General Nairo Mora didn't know whether Fang Lang was a person who could distinguish between public and private affairs, but he was a smart man and it was impossible for him to believe whatever Fang Lang said.
Moreover, the original use of turboprop engines was approved by their Air Force after discussion. Everyone knows how difficult this project is.
It would be really stupid to give up now because the overhaul time of this engine is too short.
He was not that short-sighted. The reason why he wanted to bring Fang Lang over today was to discuss a solution.
After seeing that there was no dissatisfaction on Fang Lang's face, he didn't hesitate and said directly:
"Fang, our aviation academy has been put into use, and the first batch of students in the school have begun theoretical studies. Soon they will start learning on the aircraft, and we don't have much time left.
Although we have purchased many trainer aircraft from the United States, I still hope that our students can use our self-produced trainer aircraft for flight training.
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Now it seems that when we originally designed this trainer aircraft, the data indicators we set for it were not too high.
Compared with these trainer aircraft purchased from the United States, I feel that our trainer aircraft are not too advanced and can be used as fighter jets, and the cost of use is indeed a bit high.
It seems a bit wasted as a trainer aircraft. "
Fang Lang never thought that the Air Force would not accept the goods. After all, when he was designing and developing this trainer aircraft, codenamed T-1, he made many suggestions to Professor Tan Ke.
These suggestions were actually inspired by Fang Lang's impression of Brazil's most successful training aircraft project in later generations - the Super Tucano. Although, with Brazil's current technical strength, it is certainly impossible to make the current T-1 as good as the later "Super Tucano".
But it must be at least as close as possible. With these suggestions put forward by Fang Lang, apart from the fact that the current T-1 trainer aircraft does not have the electronic equipment of later generations and the engine power cannot reach the level of later generations, it is actually very good in all aspects. Close.
Therefore, as long as this aircraft can be put into production smoothly, Fang Lang is sure that he can definitely meet the needs of the Air Force.
Now listening to what General Nairo Monet meant, he seemed to think that this aircraft was too advanced and could be used as a fighter jet. It seemed a bit wasteful to use it as a trainer aircraft. This made Fang Lang a little confused about what to say.
Listening to everyone's discussion in the conference room, Fang Lang glanced at Major Leo Canter, who was standing in front of the wall drawings, waiting for the results of the exchange, and turned to General Nairo Mora beside him and whispered:
"The major gentleman just said, let us all discuss and see how to choose.
It seems like you have some new ideas, so please feel free to tell me. "
In fact, whether it is General Nairo Mora, Fang Lang, or the Air Force officers here, everyone knows the results of the so-called discussion and makes the choice. The final decision-making power does not lie in the hands of these officers.
Instead, it was only on Fang Lang and General Nairo Mora. After all, this project was led by the two of them.
As the boss of Fangyuan Aircraft Manufacturing Company and a representative of naval aviation, Fang Lang's ideas are a decisive influencing factor.
So General Nairo Mora invited Fang Lang over today, obviously hoping to persuade Fang Lang to make certain changes to this aircraft. Although the other party did not say anything explicitly, Fang Lang already had some vague guesses.
General Nero Mora heard Fang Lang's words, at least from his tone, he did not hear any dissatisfaction. He was not polite and said without any concealment:
“Our idea is to see if we can replace this turboprop engine with a more mature piston engine. In this way, even if the performance of the aircraft is affected, we can accept it.
You also know that our Air Force has limited military expenditures. If we directly purchase the turboprop engine version, we may not be able to afford such a frequency of overhauls. "
When Fang Lang heard this, he became convinced. As expected, the Air Force wanted to use piston engines to reduce the maintenance cost of aircraft.
Fang Lang actually had no objection to this. Anyway, the current T-1 project was designed and developed by the Aviation Academy jointly sponsored by the Air Force and the Navy and commissioned by Fangyuan Aircraft Manufacturing Company.
The funds used for the entire project are also shared by both parties. Now that Fangyuan Airlines has completed the research and development of the prototype according to the originally designed performance parameters, Fangyuan Airlines has completed the contract in accordance with the contract content.
As for the Air Force, which feels that maintenance costs are too high and wants to reduce performance and use piston engines, it would be equivalent to starting over the original project. In this case, it will obviously require reinvestment.
But for Yuan Airlines, there is no loss. Instead, it can have new funds to conduct research on another aircraft model.
From Fang Lang's point of view, there was no problem. It was the military's money that was burned, and the technology was actually digested and absorbed by Fangyuan Airlines. What was there to be dissatisfied about?
As for the issue of re-investing in the navy, Fang Lang has no problem. It's not paying for it himself, so why wouldn't he be unwilling?
Therefore, he said without hesitation:
"If this is the case, the entire aircraft design would be equivalent to having to be overthrown and started from scratch!
After all, piston engines and turboprop engines are different. If such a change is made, not only the nose part will need to be modified, but the size of the entire aircraft may have to be redesigned.
Are you sure you want to choose this? "
After General Nero Mora heard Fang Lang's words, he also frowned and said helplessly:
“We all understand what you said, and this is why we are struggling.
We have full trust in the technical strength of Fangyuan Aviation. After all, the successful completion of the research and development of the T-1 project has fully proved this point.
We do not mean to give up the T-1 project, because after our demonstration, we found that the T-1 trainer aircraft can become a very excellent ground attack aircraft with slight improvements.
If possible, we would like to invite you to resubmit a ground attack aircraft research and development project to the Ministry of Defense and directly turn this T-1 project into a ground attack aircraft.
The new research and development military expenditures will be used to develop piston engine training aircraft. "
In fact, Fang Lang knew in his heart that General Nairo Mora had another option that he had not mentioned, which was to directly purchase turboprop engines from abroad instead of producing them himself.
During this period, Britain and the United States already had turboprop engines whose overhaul time and power exceeded this engine. For example, the power of a single unit of the "Dart" 525 turboprop engine of the British company Rolls-Royce has reached 1,990 horsepower.
However, the size of this engine is definitely not suitable for use on a small training fuselage.
Fang Lang also knew the reason why the other party did not propose this idea. On the one hand, it must be to support domestic production, and on the other hand, it must have something to do with being the boss of Fangyuan Company.
This is a way of giving yourself a lot of face.
After hearing General Nero Mora's words, Fang Lang did not answer immediately, but began to think carefully and weigh the pros and cons.
Soon, he thought of a question and had to turn his head to look at the other party. He said to General Mora apologetically:
"General Mora, if a new ground attack aircraft is developed based on the T-1 project, our naval aviation may not be able to participate."
Fang Lang's words made General Nairo Mora's expression change. He didn't expect Fang Lang to refuse. You must know that this is the business of taking care of Fangyuan Airlines.
Seeing General Mora's face, Fang Lang could only sigh helplessly and said:
"Don't get me wrong, General. It's not that I don't want to continue to cooperate with your Air Force, but the T-1 aircraft is not suitable for naval aviation to be used on aircraft carriers.
Don't forget, its takeoff and rolling distance is 380 meters, while the deck length of our aircraft carrier is only 246 meters. "
As soon as these words came out, General Nairo Mora still didn't know what the problem was, and he ignored such a critical issue. For a moment he didn't know what to say.
In fact, everyone in the conference room had already focused their attention on Fang Lang and General Nairo Mora. After hearing Fang Lang's words, they all sighed.
Understand that Fang Lang cannot be blamed for this.
For a moment, the conference room fell into a strange state of silence, which made Fang Lang feel very depressed. After thinking about it in his mind, he finally broke the silence and said:
"Your Majesty General, I understand what your Air Force is thinking.
Now that you have decided that you want to use a piston engine as the power for the training aircraft, I can come forward to negotiate with Fangyuan Aircraft Manufacturing Company and let them raise their own funds for research and development.
But when purchasing, we must allow the other party to recover the R&D costs by increasing the unit price. What do you think? "
When everyone in the conference room heard this, they all looked at Fang Lang in disbelief. Everyone understood that the investment in developing an aircraft was very high.
Fang Lang actually promised to come forward to negotiate with Fangyuan Aircraft Manufacturing Company and let them do their own research. This is a great favor to the entire Air Force. After all, if this is not the case, the Air Force may eventually propose to replace imported turboprop engines to increase the overhaul life of the engines.
This would not only be a major blow to the Yuanyuan Aircraft Manufacturing Company, but would also make the fully domestically produced aircraft that had been so vowed to be promoted become a joke, and General Nairo Mora, who initiated the project, might be implicated.
Of course, it is possible not to replace the imported engine, but this will cause the Air Force's military expenditures to be severely sucked by this bottomless pit. Of course, the Navy Department's military expenditures will also be damaged.
This is what neither Fang Lang nor General Nairo Mora want to see.
In fact, the current turboprop engine still has a lot of room for improvement. As long as the power research laboratory is given some time, they will be able to break through these technical difficulties.
Even if it fails, technical support can be obtained from the United Kingdom and the United States. Sooner or later, the overhaul time will definitely be extended until the requirements are met, but now the Air Force obviously cannot wait.
What really made Fang Lang helpless was that the Air Force actually felt that the T-1 had surplus technology, which made Fang Lang dumbfounded.
In Fang Lang's view, no matter how excellent this T-1 is, it is always just a propeller trainer. How can it be said that it has excessive technology in front of jet aircraft?
Unfortunately, although the current Brazilian Air Force knows that Europe and the United States have already begun to abandon propeller aircraft and enter the jet age, they have not really begun to contact jet fighters.
This gave them the illusion that the T-1 had excessive technology. Compared with the old trainer aircraft purchased from the United States, the T-1 was too advanced and could be used as a fighter jet. This is why the Air Force now wants to use The real reason for switching the engine to a piston engine.
