UGB #474 - New Problem
#474 - New Problem
After introducing Rolls-Royce to the cooperation on airliners and new turbofan engines, according to Ren Zhong's plan, following the CAC-120, the new, wider, and thicker CAC-150 would be designed in full swing, adopting a 5-seat, 30-row layout. After the Spey turbofan engine achieved greater thrust through iteration, a new model with more powerful thrust would be designed based on the aforementioned model, the CAC-180, which would be further lengthened to form a 5-seat, 36-row layout! This would compete for the 200-seat market. Because this passenger capacity is already comparable to Boeing's 4-engine 707 and McDonnell Douglas's 4-engine DC-8, the only shortcoming is in terms of range, which is basically within 4,000 kilometers under the current aero-engine power conditions.
However, the advantage of twin-engine aircraft is that the maintenance and operating costs are much lower. For intra-European and European-African aviation, the competitiveness is very strong. According to the popular routes covered by the two aviation hubs of Mist Capital and Eiffel, the customized A300-110 / A300-130 / A300-160 can reduce the single-seat operating cost by more than 15%.
In this way, Donda and Rolls-Royce's cooperation in the 100-200 seat airliner segment will have a great advantage in both medium and short-haul routes.
As for the 200-seat class, Ren Zhong needs Donda and Rolls-Royce to successfully develop the RB211 three-spool turbofan engine before further enlarging the fuselage to develop a twin-engine, long-range, large-capacity airliner.
As for the current long-range airliners, Ren Zhong's plan is to cooperate with Rolls-Royce to further increase the thrust on the basis of the WS-9 to more than 65 kN. The improved technical route is very clear. According to the development of the Spey in the main world, the Rogue Eagle once improved the Spey RB168-25R-based non-afterburning TF-41 engine, producing approximately 1,419 units for its A-7 attack aircraft. This TF41 changed the original 5-stage fan to a 3-stage fan and a 2-stage low-pressure compressor. The fan diameter increased from 826 mm to 950 mm, increasing the air flow and pressure ratio. The engine inlet guide vanes were eliminated, and the high-pressure compressor was changed from 12 stages to 11 stages. The turbine guide vane and rotor blade installation angles were adjusted, increasing its thrust by 17%, from 55.4 kN to 64.5 kN (5.65 tons to 6.57 tons). The 2-type even increased to 66.8 kN (6.8 tons).
Therefore, theoretically, the WS-G should be able to complete the new target of 65 kN quickly by following the TF-41 improvement route.
In this way, the thrust will increase by more than 35% with twin engines, exceeding 130 kN. Without making major changes to the airframe, and after appropriately increasing the fuel tank volume, the long-range version of the CAC-180 (A300-160) large-capacity series can be completed quickly. According to the current intercontinental demand, increasing the fuel tank capacity by 25 tons will easily exceed a range of 7,000 kilometers, temporarily making up for the shortcomings of intercontinental transportation. After the new three-spool aero-engine comes out, the new 200-seat CAC-200 (A320) airliner will be launched.
From the current technology, this development route has the least risk and the highest degree of fit with the aviation market, covering the 100-seat 3,000-kilometer range market to the 200-seat 8,000-kilometer range market in one fell swoop. The technical difficulty is relatively controllable, and there are no particularly large technical improvement obstacles. With the carbon fiber technology route introduced by Ren Zhong, the weight of the aero-engine and airframe can be greatly reduced. By competing with competitors' 4-engine airliners with twin-engine airliners, Donda's airliners can maintain a continuous competitive advantage.
Of course, this process may take more than ten years to complete. Through so many years of research and development, Donda's aviation industry has basically cultivated its own team in the design of large airliners and the research of aero-engines. If there are any changes in the future, it can completely self-evolve.
Because in the engine development after the RB211, Ren Zhong's role in the team's research and development is becoming more and more macro.
The Spey engine research, which is now cleverly completed, will not have so many pixel-level replication opportunities in the future.
It is too difficult to get an active aero-engine. You have to have a reasonable use to buy a plane!
Even if Ren Zhong is extremely wealthy, it is unlikely that he will buy planes one after another.
After all, the next easiest sample to obtain is the CFM56, which is commonly used on airliners of the A319 level. A single purchase costs several hundred million, and annual maintenance is also required. Spending like this is a bit too much for Ren Zhong in the main world, after all, his money is mainly invested in research and development.
At the same time, the more advanced the reverse engineering is, the more difficult it is to reverse.
It's just that the program control and other aspects of modern fully digital new aero-engines are basically unknown. Simply imitating is no longer feasible.
Therefore, Ren Zhong is now focusing on developing the technical accumulation of the research team. By cooperating with Rolls-Royce, a top aero-engine company in the Bright Sword world, to research several aero-engines, he can learn how to research a new aero-engine from their actual forward research thinking.
Now, a close cooperation has been reached with Rolls-Royce, and at least three engine researches are being carried out simultaneously.
One is based on the detailed design data of the Tumansky R-27 V-300 lift/propulsion turbojet engine and the RD-38 lift engine, combined with the Pegasus engine obtained by Rolls-Royce to jointly research vertical takeoff and landing engines. In the future, twin engines may continue to jointly research a vertical takeoff and landing fighter.
The second is based on the WS-9, where both parties research a micro-innovative enlarged version of the WS-9G, mainly used for the power upgrade and replacement of CAC-120 and A300 airliners and long-range needs.
The third is the famous RB211 three-spool engine. After the WS-9, a brand-new turbofan engine with a three-spool design will be carried out, mainly with design ideas provided by Donda.
Since the technical ideas of these three engines mainly come from Donda's aero-engine design team, Rolls-Royce cannot refuse the opportunity to climb the peak of aero-engine in the Bright Sword world together. Even for the new lift engine researched for vertical takeoff and landing fighters, after both parties jointly invest funds and technology, Rolls-Royce's internal estimate is that the cost of researching the three engines is at least two-thirds less than if they were to research them independently.
In other words, their current investment in jointly researching three engines is not as much as their investment in researching one engine alone.
This is because Donda has given very clear ideas on the future research technology route of these engines, which can save them a lot of exploration time.
In the main world, Rolls-Royce spent 10 years researching the RB211 engine before achieving mass production. Rolls-Royce began to develop advanced transport aircraft engines in 1961 and started researching the three-spool solution. The development of the RB211 engine began in the mid-1960s and only achieved mass production in 1971.
But now, with Donda's main design ideas, it is planned to complete the design and prototype in about 3 years, and achieve the initial mass production in 5 years at the latest!
This saves a lot of research and development funds for the project and seizes the golden time of aviation development in advance.
Rolls-Royce simply couldn't refuse such an opportunity.
Of course, successfully replicating Spey's technology and the Dongda Aviation Engine Company's success had led Rolls-Royce to believe they were dealing with a top-tier aviation engine design company.
Coupled with the engine data Ren Zhong had brought from the main world, all of which represented successful experiences, the Dongda Aviation Engine Company's engineers, while somewhat lacking in original capabilities at the moment, were still able to digest and theoretically validate the acquired data with Ren Zhong's accelerated assistance. This made it impossible for Rolls-Royce's designers to discern that the technology had been obtained from elsewhere.
Ren Zhong had temporarily secured two important steps in aviation development: first, penetrating the Western mainstream market with passenger aircraft, and second, infiltrating top-tier Western aviation engine research and development enterprises to absorb valuable engineering experience through joint research. If they gained experience from the joint research of these three new aero-engines, even if Rolls-Royce couldn't withstand the pressure and withdrew from the collaboration, Ren Zhong would still be very confident in continuing to optimize and iterate on their own aviation development based on this foundation.
After all, mastering the complete set of experience steps from start to finish in researching these three engines would be equivalent to formally learning modern aero-engine engineering practice, supplementing the missing path experience from taking shortcuts. Next, they could combine the experience of the modern world and begin researching the WS-10 high-thrust engine and the top-tier civil aviation engine, the Trent.
Truly achieving freedom in the development of the aviation industry.
Of course, these were all things for many years to come. The RB211 alone would be enough to play with for at least 20 or 30 years. After all, in the main world, Rolls-Royce's RB211 continued until it was discontinued in the 1990s, and the successor model, the Trent, only gradually began to replace the RB211 in the 1990s.
According to Ren Zhong's plan, the Trent would also be the perfect successor to the RB211, regardless of whether they could continue to cooperate with Rolls-Royce in the future.
Following in Rolls-Royce's footsteps in the main world, the Rolls-Royce in the Bright Sword world almost certainly wouldn't be as dazzling in engine technology as it was in the main world, because Dongda Aviation was walking ahead of them like a pioneer. However, with the passenger aircraft business, Rolls-Royce was clearly no longer just an aviation industry support manufacturer, but a Western aviation giant.
Therefore, for Rolls-Royce, Dongda was both a blessing and a curse, but overall beneficial.
Ren Zhong, focusing on the aviation industry, had finally completed a major layout, and now only needed to pay attention to the execution of some key nodes.
With the cooperation on several major projects such as grain, aviation, and automobiles, Dongda had opened a gap in the West.
Soon, the Gauls also smelled the scent and came knocking on the door.
"Dean Ren, our Railway Technology Research Center is currently encountering a difficult problem." Professor Zhao Xiaoming, who was in charge of railway technology research and development, generally wouldn't come to Ren Zhong with ordinary problems.
Professor Zhao Xiaoming succinctly stated everyone's current confusion.
Ren Zhong was not at all surprised by their confusion.
"What are the mainstream opinions now?" Ren Zhong didn't state his own opinion first, but continued with Professor Zhao Xiaoming's line of thought and asked.
"The mainstream opinion within us now is that it is necessary to further increase the speed of the railway, but there are different opinions on whether the final speed of the railway should be increased to 180 km/h or 200 km/h.
Because based on internal combustion engine locomotives, a speed of 200 km/h is basically the limit. So, the high-speed railway limit discussed by everyone is 200 km/h. Originally, everyone didn't have much disagreement with this conclusion, but recently, after a Gaul company conducted a technical exchange with us, some comrades believe that our high-speed railway technology route needs to change to a newer type of electric locomotive."
"What company did you exchange with?" Ren Zhong was a little curious.
"It's Alstom from Gaul. According to their introduction, as early as 1955, they conducted short-distance tests on the Landes-Dax line in the Bordeaux region, twice breaking the world's highest railway speed record: first, on March 28, the Alstom locomotive numbered CC7107 achieved a test speed of 320 km/h, and the next day, another BB9004 locomotive broke this record with a speed of 331 km/h. This is the world's highest railway speed achieved by an electric locomotive.
After listening to the introduction and reviewing the relevant materials provided by Alstom, some of our comrades believe that electric locomotives are the hope for the future of high-speed railways, and that the upper limit of high-speed railways should be increased to 350 km/h, so that they can compete for the air market within 1000 kilometers and become the best means of transportation within a 1000-kilometer range."
"From Alstom's tests, this high-speed limit of electric locomotives is theoretically possible, but the tests also proved that there are still big problems with the current car body, tracks, and other aspects. The tracks deformed in several hundred-meter sections of the test section under an average light-load pressure of 6 tons. To solve these problems, not only must the tracks and car body be re-researched, but the construction cost of future tracks will be several times the cost of ordinary railways!" Professor Zhao Xiaoming said.
It's them, Ren Zhong's heart stirred. Although he wasn't very clear about how this company was doing in the Bright Sword world now, in the main world, this was a technologically leading enterprise with a bizarre fate, a typical example of being suppressed even by allies.
In this world, Alstom and Dongda haven't had much interaction yet, but in the main world, this company has left an important mark in our history of electric locomotive development, and is also one of the providers of high-speed rail technology.
He didn't expect that in the Bright Sword world, Dongda hadn't found them yet, and they had come to their own door.
However, Ren Zhong immediately thought of the Rolls-Royce matter and knew the key: Alstom couldn't get enough money in their own country to develop their high-speed rail lines!
After all, both Gaul and the Empire of the Setting Sun were victims in World War II. Don't be fooled by winning the final war, but they basically exhausted their final vitality. Compared to the Empire of the Setting Sun, Gaul was actually even more bleak!
Ren Zhong didn't rush to answer Professor Zhao Xiaoming's question. After returning to the main world, he conducted a fairly in-depth study of this company, and then comprehensively sorted out the history of high-speed railway development before calling Professor Zhao Xiaoming over.