The next day, Zhao Yi took a bus from the Star Express Company to the Star Express Company. When he got off the bus, Su Miao was already waiting outside the car. Although Zhao Yi didn't like this very much, it was because of the good intentions of his subordinates and it was hard to say anything in person. This was probably the reason for not hitting the smiling man.
Now Star Express Company can be said to be the company with the largest land area in Chengdu. It covers an area larger than that of Chengdu Aircraft. Since there was no shortage of money, Zhao Yi enclosed 20,000 acres of land here at that time. Now this is also a suburb. Therefore, enclosure of land is not very troublesome. If the city develops in this direction later, then enclosure of land will not be realistic.
Zhao Yi and the others first went to the aircraft research and development department to learn about the current development progress of the aircraft. At present, the main goal of Star Express Company is to develop and manufacture regional airliners. This is because the difficulty of regional airliners is relatively low, the second is to cultivate a group of domestic parts suppliers, and the third is to obtain more real data to support subsequent large-scale trunk lines. Aircraft development.
"What stage is it at now?" Zhao Yi asked directly.
"We have digested the aircraft design technical information this year and are currently in the stage of searching for parts suppliers. We need to find all parts suppliers before we can start the production of the prototype." the head of the R&D department replied.
"So what's the situation with parts suppliers now?" Zhao Yi asked.
"For the most important avionics system, we have reached a cooperation agreement with Fanxing Software Company, Tiangong Precision Instrument Company and Tianxing Semiconductor Company to assist us in the development of avionics system software and hardware equipment, as well as other components that are not very technical. They looked for suppliers from other domestic companies, but the effect was not great.
The main reason is that most of the manufacturers of materials used in aircraft are military companies. We do not have purchasing authority, and some special parts cannot be produced by any manufacturer, so we need to produce them ourselves. ” replied the head of R&D.
"So what's the difficulty now?" Zhao Yi asked.
"The first is the avionics system. Although we work together on avionics, we have no previous experience, so the progress is not very fast. The second is the material problem. Because of this problem, the engine of the power company cannot be delivered on time, and the airframe material has not yet found a suitable material. Not only that, we have not found suitable suppliers for many equipment materials,” the person in charge of the R&D department said truthfully.
"I will provide you with relevant training on the avionics system. I hope you can come up with finished products as soon as possible after the training. As for the material issue, I already talked about this issue at the power company yesterday. I will set up a special materials company to develop various materials. The special materials the company needs," Zhao Yi said.
"It's great that Mr. Zhao can do this, but I don't know when it will be available?" The person in charge of the R&D department was not afraid of offending people and asked directly about the supply time.
"It is now late June. I estimate that it will take four months at the earliest before the first batch of materials can be supplied. Let you produce the test aircraft first. If we want to supply them on a large scale, it is estimated that we will have to wait until after January next year." Zhao Yi said.
"I understand, and I will make corresponding work adjustments. We expect to complete the assembly of the test aircraft by February next year, and then there will be ground testing. After the ground testing, there will be flight testing. It will take a year for this stage to go smoothly, and then there will be It has been officially sold after obtaining the airworthiness certificate, so it will be 83 years at the earliest." Su Miao said at the side.
"There is nothing we can do about this. It is our first time to build an aircraft. We are newbies and we have to start from scratch. After the regional airliner is successfully commercialized, the development and manufacturing of mainline aircraft will not be so troublesome." Zhao Yi said helplessly.
After learning about the research and development progress, Zhao Yi went to visit the company's wind tunnel equipment. To build an airplane without a wind tunnel, it would be to build a hammer. Since the main research and development of Star Express is commercial aircraft, the requirements for the wind tunnel are not very high. Currently, the maximum speed of the wind tunnel of Star Express is 1100 kilometers per hour, which is a little lower than the speed of sound.
This speed is enough for the design and testing of commercial aircraft. Which supersonic wind tunnels are used for the development of military aircraft? Currently, the company does not plan to get involved in this area of business.
If you want to engage in the research and development of military equipment, you need a special license, which is difficult to obtain. Especially for private companies like Zhao Yi that have never proven their strength, it is almost impossible to obtain it.
Another thing is that the country has basically shifted its focus to national economic construction. Military expenditures have been declining year after year. The military does not have much money to purchase advanced fighters. If these things are not sold to the military, there will be no other buyers. Maybe in the end Serious losses will occur.
The safest route is to first develop regional aircraft, prepare all basic conditions for mainline aircraft, and then develop large mainline aircraft to prove the company's strength. In this way, it is much easier to obtain a license for military equipment production and research and development. After obtaining the license, the research and development of military aircraft can be carried out.
As the audience saw before, why didn't Zhao Yi come up with a world-shaking technology from the beginning? First, the country's foundation is poor, and it is difficult to develop science and technology that is too advanced. Second, the country is not strong enough. Holding on to good things will make others more hostile and even use all means to snatch them away, which is not conducive to the country's current strategy of forbearance and development.
Now we are in the stage of laying the foundation and cultivating technical talents.
In fact, many companies under Zhao Yi are like this. For example, automobile companies are now developing various civilian vehicles. Once enough technology and supply chains are accumulated in this area, they can build armored vehicles and tanks.
Now that Zhao Yi's company is getting bigger and bigger, there will be less and less talent. This is why he established Tianwen University. Without talent, no matter how much technology he has, he will not be able to transform it into physical objects. Moreover, no matter how powerful a person is, he cannot quickly promote the overall progress of the entire country. He can only affect one area at most.
The birth of a superpower must be an all-round progress. It must be ahead of other countries in the world in most fields. Even if a small part is weak, it cannot be much weaker, otherwise what awaits you is endless containment and embargo.
Closer to home, the wind tunnel of Star Express Company is a full-scale wind tunnel that can be used for physical testing of large aircraft. Therefore, it occupies a large area, as big as three standard football fields. The power consumption for one test is also amazing, so future tests will Basically, peak electricity consumption periods need to be staggered.
After visiting the wind tunnel equipment, we also visited the aircraft production factory. It is also a huge factory. The construction has not been completed yet. After the construction is completed, it can meet the online production of 10 aircraft at the same time. For such large-scale factories, many more may need to be built in the future to meet the production of different types of aircraft.
In addition to the large area of the wind tunnel and production plant, there is also a large apron and two runways, which are built according to the specifications of the airport.
This is also the reason why Zhao Yi wants to take so much land. (End of chapter)