Chapter 1017 Shocked Dai Ying for a Whole Year

As the first model of the SeA series engine and the core power of the entire Falcon Z project, the delivery ceremony of the SeA650 was full of people.

In addition to the four major project participants, as well as Paris Aviation Services and China Silver Deer Airlines, which are currently confirmed as the first users of Falcon Z, even French officials sent representatives to attend.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

The conservative senator from Vienne was appointed as the new head of government by Jacques Chirac last month.

The obvious reason why such a big boss came in person is that his constituency contains many aviation manufacturing suppliers, involving a total of about 20,000 voters, so he has always been a die-hard supporter of the French aviation industry.

And he owns a Falcon 900 private jet.

But in fact, at least another equally important reason is that Raffarin has always been known as a so-called "pro-China" figure in the political arena.

This of course does not mean that he really likes China.

It's because behind the People's Movement Alliance to which he belongs, there are a large number of funders who have reaped the dividends of cooperation with China in the past few years.

Some simply started out because of this.

Alliances formed out of common interests are often stronger than those formed out of emotions.

Therefore, the first thing Raffarin did when he arrived at the scene was to take Liu Yongquan and several other company representatives and take a photo with the SeA650 as the background.

The craftsmanship of French journalists is indeed commendable.

The choice of angle is very good.

The receiver with diamond pattern shines in the sunlight.

On the engine bracket below, there are two national flags of China and France.

In front of the engine, a dozen people crossed their arms and held hands, looking happy.

The publicity effect is full.

Although in the development of this model, Snecma and Dassault were "forced" to make a lot of concessions to China.

But as far as the entire Falcon Z project is concerned, the French still make enough money——

As estimated by the Dassault Civilian Department in previous years, China's business aviation industry has developed extremely rapidly after 2000.

The top group of wealthy people have begun to purchase their own private jets one after another, while those at a lower level have also driven the development of the business aviation industry through leasing.

This part of the business almost exclusively belonged to Bombardier and Gulfstream in the past, but with the emergence of the Falcon Z project with Chinese origins, North American companies' monopoly on fixed-wing business jets is gradually being broken.

In addition to the demand for special-purpose aircraft platforms such as aviation medical and telemetry surveillance...

In short, it is a market that, although not as good as civil aviation, is definitely more potential than pure arms sales.

Of course, it was not easy for Raffarin to come over, and he definitely couldn't just take a look at the engine and be done with it.

Therefore, after the entire ceremony, I also asked about the Falcon Z project status.

"The original schedule is all on track. It is planned to make its first flight before the beginning of next year, mass production and delivery by the end of next year, and at the latest the first half of the next year."

When talking about the progress of Falcon Z, Ed Steiner also showed a look of relief.

Although many obstacles were encountered during the research and development process, and even many tasks that were originally planned to be completed by themselves were forced to be handed over to China, in any case, the leadership was still in the hands of Dassault.

On this basis, the entire project was neither over budget nor overdue.

It might even be possible earlier.

In the context of declining engineering efficiency in recent years, it is simply the pride of France.

"very good."

Sure enough, after hearing this answer, Raffarin nodded with satisfaction:

"The current government official planes are a few Airbus A319CJs. They are too old and the range is too short. They can't even fly directly to Washington or the capital. Moreover, many times we don't have that many accompanying personnel..."

Although the words may sound a bit off-topic at first glance, considering the context of the conversation, it is obviously a clear hint.

The business jet fleet may need to be updated.

Although the bulk of them definitely belongs to Airbus, there is a high probability that it is the Airbus A340 with a long enough range.

But as long as you can spend some money to lobby, it shouldn't be difficult to get some of the pie.

Ed Steiner quickly caught the baggage:

"The largest model in the Falcon Z series can accommodate 14 passengers and can fly up to 12,000 kilometers..."

There are many ways to convey benefits in private, and it is impossible to discuss the black-box transaction part in such a public place.

Therefore, Ed Steiner just quietly reported the range and passenger capacity of Falcon 8Z, indicating that he had the ability and willingness to be a new supplier——

Of course, what he is interested in is not the few single-digit orders, but the advertising effect in the business jet industry.

Raffarin was also a thousand-year-old fox and immediately praised:

"Compared to those business jets in the past, the performance is really good."

Then the conversation changed again:

"I wonder when you are going to release the specific performance data of this model?"

Today's delivery ceremony is actually a semi-public event. After all, many media and industry peers have been invited.

But as a product, it definitely needs a more suitable promotion platform.

"Soon, Your Excellency, it should be in a few days..."

Ed Steiner replied, while showing a smile:

"How many days later?"

In fact, Raffarin was thinking about the Farnborough Air Show to be held next month.

The answer turned out to be even earlier than that.

"Well, next week, the European Business Aviation Show will be held in Geneva, Switzerland."

Edsteiner explained:

"The content of the Farnborough Air Show is too complicated. Whether it is professional day or public day, most people's attention will be focused on military aircraft and large passenger aircraft of Boeing and Airbus. On the contrary, this kind of small and exquisite exhibition has fewer idle people joining in the fun, and the visitors are very purposeful, which is more suitable for the promotion of Falcon Z."

"We have specially prepared a cross-sectional model of the Falcon 8Z and a full-size model of the SeA650 engine. Now it has been packed and is ready to be sent to Geneva for exhibition..."

"..."

...

The air show is actually mainly for users.

After all, the customer groups of business jets are very busy and don't have so much time to pay attention to scattered aviation industry news.

Even business aviation companies specializing in business jets cannot keep an eye on so many suppliers around the world every day.

So a special occasion is needed to provide them with information.

But for those who are truly insiders, the content revealed in this delivery ceremony is enough to judge a lot of things...

The next day.

Birmingham, UK.

Rolls-Royce headquarters.

Luke Norris hurriedly found Professor Roger Eleanor, who had just assigned the next stage of tasks to the technical team.

As a professor at Cranfield University, the latter did not actually join Rolls-Royce, but he would come to Birmingham in person every 3-4 weeks to confirm the development progress.

"Hello, Professor Eleanor."

After stopping the other party, he first greeted him in a casual manner.

But Eleanor didn't buy it at all, just waved his hand with a little impatience:

"If you have anything to say, just say it directly..."

When he took over the EJ200 project a few years ago, he thought it was just an ordinary job to fill the gap for the increasingly unreliable young engineers.

As a result, he found that although there was only one open pit, there were a lot of invisible traps around it.

You might fall into it if you step on it.

After four or five years, the EJ200 was just adjusted to a usable state, but there was still a considerable gap from the paper performance advertised that year.

For this reason, Elino even had to postpone his retirement plan.

Therefore, it was inevitable to be a little irritable.

"Professor, there is a promotional material provided by Snecma here, the content is quite detailed, so I would like to ask you to analyze it..."

As he spoke, Norris took out a copy from the briefcase under his arm... Strictly speaking, it was a document.

Seeing the other party's sincere attitude, the latter was really hard to refuse, so he had to take it in his hand:

"Snecma... Is it the M88 engine again?"

However, as soon as the voice fell, before Norris answered, he had already noticed the content on the cover.

SeA650 engine.

Strictly speaking, this is not entirely a promotional material.

It is also a bit like a technical manual.

Of course, it is impossible to involve any specific technical details-

The French themselves have not fully understood it.

Instead, it is similar to being given to users, mainly maintenance personnel.

Because this kind of thing has to be distributed in large quantities, it is impossible to keep it confidential.

Almost all technical manuals for civil engines can be found in the second-hand market.

So Snecma directly modified it based on it and prepared to see if it could be sold to other users besides Dassault.

So naturally, the British got it.

Eleanor simply flipped through it and felt that the thickness was really a bit surprising, so he frowned:

"I am just a technical consultant for EJ200, this is considered extra work..."

"We can pay more."

These six words directly countered all the professor's dissatisfaction.

In fact, the main reason why he has not quit his job despite high blood pressure is that Rolls-Royce does not care about how other places treat people, but the money is really in place.

"Let's go, go to the office first..."

Eleanor walked to his office while flipping through the information in his hand:

"To be honest, although it is indeed much more detailed than the general promotional materials, I don't think this thing is too big..."

At this point, his voice stopped abruptly.

Even his footsteps stopped.

Norris, who was walking next to him, was unprepared and almost tripped to the ground with a sudden brake.

He turned to look at Eleanor.

But he found that the latter was staring at a page in the book.

Even the blue iris shook slightly.

"Professor?"

Norris tried to shout.

After a while, he heard a response.

It was just a question:

"I remember you said before that the core engine of this model... is shared with the M88 engine?"

"Yes."

Norris nodded.

Eleanor's expression became serious:

"But the combustion chamber outlet temperature given here is nearly 100℃ higher than the previous M88-2 data?"