The military-industrial scientific research system of the academic master.

Chapter 595 What a coincidence, the Japanese happen to have the parts we need to use

After several inspections to confirm that the parameters of the transmission system were calibrated correctly, the relevant design plans were quickly sent by human express to the Eurocopter headquarters R&D center in Marseille, a city in southern France.

Of course, a huge amount of design documents and related drawings, even after they have been digitized, cannot be carried by one person in a bag.

What's more, confidentiality and safety issues must be taken into consideration when traveling abroad for business.

Therefore, Bingfei Group directly sent a delegation.

The team leader is Wang Xibo, deputy director of the design office of the 602 Research Institute, which is responsible for the research and development of helicopter avionics systems.

Compared with fixed wings, helicopters have one more control axis for flight, so the avionics system, especially the flight control part, is far more complex than the former.

On the other hand, helicopters, except for some special models, are not actually considered "high-value materials" in the force establishment sequence.

Transport helicopters are equivalent to flying trucks, while armed helicopters are equivalent to flying tanks or infantry fighting vehicles.

Damage tolerances are also much higher for helicopters than for fixed-wing aircraft.

"Hello, it's nice to see you all again so soon."

Therefore, after some rational thinking, Pierre felt that China's actions made it seem more real.

Similar to the situation when Le Maire arrived in China last time, Eurocopter also sent a convoy to greet Wang Xibo and his party who were delivering documents.

The combination of these two reasons resulted in the fact that until the late 90s, the vast majority of helicopters on the market still used traditional hydraulic flight control systems, which posed considerable risks in terms of safety and response speed.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Z-12 project, I became familiar with the design logic of helicopter fly-by-wire flight control.

Don't ask, the question is about independent research and development, the question is just because I thought NH90 looked good, so I built a similar one later.

Wang Xibo was also going abroad for the first time. Just like Le Maire, who had visited China for the first time before, he was also observing the street scene outside the window intentionally or unintentionally.

In fact, the former was a bit surprised at first that Bingfei Group was able to come up with a complete transmission system solution (strictly speaking, two sets including AS365) in such a short period of time.

This is another reason why Bingfei Group chose to send Wang Xibo to lead the team to France——

And this kind of problem is indeed difficult for those who don’t know it, but not difficult for those who know it.

If you take the wrong route, you will make more mistakes the more you do, but on the right route, it may be a smooth journey.

"Let's help each other. I hope our cooperation will go well."

In fact, the first two prototypes that have been put into flight test have been relatively successful in verification at the flight control level despite many problems.

After a few rounds of fruitless greetings, the group of people boarded several buses in the convoy.

However, Le Maire himself is based in Paris and is no longer from Eurocopter, so the person who came forward this time was Pierre, who is currently in charge of the NH90 project.

The leaders of both parties shook hands, and Pierre patted Wang Xibo warmly on the shoulder.

The NH90 was the first model to attempt to use fly-by-wire flight control on a helicopter and only use the hydraulic system as a backup.

Of course, the reason for the emergence of such a strange brain circuit is largely because he has been really exhausted mentally and physically by this project recently.

That is a methodological issue.

But think about it carefully. During that negotiation, the Chinese people believed that their Eurocopter Group’s design route for the transmission system was flawed.

This means that the cost is very tight.

Before landing in Marseille, he actually had some expectations and fantasies about the social conditions of a developed European country like France.

But now that he was in it, as the largest city in southern France, the prosperity of Marseille was indeed something he had never seen before.

While Wang Xibo lamented that it was worthy of being an established developed country, he also wondered with envy whether China's big cities could one day be built to this level.

However, before he could finish his emotion, he noticed a commotion on the sidewalk outside the window.

It seemed that someone had snatched something and then fled. Someone was chasing him, causing people around him to flip over.

"..."

Seeing this scene, Wang Xibo was stunned at first, then laughed at himself for what he had just thought, and finally rested his head on the seat pillow again, closed his eyes and rested.

As the convoy shuttled back and forth between the cities, everyone soon arrived at the Eurocopter headquarters on the outskirts of Marseille.

"Mr. Wang, please."

Under Pierre's guidance, the group of people got out of the car one after another and walked into the company's campus where they couldn't see the edge at a glance.

Compared to the more glamorous urban areas just outside, although the liveliness here is much lower, the beautiful natural environment around it and the high-tech buildings make it feel more like a future city in a developed country.

Not to mention anything else, the building of this institute alone is infinitely more spectacular than the one in Institute 602.

For the technicians who came here, this is a more enviable place than the bustling lights of the city.

"This is the kind of research institution..."

Wang Xibo rubbed his nose and made up his mind:

"When the group has money in the future, it will have to tidy up the environment in the compound..."

After thinking this way, of course he couldn't show anything anymore, so he walked into the R&D center while his mind was running rapidly.

The design data of the NH90 helicopter transmission system is a hard drive installed in several password boxes.

Nothing paper.

As for why not use a bigger suitcase...

Because large luggage needs to be checked in, and this process is obviously very risky.

Whether it is the risk of information leakage or the risk of equipment damage due to violent transportation. Eurocopter has already arranged the handover ceremony.

A Chinese-French bilingual blue background with white text banner hangs directly above the lobby of the R&D center. Below it is a row of tables and chairs, and a promotional board behind it.

Keep a low profile, but there must be no shortage of procedures to follow.

After a brief opening ceremony, Wang Xibo and Pierre signed their names under the document, and at the same time symbolically handed over their password boxes to each other——

According to the agreement, Eurocopter will provide design information for the helicopter's avionics system.

In addition, Wang Xibo and others will work together with their European counterparts here for a period of time.

The superficial reason is that since they are already in-depth cooperation, just exchanging design data is definitely not enough, and we need to leave more people to exchange some experiences.

The deeper reason, which even Wang Xibo himself is not entirely clear about, is that Chang Haonan needs someone from China in France during this period.

The first is to convey the situation back to the country in real time so that he can be prepared to respond at any time.

Secondly, once the two prototypes malfunctioned during the test, having one of their own present could help them clear up the relationship immediately and pin the blame firmly on the NSK Group.

Therefore, after completing the data handover ceremony, Wang Xibo divided the people he led into two teams. One team went to inspect the avionics design of the NH90, and the other team was responsible for submitting the transmission system design to Eurocopter's technology. The staff made it clear.

Pierre originally thought about whether he should arrange a dinner to reflect their old European style and avoid embarrassing Lanxi, but seeing that his Chinese colleagues were so eager to get into work, he put the matter aside went.

After all, he himself was in a hurry.

The two NH90 prototypes are currently grounded, and the design team has taken a tough stance in revising the cooperation plans with several partner countries. The pressure they are currently facing is indeed considerable.

Fortunately, the information is all digital and organized in advance, which saves both parties a lot of non-technical trouble.

"China's colleagues are very sincere..."

Pierre stared at the computer screen in front of him and sighed inwardly:
"Look at this neat classification. It's all for our efficiency. We handed over the information in the morning and started work that afternoon..."

Of course, he didn't know that this was because Chang Haonan was afraid that the French were too inefficient and would affect his own plans, so he just regarded it as a gesture of goodwill from the Chinese side.

……

As professionals, it only took his team about a week to basically read the overall design plan, and found that there was a huge difference between the design provided by Huaxia and its own old plan.

"It turns out that the design here achieves compatibility between two engines with different performance..."

"As for the transmission part of the tail rotor, the power distribution is much more reasonable, and the transmission loss can be reduced by 5%..."

"Such a narrow optimization range can really allow them to find the best design point?"

"It seems that China has a rich talent pool in the field of multi-objective optimization..."

"..."

Of course, just like a person who has just seen the answer to a complex exercise, although he can understand it, it will take a certain amount of time or even the guidance of others to truly understand it and integrate it for his own use.

"Mr. Wang, I see that there are some parts with strange performance calibration in this design plan..."

After the initial shock, Pierre quickly discovered several parts of OCD that made him more uncomfortable.

Not only is the problem of mental critical damage, but also the large number of parts with previously unused part numbers, which means that they may have to find a new group of suppliers before entering mass production.

"There is nothing you can do about it. The performance characteristics of the two engines you plan to use are very different. It is already very difficult to find such optimization points, especially the bearing set of the main reducer you just mentioned. , even a slight deviation will not leave enough safety margin.”

Wang Xibo's answer was flawless because he thought so too.

"Okay, then we have to let the marketing department contact the suppliers..."

Hearing what Wang Xibo said, Pierre could only admit it.

It's better to be able to solve it than not to be able to solve it.

If that doesn't work, you can even consider finding a bearing company to specially customize a batch of products.

But in that case, the supply cycle may be very long.

However, the actual situation seemed to be much smoother than Pierre imagined.

Just that night after he assigned the task to the marketing department, he received a call back from the other party:

"Pierre, for those new parts you requested from suppliers, we... found them in stock."

"Spot goods?"

For a moment, Pierre felt that he might be blessed by God, and his voice even trembled a little:

"Do all the parameters meet the requirements? This time the standards are very strict and there can be no mistakes."

"Completely fits the bill."

The person on the other end of the phone replied:
"And...if it weren't for a few hours of work, I would have thought that this bearing was specially customized by someone, and it is exactly the same as the request you sent this afternoon."

“So, which company can offer the product right away?”

"NSK Group, a Japanese company."

Pierre was silent for a few seconds.

He also felt that it seemed a bit too coincidental.

But even if I exhaust my entire life’s imagination, I really can’t think of any possibility other than coincidence, so I have no choice but to put the receiver to my ear again:

"Contact them as soon as possible!"

(End of this chapter)