Chapter 889: Supplying Aircraft Engines to C919, Boeing's Cake Was Snatched Away
"If this project has nothing to do with Venustech, then I think your judgment is completely accurate."
"After all, China's aviation industry is not developed."
"But everything seems to change after Venustech touches it."
"Like the recyclable rocket Venus-9, can you believe that it was made by a Chinese company?"
"And the Kunpeng heavy transport helicopter, which Polar Bear and China wanted to copy decades ago, but never succeeded. In the end, Venustech quietly made it."
"I'm worried that they will do something with passenger aircraft."
It has to be said that as the president of Airbus Civil Aircraft, Fabrice has a good vision.
When he is arrogant, he is very arrogant, but he can still see the problems that should be seen.
Of course, this is also the reason why he is entangled.
Otherwise, just step on Boeing directly, why think so much?
"Venus Technology is now fully entering the aerospace industry, and Lingnan Province has also provided great support to Venus."
"Lingnan Province will provide relevant subsidies for all equipment investments of Venus Technology."
"The first batch of subsidies reached 10 billion yuan, which is a very rare scale."
"So Venus Technology is really a company full of uncertainties."
As a Chinese, Chen Jumin naturally knows a lot about Venus Technology.
Especially now that Venus Technology has begun to involve the aviation industry, it has more or less had some intersections with Airbus China.
As a result, Chen Jumin paid more attention to Venus Technology.
Even Venus Technology took the initiative to communicate with Chinese airlines to persuade them to open air communication services.
In the future, after the plane takes off, everyone will no longer have to worry about not having a network to use.
As long as the Starlink satellite receiver is installed on the plane, it can provide Internet services to passengers through the WIFI network.
This should still be attractive to many passengers.
"You should investigate and understand the layout of Venusstar Technology in aviation business, especially the business related to large aircraft."
"Make a report to the headquarters next week, and then we will evaluate how to deal with the relationship between Boeing and Venusstar Technology in the next step."
It is difficult for Fabrice to make a decision now.
If you make a rash decision without enough information, you may make a wrong decision.
This is obviously not the situation Fabrice wants to see.
Whether it is to help Venusstar Technology to step on Boeing, or to stand on Boeing's side to suppress Venusstar Technology, it is a decision with a relatively large impact for Airbus.
Fabrice hopes to make a judgment after knowing enough information.
...
The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 has been noisy for several days, but there has been no conclusion.
The various negative news about Boeing aircraft on the Chinese Internet has not decreased at all.
Even if Boeing China has done a lot of clarification work, it is useless.
Of course, on the American Internet, the situation has begun to change.
Many articles accused the Chinese Internet of malicious slander against Boeing by competitors.
Some articles even directly mentioned the name of Venustech.
At the same time, many media outlets have been constantly talking about Venustech's failure to execute the development fines issued by the United States, and have further expanded to the entire Nanshan Group.
The automotive industry, equipment industry, semiconductor industry, aerospace industry...
Nanshan Group's companies are all high-end, and they are basically grabbing the cakes of international giants.
So naturally, they have offended a group of companies in the United States.
Not to mention General Motors and Ford, everyone in the world knows that Nanshan Automotive Group and the other party have reached a point of life and death.
The competition between Nanshan Semiconductor and semiconductor companies such as Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and ON Semiconductor is also well known to many people.
As for the matter between Honor Technology and Apple, let alone.
The conflicts between other space exploration technology companies and Venustech, the conflicts between Boeing and the military-industrial complex and Venustech...
All kinds of things have been turned up by the American media.
It is clear that it is not only Nanshan Group companies that are good at media warfare. The American people are also very good at it.
AVIC has also felt the changes in American media.
"Mr. Cao, American media seem to be stirring up conflicts against Nanshan Group companies. The intention to suppress your group is getting stronger and stronger."
Zhao Tianling is now paying close attention to the Nanshan Group's movements. After all, he has just handed over a key project to Venusstar Technology to lead.
If the development of this project is affected because of the suppression of the Nanshan Group, it is definitely not the situation he wants to see.
"We have offended too many companies and damaged the core interests of many American high-tech companies. It is normal for the other party to want to suppress us."
"Unless we have always been selling porcelain and tea, shirts and shoes and socks, otherwise American high-tech companies will not watch us develop."
"Behind many contradictions, they are essentially conflicts of interest."
"After living a good life, they now feel the pressure of competition. What they want to do is not to improve their competitiveness, but to find ways to kill their competitors."
"After all, the companies that have problems have been closed down, and the problems are naturally equivalent to disappearing."
Cao Yang is not surprised at the changes in public opinion in the United States.
Since he began to shift the focus of his work to Venusstar Technology a few years ago and prepared to work hard on some high-end projects, he has anticipated the emergence of these scenes.
This is not even the worst scene. The eating habits of the American side will become more and more ugly in the future.
This is almost inevitable.
The butt determines the head. If I were the person in charge of Boeing, I would definitely try my best to kill Venusstar Technology.
"Yes, why can only American companies do these high-tech projects? Our Chinese companies have made breakthroughs in these fields, as if we are endangering the world."
"But as long as we don't get something, they will sell it to us at a sky-high price."
"Let alone other things, just all kinds of passenger planes, the price is really outrageous."
"We also produce all kinds of aircraft ourselves, and we know what the cost of a passenger plane is."
"But even if you know that they sell it to you at a high price, you have to buy it, otherwise there will be no aircraft to use."
Zhao Tianling couldn't help but complain in front of Cao Yang.
This time he called Cao Yang to express his concern and goodwill.
Now that Cao Yang has said this, he naturally couldn't help but complain.
In his opinion, it is not only the United States that is like this, but other countries are similar.
Therefore, AVIC has launched many projects in recent years to avoid being strangled.
At least we should minimize the stranglehold.
Otherwise, it would be too uncomfortable to live by others' faces every day.
"Mr. Zhao, the more intense Boeing's reaction is now, the more we are working in the right direction."
"The more they are afraid of us doing something, the more we will do it."
"In addition to the B-2 stealth bomber project, our Venustech is also preparing to officially announce its entry into the trunk passenger aircraft business and produce a large aircraft of the same level as the Boeing 777."
Cao Yang's words immediately shocked Zhao Tianling.
Producing a passenger aircraft of the same level as the Boeing 777 is something only Airbus dares to do.
Now Venustech has not even produced a regional passenger aircraft of the Boeing 737 level, and it is about to enter the trunk passenger aircraft. Is it too big a step?
You know, the situation of producing civil technology and military aircraft is completely different.
Military aircraft pay the most attention to technical indicators. As long as the performance is good, any other shortcomings can be accepted.
Civil aircraft are different.
Civil passenger aircraft pay the most attention to economic indicators. Since they are put into commercial use, this means that the cost must be kept to a minimum, and at the same time, the performance must be guaranteed to meet the needs.
Like military aircraft, as long as the performance is strong enough, it is not a problem to double the price, and it is not impossible to negotiate if the life is short.
It is not a problem if the maintenance is troublesome and many people are needed.
High fuel consumption and many supporting facilities can also be solved by other means.
For example, there are many ways to use aerial refueling aircraft, adding pods, and sending early warning aircraft to accompany.
The situation is different for civil aircraft.
The price is expensive, sorry, don't want it!
The fuel consumption is high, sorry, still don't want it!
The life is short, still sorry, still don't want it!
The maintenance is troublesome and requires a lot of manpower, haha, continue not want it!
It can be said that once the price of a passenger plane is expensive, the buyer will go to buy other passenger planes instead. There is no need to choose such an expensive technology.
In addition, civil passenger planes are much safer than military aircraft.
Although fighter jets have all kinds of performance that surpass passenger planes, that is when there are only a few or even one operator.
Even if a fighter plane has an accident, you can still escape by parachuting through the ejection seat.
But passenger planes are different. The hundreds of people on the passenger plane have never learned how to parachute to escape.
Once a malfunction occurs, it is almost certain to die, so passenger planes must be fully equipped for safety.
Otherwise, the disappearance of the Boeing 777 this time would not have such a big impact.
Although Venustech has already developed a high-performance and difficult helicopter such as the Kunpeng heavy transport helicopter, it has also developed technologically advanced products such as the Twin-tailed Scorpion UAV and the Skyhawk UAV.
However, in the field of passenger aircraft, Zhao Tianling feels that the other party really has no experience.
Even if the relevant technical research and development has begun a few days ago, it is impossible to produce results soon.
It is very likely that it will take another ten or eight years, or even more than ten or twenty years to produce results.
In this case, Cao Yang decided to produce a large passenger aircraft similar to the Boeing 777. Is this a matter of impulse?
Of course, Zhao Tianling would definitely not say so directly.
"Mr. Cao, although trunk aircraft are very important, the biggest sales volume is actually the regional aircraft, or the aircraft between the trunk and regional aircraft."
"But the C919 of Shanghai Commercial Aircraft Corporation is already preparing for this product. If Venusstar Technology also carries out similar projects, it is not very meaningful."
"So I think the research and development of large aircraft can be reconsidered?"
Zhao Tianling expressed his views tactfully.
In his heart, of course, he hoped that Venusstar Technology could really produce a passenger aircraft comparable to the Boeing 777, but reason told him to be more realistic.
Otherwise, a lot of money would be burned, but nothing would be produced, and the research and development of other projects would be dragged down.
That would be totally not worth it.
"Mr. Zhao, Shanghai Commercial Aircraft Corporation, you AVIC is also a major shareholder."
"They have been developing projects for many years. Are there any special bottlenecks that we at Venusstar Technology can assist with?"
Zhao Tianling took the initiative to mention the C919 project, and Cao Yang would naturally not miss the opportunity.
In fact, he had already arranged for people to roughly understand the current situation of C919.
It can be said that the progress is not smooth.
Especially in terms of aviation engines, the current plan is to use General Electric's products.
This is obviously not the situation Cao Yang wants to see.
However, the large aircraft project is very complicated. If Cao Yang rashly proposes that Venustech wants to participate in it, it may not end up with anything good.
There is naturally no need to do thankless things.
Of course, now that Zhao Tianling, a shareholder, has mentioned this topic, the situation is different.
"There are really many bottlenecks, both in avionics and engines."
"Even in terms of composite materials, we still need to communicate well with Nanshan Carbon Fiber to see if we can purchase from them."
"Our C919 is being developed in accordance with the standards for obtaining international airworthiness certificates, and there are many things in it that limit our performance."
"If Venustech has any ideas, please let me know, Mr. Cao."
Zhao Tianling is not stupid either. From the conversation with Cao Yang, he also felt a different taste.
So he kicked the ball back to Cao Yang.
See what cards the other party is going to play, and then see how you should respond.
"We are jointly developing aircraft engines with Venusstar Technology. The engines on the previous drones and the turboshaft engines used on Kunpeng were jointly developed by Nanshan Engine and Venusstar Technology."
"Facing the future large transport aircraft and small business jet markets, Nanshan Engine is also developing new models of aircraft engines."
"We have made some obvious progress and will be able to catch up with the supply to C919 by then."
"If Mr. Zhao is interested, you can invite experts from AVIC and Shanghai Commercial Aircraft Corporation to come and inspect and understand the gap between our aircraft engines and the products of General Power that C919 is going to use."
Although Nanshan Engine can handle the aircraft engine, it can be regarded as a great contribution to the C919 project.
But this is after all a matter of begging Party A to give an order, so the right attitude should be taken.
You can't rely on your own technical strength as Party B to completely ignore Party A.
Cao Yang is very clear about this.
Otherwise, if C919 prefers to use General Dynamics engines instead of Nanshan engines, it is very likely.
After all, it is too easy for Party A to deny Party B's proposal.
Everyone can make excuses.
Your Nanshan Engine's aircraft engine has not been verified by the market, so we are not considering using it now.
One of the performance indicators of your Nanshan Engine's aircraft engine does not meet our design requirements, so there is no way to use it.
You...
No matter what product it is, if you want to find fault, it is impossible not to find it.
"You want to supply aircraft engines to C919?"
Zhao Tianling looked at the calendar. Today is not April 1st.
Why are there so many shocking news?
First, Venustech wanted to produce Boeing 777-class passenger planes, and now it wants to supply C919 with aircraft engines.
I haven't heard of any topic about this before.
The origin of the C919 large aircraft can be traced back to the Y-10 project in the 1970s.
This is a major project that has not been completely completed after several generations of efforts, and aircraft engines are one of the main bottlenecks.
Now Cao Yang suddenly said that they can handle the aircraft engines of C919 and will supply them to C919.
How can Zhao Tianling believe this?
It is not that AVIC has the final say over Shanghai Commercial Aircraft Corporation.
Their level is not even worse than AVIC.
In this case, Zhao Tianling did not dare to easily throw out the news that Nanshan Engine will supply aircraft engines to C919.
Because if he is not careful, he will become a joke.
Aircraft engines, that is the real crown of industry, how can it be so easy to handle.
When England transferred the Spey engine to China, China spent many years but failed to completely imitate it!
"Yes, I know this proposal sounds a bit unrealistic."
"But having one more choice is not a bad thing after all."
"AVIC and MOFA can understand the situation before making a judgment."
Cao Yang did not expect to convince Zhao Tianling with just one phone call, that would be too much of a joke.
So first throw out the topic, then invite relevant experts to come and inspect, everyone has a good exchange, and then determine the general direction.
With the development progress of C919, even with the help of Venusstar Technology, it will take at least a few years to mass produce.
In this case, Nanshan Engine still has enough time to make targeted improvements to aviation engines.
Others may think that a few years is too rushed and it is impossible to complete the task.
But Cao Yang is very confident.
Most of them will spend more time on this project.
Venustech has no shortage of high-tech processing equipment, high-end materials, or high-tech talents.
In this case, although it seems very difficult to develop aircraft engines, it is not impossible.
In fact, many technologies of aircraft engines used in mainstream aircraft have not changed much from decades ago.
For example, the Spey engine just mentioned is actually an engine product developed by Rolls-Royce in the 1960s.
However, in China, products with the same performance were not fully produced until the 1980s and 1990s.
Other mainstream aircraft engine companies such as General Electric have not made any earth-shaking changes in technology in recent years.
If Nanshan Engine wants to catch up, the difficulty is not necessarily that high.
After all, in terms of various engine technologies, Nanshan Engine is now experienced.
"Okay, then I will personally lead a team to your place next week to learn more about the situation first."
"If Nanshan Engine's aircraft engines are really expected to be used on C919, we at AVIC will definitely fully support it."
"I will also communicate with Shanghai Commercial Aircraft Corporation in person and ask them to arrange experts to come and inspect, and we will confirm it together."
Zhao Tianling was impressed by Cao Yang's confidence.
Nanshan-affiliated companies have brought too many surprises to everyone over the years.
Although the supply of aircraft engines to C919 sounds unreliable, it is not impossible.
What if Nanshan Engine brings surprises to everyone again this time?
"You are welcome anytime!"
"Both Boeing and Airbus are earning our money, but they have various harsh cooperation terms."
"For example, the cooperation of Boeing in the disappearance of Boeing 777 is not good. All kinds of core information are not disclosed to the public. They are just acting as both referees and athletes."
"If C919 can use our aircraft engines, and then we can cooperate in flight control and fuselage materials, I believe that it will be able to achieve its first flight in the next three years, and it is not impossible to produce a prototype next year."
"In this way, it will be completely possible for domestic airlines to start using China's own passenger aircraft on a large scale in the next five years."
Cao Yang is now more active than anyone else in grabbing orders from Boeing.
Even Boeing has been listed as the number one competitor of Venusstar Technology by Cao Yang.
Let Nanshan Engine supply engines to C919, and Venusstar Technology will cooperate with Shanghai Commercial Aircraft Corporation to speed up the development of C919.
Not only can they make money by selling spare parts, but they can also grab a piece of the pie from Boeing by promoting the sales of C919.
This kind of thing is definitely worth doing well.
"Mr. Cao, your topic is a bit too big. I can't give an immediate reply for the time being."
"But I already know your idea. I will communicate with Mr. He of Shanghai Commercial Aircraft Corporation later."
"As long as the parts can be obtained domestically, I believe Shanghai Commercial Aircraft Corporation will definitely not want to import them from abroad."
"After all, for such a world-renowned product, everyone will definitely pay attention to the localization rate of the parts on it."
"If most of them are imported, the gold content of this large aircraft will drop significantly, which is definitely not what Shanghai Commercial Aircraft Corporation wants to see."
Zhao Tianling took a deep breath and suppressed his inner surprise.
The various information in this phone call today really exceeded his imagination.
He was a little impatient to call Shanghai Commercial Aircraft Corporation to communicate about this matter.
Although it is not certain whether the matter is reliable, as long as there is such a possibility, it is already a huge progress.