Chapter 410 Students From Maranello

While Chang Haonan and Luo Hairong were discussing how to sell the aircraft faster.

Paris France.

Professor Fernando Lorenzo, who was in the office of the National Road and Bridge School, was carefully examining a scanned photo that had just been sent to his mailbox on the computer screen.

The email came from Julian Cizeron, an old acquaintance of his at Airbus.

The other party is currently stationed in China and serves as the European representative at the Flight and Meteorological Safety Laboratory jointly invested by China and the EU.

When the two last contacted by phone, Cizeron complained that the cooperation agreement had only been signed a few months ago, and the laboratory was still a mere structure with staff but no space, so they had nothing to do at the moment. We were temporarily arranged to inspect the situation at a factory that once produced the nose parts of Boeing 707 and MD82 aircraft.

His evaluation at the time was that the factory could barely pass the test if it was used to produce passenger aircraft from the 1980s, but it was completely incapable of producing new models of Airbus aircraft, and he wondered if he had chosen the wrong path to come to China.

As a former Dassault and now Airbus engineer, it was easy to leave Paris and Toulouse but difficult to return.

However, in this email sent a few hours ago, Cizeron's attitude took a 180° turn.

Because today he saw a "very strange" fighter jet and happened to take a photo of it flying in the sky.

This is the one Lorenzo is looking at on the screen.

In the body of the email, Cizeron described his feelings in a shocking tone.

"I noticed that it did not retract the landing gear the whole time, so today should be the first flight of this aircraft. As far as the first flight is concerned, its movements are quite violent. Not only did it climb at an almost vertical angle at the beginning, but it also climbed at an almost vertical angle. It performed several steep turns and two high-speed rolls, showing strong maneuverability and agility..."

The large block of mixed uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as the continuous use of symbols and exclamation letters, make this email unfriendly to readers. If any student dares to write an email like this, he will be called over by Lorenzo and scolded. One meal is not enough.

In fact, even if it was sent by an old friend, he only read about a quarter of it and didn't want to continue.

But after clicking on the picture in the attachment, Lorenzo was stunned for a moment, and then patiently went back and read all the content behind:

“Although I don’t have any reference, my intuition tells me that it should be larger than the Mirage 2000, and although I am not willing to accept it, it should not fall behind even in the agility that the Mirage 2000 is best at, and it also uses An aerodynamic design that is completely different from all currently known models... It may look very similar to some Swedish or Israeli fighter jets, but you should know that they just use canard and delta wing designs. The essential pneumatic coupling is completely different..."

"I watched the video of the flight performance at last year's air show, but the aircraft at that time did not have much outstanding aerodynamic appearance. It mainly relied on abundant power, but this one is completely different..."

"It's hard to imagine that this is an aircraft designed by the Chinese. I mean, compared to their manufacturing level, it's completely unimaginable. These Chinese people either deliberately found a factory with old facilities to deceive and conceal their Real level, or any special abilities or skills in aircraft design..."

"..."

After reading the whole thought-provoking email, Lorenzo turned his attention to the photo again.

It is indeed very clear, with no sign of candid photography at all, and it was probably a telephoto lens.

The Chinese don't seem to be promoting this model in a big way, but they obviously don't want to keep it secret either. Otherwise, it would be impossible for a foreigner to shoot with a camera with a long lens in such a big way.

Of course, due to the angle problem, it is still impossible to see the entire plane from this photo alone.

However, Cizeron's judgment is correct. The Chinese do have some special skills in aircraft design -

After the agreement was signed at the beginning of the year, JAA obtained the icing simulation and prediction software as agreed.

Although it was only a limited-function version, during the trial process at several airports, it still helped them predict many risks that would cause flight delays in advance, saving airport operators and airlines hundreds of dollars in a few months. million euros in associated costs.

Otherwise there would be no Flight and Meteorological Safety Laboratory.

Moreover, the black technology that the other party can come up with seems to be far more than that...

Thinking of this, Lorenzo turned his attention to another email in his mailbox.

That was an official reply email sent by a company called Torch.

The content is that the National Road and Bridge School has passed the trial review, and the installation files will be shipped via air express after the relevant user manuals and legal documents are translated.

Although he has not personally experienced this software, he can already get a glimpse of its advanced nature from the preliminary documentation sent by the other party.

As a core member of Dassault Software Department, Lorenzo is extremely sensitive in the field of numerical simulation.

He almost judged from the promotional materials that the developer of this software should also be an aircraft designer, not a programmer, because the other party had an extremely accurate grasp of the pain points faced in actual engineering projects, and the solutions described were completely consistent. logic.

In addition, this TORCH Multiphysics is not only a design simulation software, but its calculation method can play a role in manufacturing and even new material development and other fields as long as its calculation method is slightly expanded.

As for why I didn’t do this…

Maybe it’s because of the lack of manpower, or maybe we haven’t considered this level yet…

Lorenzo obviously never imagined that in addition to the seemingly top-notch professional version (ver. professional), this software actually has a professional enhanced version (ver. professional plus).

But even if it was the former, the functions mentioned in it were enough to make him feel crazy.

The promotional material states that it can increase the comprehensive calculation efficiency of numerical simulation by more than 5 times.

Lorenzo feels that even if this number is a bit watery, if it can be increased by 3-4 times, it is already ahead of the times.

And since the Chinese can develop such incredible software, it doesn't seem surprising to design a brand new fighter jet with relatively complex aerodynamic calculations.

…

Lorenzo's thoughts were interrupted by the sudden ringing of the phone.

is his student assistant.

"Professor, there are two gentlemen looking for you outside. They say they are coming from Italy. They have not made an appointment, but you will definitely meet them."

"Uh...well, that's right."

Lorenzo rubbed his forehead and replied:

"Let them in, one of them is an old friend of mine."

A few minutes later, a tall, thin and expressionless man who was completely opposite to the other - a stocky man with a kind face walked in from the door one after another.

"Fernannio, long time no see!"

The former came over immediately after entering the door and gave Lorenzo a warm hug.

"Come on, Rory, who left me without saying goodbye last time and left me in the restaurant to pay?"

Lorenzo was unforgiving in his words, but judging from his expression, he must have a good relationship with the other party.

"Let me introduce you, this is..."

The man named Rory stepped aside and wanted to introduce the other person following him.

But before he finished speaking, he was interrupted:

"Don't be ridiculous, of course I know Mr. Jean Todt, the former team leader of Peugeot and the national hero of France, but he may be ruined soon."

As he spoke, he took two steps forward and shook hands with the other party.

In 1993, Jean Todt led the Peugeot team to take the top three places in the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year. Although it is difficult to be called a household name, it is difficult for French people who pay a little attention to racing not to know this name.

However, in the second year, because Peugeot rejected his suggestion to enter F1, Todt switched to Ferrari, the old F1 team that was already declining.

However, in the following years, although the team barely improved, it still could only hover between third and second.

This is why he is about to be ruined.

"So, in order to prevent me from being ruined, Mr. Byrne brought me to you, Professor Lorenzo. He said that you are one of the best people in the world in the field of computational fluid dynamics."

Todd, who was ridiculed, was not angry at all, but replied smoothly.

After all, this is not the first year that the media has written similar headlines.

"Come on, I'm not interested in your racing career. Now I just want to teach in school."

Lorenzo waved his hand and refused almost without thinking.

In fact, it was certainly not that he was not interested in racing, otherwise he would not have recognized the unattractive Todd at a glance, but he had already experienced a failed office struggle at Dassault and was already aware of the chaos within the Italian red team. After hearing about it, I won’t go in person just because of some interest.

After turning interest into work, interest often disappears.

Besides, for him who has already been engaged in aircraft design, although there is speed and passion in the racing field, there is really not much.

"Fernanio, Mr. Tod has recruited the entire Benetton team's championship-winning team, which can completely isolate the influence from the Fiat Group headquarters. Now there is only one person left who is responsible for CFD calculations..."

Rory Byrne wanted to give his old friend another piece of advice.

However, Lorenzo’s attitude was decisive:

"I no longer have that much energy to accompany you around the world."

He waved his hand, sat back in his office chair, and then happened to see the emails on the screen out of the corner of his eye.

This made Lorenzo hesitate for a moment, and then changed the subject:

"But Rory, I can give you a piece of advice."

"What?"

"You can try to learn this thing."

Lorenzo, with a tone that was 70% serious and 30% joking, turned the monitor in the direction of Byrne beside him:

"If you believe my vision, then I dare say that the efficiency of this thing is at least five years ahead of similar competing products."

"TORCH Multiphysics...I haven't heard of it before?"

"Yes, although this is just a promotional page, I read it and the content inside is still very reliable."

"La Chine...or is it software developed by a Chinese company?"

Byrne had an expression on his face that said, "Are you kidding me?"

"Yes, no joke, I'm even considering bringing two doctors over to communicate with them."

After hearing what Lorenzo said, Byrne turned to look at Todd next to him.

The latter nodded.

"So...do you mind if one more person goes with you?"