Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1281 Global Express (Second update, please subscribe)

“…Two years ago, when Soviet leader Khrushchev announced to the world at the United Nations General Assembly with the sound of his shoes, “We will bury you”, now, Your Excellency will use the miracle of Nanyang to tell them at the United Nations General Assembly that not only can you not bury us, but we will live a better life!”

The news coming from the car radio made Xu Qingyun's mouth curl up, and he said to himself:
"You are indeed a group of reporters..."

The reason why he was so emotional was that he had watched the live broadcast two years ago. Although he was deeply impressed by the scene of Khrushchev knocking his shoes at the UN General Assembly, he clearly remembered that Khrushchev said, "Down with colonialism and slavery, we will eventually bury it."

Moreover, the knock on the shoes was directed at the Philippine representative, but now the reporter has turned it into this.

While expressing his feelings, Xu Qingyun said:

"Fortunately, I studied aeronautical engineering, not journalism..."

Is there journalism in college?

Xu Qingyun wasn’t quite sure either. Anyway, science is science. As for journalism...it might be too metaphysical.

While listening to the news, Xu Qingyun drove towards the company and soon arrived at the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, the largest aviation company in Asia and even the world's largest aviation company.

As the car drove into the parking lot, a C707 roared past his head. Now there is a C707 or C717 delivered almost every day.

Jet airliners are becoming more popular around the world at an unexpected speed, replacing cruise ships and propeller planes, and the company's C Series aircraft is the big winner.

Thanks to the C707 and C717 passenger aircraft, Nanyang Aerospace Industries has become one of the world's most well-known aviation manufacturing companies, and its scale is even comparable to large companies such as Boeing and Douglas.

Looking up at the plane flying in the sky, Xu Qingyun walked into the company with a relaxed step. Soon, he entered a hangar, where a strange-looking plane was parked. Near the plane, there was a group of engineers, who were conducting the final inspection of the plane.

Today is the day for the test flight of this aircraft.

Looking at the prototype in front of him, Xu Qingyun couldn't help but mutter:

"Global Express!"

The world's first supersonic passenger aircraft!
After Nanyang Aviation Industry brought the world into the jet age, the civil aviation industry turned its attention to supersonic passenger aircraft, predicting that airlines in the 1960s would need an aircraft that could fly long distances and reach their destinations quickly. Supersonic passenger aircraft were generally seen as the future development direction at the time, and the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the United States all planned to develop supersonic passenger aircraft.

The British government even set up a supersonic transport aircraft committee to conduct research with several companies. France also has a similar plan, and the progress is similar to that of the UK. For this reason, the two countries even signed a government cooperation agreement on the development of supersonic aircraft to jointly develop supersonic passenger aircraft.

As for why Nanyang was excluded?
Because Nanyang’s needs are different from those of Britain and France, the premise for cooperation between Britain and France is that the two countries’ plans are similar, that is, large passenger aircraft that can transport hundreds of passengers!
And what about Nanyang?

Although the research project was launched five years ago, Nanyang's "supersonic passenger plane" is actually just a business plane! Or, in other words, a slightly larger business plane.

"What a pity, it can only accommodate 48 passengers."

At this time, Lin Tonghua walked up to him and said:
"Why? You think it's too small?"

"teacher."

As his student, Xu Qingyun quickly said,
"It's not big, it can only accommodate 48 passengers."

This is exactly what Xu Qingyun finds hard to accept. After all, even the smallest C717 can carry nearly a hundred passengers.

"When it actually flies, it may carry even fewer passengers, perhaps only a dozen per flight."

Lin Tonghua smiled and said:

"Just like you said when you proposed this plan, the biggest problem with supersonic passenger aircraft at present is that the fuel consumption is too high and the flight cost is too high. If you want to maintain the operating costs, you must adopt high ticket prices, and such high ticket prices will make most passengers choose ordinary subsonic aircraft. After all, the cost of supersonic flight is not affordable for everyone."

A few years ago, when countries around the world began to develop supersonic passenger aircraft, Nanyang Aerospace Industries also wanted to join in. After all, as the world's largest jet airliner manufacturer, it would be a loss of face if it let others get ahead.

Therefore, Nanyang must also be developed.

After the report was submitted to Li Yian, he immediately thought of another world, "Concorde" - the world's only officially operational supersonic passenger aircraft.

During its operation, Concorde flew at twice the speed of sound, but the price was that the Concorde ticket was high. A round-trip ticket from London to New York cost more than nine thousand dollars. Traveling between Europe and the United States on a Concorde flight has become the dream of many people since childhood.

At that time, $9,000 was equivalent to half a year's income for an American! From this, you can imagine how expensive the Concorde ticket price was. It was precisely because of the high ticket price that the passenger capacity was always seriously insufficient. Because of the serious losses to the airline, despite the government subsidies, the Concorde was eventually retired.

After learning this lesson, Li Yian would not let Nanyang's money go to waste. After all, Concorde cost Britain and France billions of dollars in the decades from its development to its operation!
The research and development costs alone amount to 5 million pounds!
With subsidies from the US government, Boeing burned through more than a billion dollars and resolutely abandoned its supersonic passenger aircraft project.

This money...Nanyang can afford it, but there is no need to spend it!
Therefore, Li Yian naturally needs to learn this lesson.

"So, Your Excellency chose it!"

Lin Tonghua pointed at the prototype in front of him and said:
"According to the design, the Global Express can travel between major cities around the world at a speed of more than Mach 1.8. Although this figure is lower than the 2.04 Mach speed of a fighter jet, it will shorten the flight time between London and New York to about 4 hours. It saves more than half the time of ordinary civil airliners, so although the ticket price is expensive, it will still be popular with business travelers."

"And this speed..."

Lin Tonghua specifically emphasized:

"Mach 1.8! This is also what you proposed. From the perspective of materials science and economics, this speed is the most suitable. It is not twice the speed of sound, but its temperature is moderate and does not require special design and special materials, which means cost reduction..."

This is due to the influence of supersonic aerodynamic heating, and the temperature change of the supersonic fuselage skin is much greater than that of subsonic aircraft. When the aircraft reaches a cruising speed of Mach 2, the skin temperature can reach more than 120 degrees Celsius, and the highest temperature area can even reach 207 degrees Celsius.

This requires the use of materials such as titanium alloy. As the cost goes up, so Li Yian took a shortcut - 1.8 Mach, a speed that can be met with aluminum alloy, and a cruising speed of 2200 kilometers per hour, is enough to meet the needs of most flight missions.

After a brief pause, Lin Tonghua said:
"Your judgment on product positioning is very accurate. Speed ​​is secondary for ordinary passenger planes. Both airlines and passengers pursue safety, comfort and low cost. Only some special guests will have corresponding requirements for speed."

In fact, this is also the fundamental reason why various airlines launched supersonic business jets after the Concorde was retired, because there is indeed a business demand in this regard, especially as the economic ties between countries in the world become increasingly close.

Those business people would like to be in New York in the morning, in London at noon, and fly to Hong Kong in the afternoon.

In this era of the global village, not only does the other world have this need, but this world also has this need.

Of course, more importantly, Li Yian personally also has this need.

After all, he has family in both London and New York. That's why he made this request. For rich people, what's the harm if the ticket price is several times more expensive?

People don't care about this at all!

After all, no "boy" doesn't want to create a sonic boom cloud several meters high at an altitude of 18000 meters. Moreover, for many business people, they do have this need. After all, time is money.

Based on the lessons learned from the Concorde, Li Yian proposed a relatively safe solution.

"Besides, compared with large aircraft with a passenger capacity of more than 717 people, the technology of this business aircraft is much simpler, and we can also use it for technical verification, just like we used C for technical verification back then."

As the chief designer of C717, Lin Tonghua often couldn't figure out whether it was the C717 that made the C707 successful, or the C707 that made the C717 successful. After all, there are many common technologies between them.

But one thing is certain: it was the success of the C717 that led to the subsequent success of the C707. It was the C717 that brought the world into the era of jet aircraft.

The "Global Express" in front of us is, to some extent, a technology verification aircraft. After all, it adopts many of the latest technological achievements. Because of its smaller size, it draws more on the research and development experience of fighter jets.

Although there was no suitable engine at the beginning of the development, in order not to delay the development progress, BMW engineers decided to add afterburners to the WP100 turbofan engine used in passenger aircraft and bombers to piece together a turbofan engine. BMW Aircraft Engines made extensive improvements to the WP100, added afterburners and reverse thrust systems, and finally successfully developed a turbofan engine for this aircraft.

Although its afterburner thrust is only 14 tons, it can still achieve supersonic cruise thanks to its three powerful turbofan engines. Of course, more importantly, the WP100 engine is a reliable, low-priced, and widely used aircraft engine. In terms of cost, it is also conducive to reducing the overall cost of the aircraft. After all, developing a new engine is not only time-consuming, but also costly.

It is precisely relying on such overall control in engineering research and development that it was able to complete the design and manufacture the first prototype in such a short time!

"After all, it's you, the teacher. You stand at a different height and see things more thoroughly."

In addition to compliments, Xu Qingyun turned his attention to this aircraft. Can it usher in an era of supersonic passenger aircraft like the C717?
Although he didn't know the answer, his heart was still full of desire. He wanted it to take off as soon as possible and fly all over the world like the C717.

At 10 o'clock that morning, after repeated checks by engineers, the Global Express, the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft that took five years to develop, finally taxied on the runway under the control of the test pilot, and then suddenly took off into the sky, although the first test flight did not conduct a supersonic flight test.

But it still deserves to be the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft!

(End of this chapter)