Chapter 170: Eyeing the Armed Helicopter—Is Two Hundred Million Enough?

Su Ertan's travel was highly secretive; Ha Gong Da didn't make a big fuss to meet him at the airport, they were waiting at the Ha Cheng hotel—unexpectedly… this guest went straight to Ha Gong Da!

When they received the news, the convoy had already entered Ha Gong Da's gate and headed straight for the Materials Department.

Director Mao received the news, hurried out of the lab with his hands still dirty; upon seeing His Highness Su Ertan, he wanted to shake hands, looked at his palm, and hastily wiped it on his clothes twice. After wiping, he still felt it wasn't clean.

Su Ertan's hand had already reached out: "Professor, you just came out of the lab, right?"

"Yeah, yes."

"Can you take me to have a look?"

"This… of course."

Director Mao was also caught off guard; he originally thought the guest would come to Ha Gong Da for a visit the next day, never expecting that he would arrive that very evening!

The guest's request must be satisfied, after all, this is walking gold!

The group entered the lab, and then… Su Ertan widened his eyes.

"Are these turbine blades used on aircraft engines?"

On the test bench lay a batch of newly made turbine blades; their cross-section resembled orange segments, the front was trapezoidal with many small holes, and under the light they gleamed with metallic luster.

"Yes, Your Highness Su Ertan, I never expected you to be an expert in this field as well." Qin Miao also sighed.

Su Ertan smiled; unlike those idle princes who just eat and wait for death, he oversees the military, often inspects troops, and has seen engines taken apart for maintenance—this thing, he had seen before, only the one in someone's possession was bigger.

"What are you researching?"

"The engine of an armed helicopter."

Su Ertan widened his eyes: "You're still researching this kind of aircraft?"

Ha Gong Da is an ordinary science and engineering university, yet absolutely not ordinary—here they develop truck cannons, develop ground-to-ground missiles, and now also develop armed helicopters!

"An armed helicopter flying at treetop altitude possesses strong ground-attack capability; we Ha Gong Da jointly with Ha Cheng Aircraft Factory are researching armed helicopters, and in this lab we are researching the matching turboshaft engine, whose performance surpasses the most advanced technology of the 1980s..."

The project Qin Miao promoted last year; after it officially launched, Qin Miao went back home to celebrate the New Year, leaving many classmates, teachers, and external assistants to work together—speaking of which, he still feels a bit ashamed...

Su Ertan's eyes gleamed: "Could you give me an introduction?"

This… the Saudi person is very interested? Business is coming again!

The greatest advantage of armed helicopters is stealth; flying at treetop altitude can evade many radar detections… so… the Saudi person can't buy one now! Israelis won't let the Saudi person possess any type of heavy weapon; his purchase of F-15s came only after repeated protests, and even then he can only buy a few dozen.

In later years, the Saudi person only acquired Apache attack helicopters in 2010, with just 35 units; the rest were Black Hawk variants, 58 of them—together still under a hundred.

In the 1980s, even if the Saudi person wanted to buy, he couldn't; not even a Cobra attack helicopter was possible!

"Of course!" Qin Miao nodded: "Your Highness Su Ertan, I also participated in this project; I'll personally introduce you to our professional armed helicopter."

"With the support of these advanced hollow blades, our turboshaft engine's power can reach 700 kilowatts; two such engines can drive a helicopter with a takeoff weight of five tons. Our planned helicopter weighs about 2.5 tons empty, and after loading 1.5 tons of fuel and crew, it still has a one-ton external load capacity, capable of carrying eight anti-tank missiles..."

Su Ertan nodded: "Not bad, this performance is even stronger than that of the Cobra armed helicopter!"

The brutal Vietnam War spurred the development of professional armed helicopters; Bell Company's engineers, based on the UH-1 utility helicopter, spent 15 months to develop the dedicated AH-1 Cobra armed helicopter, whose fuselage narrowed to only 0.91 meters, greatly reducing the chance of being hit head-on, with the cockpit arranged in tandem front and back, setting the standard for future armed helicopters.

However, the early AH-1G was merely a helicopter with a maximum takeoff weight of only 4.5 tons; it wasn't until 1986 that the improved AH-1W Super Cobra raised the maximum takeoff weight to 6.6 tons.

Now, this Eastern professional armed helicopter has a maximum takeoff weight of five tons, absolutely stronger than the Cobra!

Su Ertan's eyes gleamed.

Anyway, Americans won't sell Cobras to the Saudi person either, so they might as well purchase more professional armed helicopters from the East!

"The fuselage adopts a tandem double-seat layout, front low and high rear, offering a decent field of fire; as for the mounted anti-tank missiles, they are our Eastern-developed ace, capable of frontally destroying the armor of any tank in the world!"

"Good, where is this helicopter? Is the Ha Cheng Aircraft Factory far from here? I'd like to go see it."

The East is so big, everyone wants to go see everything, right?

Qin Miao shook his head: "Can't see it; it's still on the drawing board."

"You've only just started the design?"

"Yes, we expect maiden flight within three years, and finalization and troop deployment within five years. If R&D funding is sufficient, we could even move up the schedule."

Su Ertan's eyes lit up: "How much R&D funding is needed? We Saudis can provide it! Ideally, maiden flight within one year and troop deployment within two years..."

"This… this timeline isn't normally that tight, we…"

"One hundred million, is one hundred million enough?"

Qin Miao felt like he'd stepped into a modern-day pretentious face-slapping short drama, where billions are thrown around casually… but… getting slapped in the face by over a hundred million dollars feels great!

"Well… well…"

"One hundred million isn't enough—then two hundred million!"

It seems, because he felt he'd gotten a bargain on the missile project from the Easterners, the current Su Ertan wants to spend a bit more money—no one can stop him, and whoever tries to stop him will just end up anxious!

"Enough, it's sufficient." Qin Miao nodded: "With this funding, Ha Gong Da will surely concentrate all its strength to develop this armed helicopter!"

On the side, Mao Jun was a little worried.

San Shui, this money is indeed good, but we also have to see whether Ha Gong Da can handle it—according to the original plan, we were just going to first boost the engine's power, and other things would be done bit by bit; right now Ha Cheng Aircraft Factory is still digesting and absorbing the dolphin 【project】, and you want to develop an advanced armed helicopter?

Even if the money is there, what about the personnel?