Chapter 117

"You little brat, this Range Rover car is really not bad!" Old Lin stroked the soft leather seats and said to Qin Miao.

"Old Lin, this car was originally a gift from a foreigner; if you like it, take it back to the Capital and use it as your dedicated car!"

Old Lin quickly waved his hand: "That won't do; if I drive it back, Old Zhang will scold me for being useless..."

"Old Zhang?"

"Zhang Wanhe, your father-in-law!"

Qin Miao hastily shut his mouth; there's no way to respond to that!

After touring Harbin Aircraft, Old Lin also had no intention of going back; instead, he planned to follow Qin Miao and the others to Ha Gong Da to have a look!

After all, this is where Old Lin has lived since childhood; he has feelings for this place, wants to stay another night, and no one dares to stop him.

So they got into the Range Rover car; besides Qin Miao being able to chat a few sentences with Old Lin, the others simply sat there honestly, panicking inside, not knowing at all how to communicate with Old Lin.

Only Qin Miao was at ease. However… he also ended up killing the atmosphere now, making the few people in the car even more awkward—you look at me, I look at you, none of us knowing what to say; if I had known, I would have just taken the 212, or even ridden in the cargo bed of an Old Liberation vehicle, which would be more comfortable than now.

"What, you're still embarrassed? If you don't acknowledge Zhang Wanhe, I'll introduce you from the Aircraft Building Compound..."

"Cough cough cough..." Qin Miao nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood; he had to quickly change the subject!

"Old Lin, our Air Force's equipment is not just somewhat lacking!"

Now it's time to make the Air Force leadership feel depressed!

"Yeah." Old Lin sighed: "Over these years, our Air Force's equipment has been stagnating, while other countries' equipment has been advancing greatly; the only thing we can currently bring out is the J-8, reverse-engineered and copied from the MiG-21 base, at a 1960s level—and it's already the 1980s!"

Over these years, the Air Force has proposed countless technical specifications, but they all fell through due to the weak domestic aviation industry base; the only one that succeeded was merely an enlarged version of the J-8 based on the J-7, and of course there are still countless problems awaiting resolution.

"Currently, we are in contact with France; their Mirage 2000 looks very advanced, but..."

"But it's too expensive." Qin Miao took over the conversation.

F-16, one or two million US dollars each, Mirage 2000,, we don't want it! Let's wait until later, and equip our eastern Taiwan province.

"Yeah, although we haven't discussed the details yet, the price probably won't be cheap; for now, we can only look forward to an improved version of the J-7, at least first gaining all-weather combat capability..."

"Old Lin, the J-7's foundation is actually not bad; as long as we change the nose intake to a twin-side intake and replace the delta wing with a twin-delta wing, its performance will definitely reach eighty percent of the F-16..."

"What?"

Old Lin's eyes lit up: "Are you serious? Can Ha Gong Da take on this task?"

Qin Miao hastily shook his head, not speaking himself; the atmosphere was too embarrassing, and if he spoke, he'd just keep taking on work for himself—without a diamond drill bit, how could he take on this porcelain job!

"If the Aviation Department were still at Ha Gong Da, we wouldn't hesitate and would definitely produce it for the Air Force; but now..."

Qin Miao helplessly shook his head.

In 1934, the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Qinghua Daxue's College of Engineering set up an aviation engineering group; after several years of development, it quickly became a specialized aviation engineering department, and in 1951, a dedicated College of Aviation Engineering was established at Qinghua Daxue; at that time, to strengthen this college, Ha Gong Da's aviation department was moved over in its entirety.

However, Qinghua Daxue didn't stay happy for long; just the second year, the state, in order to strengthen the aviation industry, conducted departmental adjustments, merging Qinghua Daxue's College of Aviation Engineering with the aviation departments of Chuan Da and Capital Institute of Technology, establishing the Capital Aviation Institute, which later became the renowned Capital Aviation and Astronautics University.

After Ha Gong Da's aviation department left, the school leadership, with far-sighted vision, thought the aviation specialty must not be left to waste, so they attached an aircraft specialty under the Mechanical and Electrical Department, but the technical strength was still too weak, fundamentally unable to undertake a complete research project.

Especially modifying the J-7, this is a massive project where pulling one thread moves the whole body.

"What's going on now? You little brat, stop hem-hawing!"

"Now, the 611 Institute in Chengdu probably doesn't have much work either; let them help design the improvements and cooperate with Factory 132—one has money, the other has technology—surely we can solve it quickly..."

"Alas, over in Chengdu, they're about to run into trouble soon..." Old Lin sighed: "This matter is also the fault of our Air Force..."

Old Lin's face instantly turned grim; he came here to visit, but actually... it was also to get away, because... he couldn't face Factory 132!

Qin Miao suddenly realized, this is that major historical event! The Air Force indeed acted underhandedly!

When the country opened its doors, the Air Force saw its own backwardness and couldn't afford to buy whole aircraft, so it decided to take small quick steps, first purchasing avionic equipment from Marconi Company, including radar rangefinders, atmospheric data computers, radios, cockpit flat displays, and seven other major items.

At that time, the Air Force was also enthusiastic and decided to place a large order.

As a result... the technical expert Tu Lao from Factory 132 led a team, negotiating with the British for sixteen months, holding ten rounds of talks, discussing all details; the contract was signed in June this year, with a down payment of six million pounds sterling, plus bank guarantees, credit insurance, etc.

Then... just recently, at the end of 1980, the state's economic adjustment called it off!

That one sentence above—no money!

What can the Air Force do? It can only bitterly negotiate with Factory 132 to just cancel it?

Such a huge international cooperation project ended up being child's play!

This is no small matter!

With the contract canceled, compensation is required! The deposit must be refunded, and the other insurance fees etc. also need to be recovered!

This matter is so disgusting that Old Lin's visit to Ha Cheng for inspection is, frankly, because he's embarrassed to see people, so he slipped out.

"Old Lin, roads are made by people walking; if our domestic Air Force doesn't want it, we can sell the aircraft abroad, thus keeping cooperation with Marconi Company going and allowing our domestic aviation industry's technology to take a big step forward..."

"Sell? Where would that be so easy..." Wait!

Old Lin widened his eyes: "If we're talking about selling things, you little brat are the best at it! Driver, drive the car to the train station, I'm going back to the Capital! Qin Miao, you come too!"

"Old Lin, we just bluffed the French into improving the turboshaft engine, but we still need San Shui to go back and arrange the improvement project!"

"No problem, the French side also needs to send a telegram back home for approval; a round trip takes a week, I'll borrow San Shui back for at most three days and then send him back!"

All right, indeed I shouldn't have spoken too much!