Siheyuan starts from a better life

Chapter 1086 Dilemma
A week later, news came from Xinyi Airlines that the design of the large aircraft had been completed and assembly had begun. Excited Jiang Yan drove directly to the aircraft final assembly company in Tianjin with his bodyguards.

After knowing his arrival, the company's general manager Wu Yuemin brought Jiang Yan to the large aircraft production workshop. Only then did Jiang Yan see the appearance of the entire large aircraft. It was wider and taller than the 747, but the overall length was not much different.

"How is the project going? Can it be completed as planned?" Jiang Yan asked as he looked at the aircraft that had been assembled into its outer shell.

"The internal assembly of large aircraft is very complicated and it will take at least nine months to complete. After the first prototype is assembled, it will take another four months of ground testing. It is expected that the earliest prototype will start flight testing in early 1993. Now the second and third prototypes have also begun external assembly." said Chief Engineer Mr. Wu.

"Mr. Wu, just go ahead and do it without worrying about other factors. I have prepared sufficient financial support for the large aircraft project. If there are any problems, just come out!"

After Jiang Yan finished speaking, he suddenly realized that no one was talking, and their expressions became unnatural. Jiang Yan frowned, and there was nothing wrong with his own words! Could it be that the development of the aircraft encountered some great difficulties? That was not right. The people present were all top scientists in the country, and they all had the kind of personality that became more courageous after encountering more setbacks. What was going on!

Jiang Yan cast a questioning look at Mr. Wu, then spoke.

"Has something happened to Mr. Wu? Or is he in some trouble?"

"Negotiations for our plan to introduce CFM56 engines have failed." Old Wu said.

CFM56 is a classic civil aviation engine, jointly developed by General Electric (GE) of the United States and SNECMA of France. Since its first flight in 1979, this engine has been widely used in various models of many airlines around the world, including Airbus A320, A340 and Boeing 737.

The CFM56 engine adopts a twin-rotor, axial-flow, high-bypass ratio design, in which the fan exhaust provides about 78% of the thrust, the turbine exhaust provides the remaining 22% of the thrust, and provides power for the accessory gearbox 5. This design makes the CFM56 engine have higher fuel efficiency and lower noise level.

"Then are there any alternative products?" Jiang Yan asked with a frown.

The most important part of an aircraft is its engine. Currently, there is no special engine in China. Jiang Yan's company plans to introduce the CFM56 engine. If there is no subsequent backup plan, their entire aircraft project will have to be discontinued.

The engineers of the large aircraft worked day and night. The design and construction of large aircraft adopted a lot of the most advanced technologies in the world, and some technologies were even pioneered in the world. Even foreign counterparts had to admire the technology of Jiang Yan and others. In the past, when they participated in international large aircraft seminars, they were invited to attend the key technical issues. Now, with their many advantages in technology and R&D, no one would drive them out. Instead, they were more willing to communicate with Jiang Yan and others.

Through communication and technology exchange with peers, Jiang Yan and his team's development of large aircraft has truly entered the fast lane. However, now it is stuck here with the hole-drilling machine, and all their efforts are almost in vain.

At this time, Jiang Yan also understood why so many people had such expressions.

"John Bull's RB211-524G is my second plan," said Mr. Wu.

The RB211 is a family of high bypass ratio turbofan engines produced by Rolls-Royce plc with thrust ranging from 37400 to 60600 pounds (166 to 270 kN). Originally developed as a powerplant for Lockheed's L-1011 (TriStar), it entered service in 1972 with the commissioning of the TriStar aircraft and was the sole power source for the aircraft. The huge amount of money spent on the research of the RB211 caused Rolls-Royce plc to go bankrupt in 1971, and it was only after it was nationalized by the John Bull government that the company was able to survive. The RB211 is the first three-spool turbofan engine, which also enabled Rolls-Royce to go from a small player to a world-class competitor in the field of aircraft engines. "A few days ago, a message came from there saying that they hope you can go to John Bull and they want to negotiate with him," said Mr. Wu after a moment of hesitation.

"Okay, I understand. I'll contact you later and go to John Bull." Jiang Yan said

Jiang Yan's words calmed everyone down. Then Chief Engineer Cheng, Mr. Wu and some researchers explained to Jiang Yan in detail the design performance and assembly procedures of large aircraft. Jiang Yan found that there were many new faces in the Large Aircraft Center of Ruyi Aerospace Group. Jiang Yan knew that with the progress of large aircraft, Ruyi was still recruiting new people to join. Although Jiang Yan's large aircraft construction project was subject to many rumors, it was still the most attractive enterprise for talents.

In the evening, Jiang Yan came out of the Ruyi Aviation Group. The large aircraft design center, sitting in the car and thinking about what he saw and heard today, he felt a little happy and a little disappointed. He was happy that the large aircraft was progressing rapidly, and disappointed that the Eagle Sauce was targeting him. However, Jiang Yan thought that with John Bull as a troublemaker, he might be able to negotiate well this time. After all, that engine was already an obsolete project, and it was also a serious drag on the project.

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While Jiang Yan was thinking about how to get to John Bull, Brown, the general manager of John Bull Rolls-Royce Co., Ltd., was having a meeting with his subordinates.

"What do you think about the Flower Growers' introduction of the RB211 series engine project?" Brown looked at the people below and spoke first.

"I think we can introduce it. After all, the RB211 is an outdated and obsolete engine for us. Currently, we are mainly developing the Trent engine, which is the top priority. Currently, the investment is relatively large and funding is relatively difficult, so selling the RB211 can bring us a lot of funds. Now our RB211 sales are getting worse and worse internationally, and many products are squeezing our living space." Paul, who is in charge of sales, spoke up.

"Then how do we explain this to the Eagle Sauce?" board member Neville said.

"This is John Bull, an independent country. The Eagle Sauce has no right to interfere with a product that is about to be phased out."

The meeting quickly reached a consensus that in the face of interests, everything else was really worthless. However, they also discussed at the meeting how to sell the products at a high price. There were not many opportunities for blatant extortion.

The document produced by the meeting was quickly sent to John Bull's House of Commons. After review by the House of Commons, the document was sent to the House of Lords. After layers of approval, the document was finally sent to the Prime Minister's office. How to sell it and whether it could be sold still required the Prime Minister's approval.

After World War II, John Bull's position in the world economy continued to decline, and the economy experienced 30 years of stagflation, which was even jokingly called "John Bull disease" by the outside world. Against this economic background, coupled with the further setbacks of the two oil crises in 1973-1975 and 1979-1981, the John Bull economy also fell into the fourth economic recession after World War II in the early 90s.

In the first half of 1990, the economy showed a trend of slow growth and a large number of people were unemployed. This caused Prime Minister John Major a lot of headaches and he kept thinking about how to break the deadlock.

(End of this chapter)