The rise of great powers: starting from military industry

Liu Tao not only wants to develop military transport aircraft, but also civil aviation passenger aircraft.

The safety of civil aviation aircraft is the first thing to consider. There are hundreds of people on board a plane. Once an accident occurs, it will bring devastating disaster to the entire product. Then there is comfort, because civil aviation aircraft are for passengers, so they must feel comfortable. This comfort is reflected in low noise and the aircraft seats.

As for military transport aircraft, safety is not so strict, because in the event of a malfunction, the pilot can parachute.

"Brother, is this plane more complicated than two bombs and one satellite?" Liu Ziyu had curiosity in his eyes.

In her eyes, Liu Tao is omnipotent.

To be honest, Liu Ziyu believes that aircraft are far less technologically complex than two bombs and one satellite.

"This is different. Two bombs and one star are all a one-time deal. You only need to consider flying out and achieving the goal. You don't need to consider flying back. Aircraft are different. Aircraft need to be used repeatedly. They are constantly taking off and landing. One aircraft It can be used for 20 to 30 years or even longer," Liu Tao explained.

Although aviation and aerospace have always been juxtaposed together as "aerospace" or "aerospace", the two departments have even been merged together.

But in fact there are significant differences between the two.

For example, rocket engines do not need to be reused, while aircraft engines are required to operate stably for at least 10,000 hours.

Moreover, large aircraft have very high requirements for the aviation industry.

A very important reason for the cancellation of the Yun-10 project is that the domestic aviation industry was previously unable to support the Yun-10 project.

Firstly, there is no money, and secondly, there is not enough technology.

Waiting for the fate of the Yunshi project, the only choice is to dismount.

At that time, China's industrial system was not ready to own large aircraft.

Putting down the ingredients, Liu Tao and Liu Ziyu ate noodles together.

After eating the noodles, Liu Tao frowned slightly. To be honest, he didn't even expect that Yun Shi's situation was far from what he thought.

In August 1970, the state assigned a task, code-named 'Project 708', which was designed by the Modu Aircraft Design Institute and manufactured by the Modu Aircraft Manufacturing Factory. The development work received collaborative support from nearly 300 units in more than 10 ministries and commissions, including the Ministry of Aviation Industry, and the Modu Aircraft Design Institute. . The development of the Y-10 aircraft began in August 1972, and aircraft 01 was delivered for static testing in October 1976. Aircraft 02 made its first flight on September 26, 1980. By 1985, it had flown for a total of 164 hours and made 121 takeoffs and landings. It has conducted test flights for performance, stability, system, and finished product adjustments. It has flown to nine major cities including Beijing, Harbin, Yangcheng, Kunshi, Hefei, WLMQ, Rongcheng, LS, and Zhengzhou, and transported supplies to Tibet seven times.

The Y-10 aircraft was grounded in February 1985. The completed test flight subjects proved that the basic performance and flight quality of the aircraft met the design requirements.

According to reports, the performance and technical level of the Y-10 aircraft are roughly equivalent to the 707 passenger aircraft of the American Boeing Company.

The Boeing 707 is a four-engine long-range jet transport aircraft developed by Boeing Company. It is also the first Boeing jet airliner in service. The prototype first flew on July 15, 1954. The original model was the KC-135 aerial tanker developed for the U.S. Air Force. , with the consent of the U.S. Air Force, Boeing successfully developed the Boeing 707 civilian airliner based on the KC-135 in 1957 and delivered it for use in 1958.

China Civil Aviation once purchased 10 320Cs!

However, according to Liu Tao's current information, there is actually a big gap, because the industrial level was relatively low at that time, so that the technical indicators were downgraded during manufacturing.

In other words, when the Yun-shi aircraft was designed, its technical indicators were close to those of the Boeing 707 passenger aircraft. However, because the industrial level at that time was not up to par, some indicators were lowered. Naturally, the Yun-shi prototype was not as good as the Boeing 707.

In fact, in 1981, a technical demonstration meeting was held regarding the Yun-10, and an application for 168 million yuan was applied to the financial leading group. This application was not approved, and the Civil Aviation Administration of China did not agree to continue development. Since that time, the Yunshi project has basically come to a standstill.

Although test flights are continuing, these are supported by previous funds.

Even later, because the funds were completely spent, the test flights of the Y-10 aircraft were all fuel on credit.

To be honest, it is not easy for the Yunshi project team to achieve this step.

Because the funds consumed by the large aircraft project are too terrifying, the development of large aircraft requires the country’s huge system, technical strength, and economic strength to support it.

The total development cost of Yunshi was 580 million yuan!

What is a pity for Liu Tao is that after the Yunshi project was discontinued, the team dispersed, and even the information was lost and incomplete.

If you want to regroup the original technical team and achieve success, you have to spend a lot of time and invest a lot of money.

Liu Tao never thought about doing it alone, because that was unrealistic. Passenger planes are not tanks and armored vehicles. He couldn't handle it alone. What he needed was a team!

Of course, the current conditions are much better than before.

The conditions in China back then were much, much different. Not to mention other things, just large die forging presses. They were not the same.

Large die forging presses have always been national treasure-level strategic equipment symbolizing industrial strength.

The Soviet Union and the United States were able to make rapid progress in industry after World War II because they realized the importance of large die forging presses after the end of World War II. After the two sides confirmed their eyes, they immediately agreed to dismantle Germany's four die forging hydraulic presses on the grounds of war compensation, the United States dismantled two 15,000-ton die forging presses, and the Soviet Union dismantled one 15,000-ton and one 3,000-ton die forging presses.

These equipment also became the technical basis for the United States and the Soviet Union to manufacture large die forging presses.

In the 1950s and 1960s, in order to promote the development of heavy industry, China imported a 12,000-ton free forging hydraulic press from Czechoslovakia and installed it in the Deyang Second Heavy Machinery Plant, which was still under construction at the time.

Later, in 1967, China's First Heavy Machinery Plant successfully built Asia's largest 30,000-ton die forging hydraulic press. In 1970, 30,000-ton die-forging hydraulic presses and 12,500-ton horizontal extruders began to be installed at Southwest Aluminum Processing Plant (Metallurgical Ministry Plant 112). In September 1973, the third test run of the 30,000-ton die-forging hydraulic press of Southwest Aluminum Processing was successful, and the extrusion and pressing workshops were all completed and put into production.

However, this cannot support the construction of large aircraft, which can be seen from the various problems that occurred in the Yun-10 aircraft.

The most important thing for civil airliners is safety. The first major premise of safety is to have a safe body. In addition to design, the processing of load-bearing components is crucial. If the processing level is not up to standard, the processed products will not meet the design level, and problems will occur frequently because they are unsafe in themselves.

In the future, China's domestic large aircraft progressed very smoothly. In addition to sufficient funds, that was because China's die forging presses had stagnated for nearly 40 years. Around 2010, a number of large presses were developed explosively. In 2012 alone, there were 30,000 tons (Kunlun Heavy Industry), 40,000 tons (Triangle Aviation), and 80,000 tons (Deyang Erzhong) die forging presses.

In 2013, Deyang Erzhong, the world's largest die forging press independently developed by my country, was put into production, realizing the leap from high-end to top-level forging products in my country, and the era of key large forgings being controlled by foreign countries was completely ended. In 2018, the largest and most complex key load-bearing forging of the C919 large aircraft, the main lift outer cylinder, was domestically produced, which was completed by this 80,000-ton die forging press.