I came here, I heard that your company has a talented pilot. Can you introduce me?"

Jin Fuli was startled: "Who is it?"

A gleam flashed in Li Rongxian's eyes: "Xu Cang!"

　Thanks to the boring bookworm 198 for the million rewards, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow I will have a daily event

　　
　
(End of this chapter)