Chapter 114 - 110 An-1250_1

Hurrying to catch up with Lin Ju, who had turned to leave, Androff explained as they walked:

"Since we can make rocket casings with a diameter of 11 meters, creating the fuselage for a transport aircraft that’s seven or eight meters wide is even less of a problem. Not to mention an An-225, we could even design one that’s larger. The materials for aerospace are the same, and for just building two or three aircraft, even if some parts are assembled by hand, we have more than enough workers."

"Two or three aircraft?" Lin Ju said, looking back, and then continued on his way.

"We need to have some in rotation. Trust me, boss. My name, Androff, and Antonov, they are essentially the same; it’s just a difference in transliteration, both from the old An family. I’m equally adept at building airplanes."

Lin Ju almost choked on the mention of the ’old An family’ and finally stopped, saying helplessly:

"Research and development for planes of this scale would take at least a year, right? With that time and effort, why don’t we delve into maritime transport instead? The launch of March could just be delayed a bit."

"Not a year! The manufacturing actually only takes about four to five months."

"What about the design? For such a large plane, there must be at least a hundred thousand parts drawings. If everyone at the base were to start drawing, it still wouldn’t be enough."

"Boss, you’ve forgotten about the task progress at the Capital Acceleration Institute? You’ve invested five hundred million. As long as the state is successful, doesn’t that mean it’s feasible?"

After contemplating, Lin Ju silently created a new task in the research institute,

"What type of plane? How big?"

"Length 130 meters, wingspan 136 meters, height 24 meters, maximum width 8.9 meters, maximum takeoff weight 1250 tons, empty weight 390 tons, cargo hold size 7.5*6.9 meters, length 80 meters, cargo hold payload 360 tons, deck payload 500 tons;

for now, I shall name it An-1250, codename: Cloud Peng."

A takeoff weight of 1250 tons? That’s twice that of an An-225! Indeed, it lives up to the name Cloud Peng.

Although shocked by Androff’s exaggerated design, Lin Ju still created the task in the system.

[New Task: Design and Manufacture of the An-1250 "Cloud Peng" Mega Transport Aircraft

Progress: 0%]

Lin Ju threw ten million into this task to test the waters, and then the progress bar on the panel flickered, jumping to 3%.

Androff, standing in front of him, seemed to sense something, closed his eyes for a few seconds, and then reopened them:

"Boss, I now have a preliminary design. Let’s go to the design room, upgrade me first, and then you can invest more."

On their way to the design room, Androff leveled up to a B+ grade aerodynamics expert, and then quickly assembled over twenty senior engineers to form the An-1250 design team. They began drawing and modeling on the server.

Lin Ju added another twenty million, and the system progress bar continued to grow as a swarm of engineers feverishly worked on electronic drawing and modeling. After more than five hours, progress rose to 7% and then halted.

Looking exhausted after intense mechanical drafting, Androff patted his sore shoulders:

"466 drawings, we have completed the preliminary design for the An-1250. It doesn’t need a wind tunnel; it’s perfect as it is. With an investment of two to three hundred million more, gathering around 50 engineers, working overtime for 40 days at 12 hours a day, we will complete the design for over 13,000 parts—6,000 different types—and then we can begin production."

"That quick!"

The prospect of completing the design of such a gigantic transport aircraft in 40 days seemed exaggerated to Lin Ju, with the sheer number of parts being astonishing.

Androff explained further, "The An-1250 is based on a mature body design, essentially a scaled-up version of the An-225. It will also utilize eight turbojet engines with a thrust of 33 tons each."

It will be named XW-30, and will require a B+ grade aviation engine designer and two B grade designers to complete. Material should not be a problem, as the base has the processing capability."

Since Androff had promised to handle the design, Lin Ju could only upgrade the aviation engine department and also kick off a new project, using funds to accelerate its progress.

Increasing the system’s funds for the research institute’s tasks does not mean just pouring in the money and instantly getting it done but is reflected by improving the design accuracy rate.

For instance, the design and material experiments for a certain component might previously require constant modifications and adjustments to finalize, but with the intervention of the institute, engineers could now directly create solutions that are closest to the correct pathway, rightfully called a scientific research miracle device.

However, since most of the time the products came from mature designs by the system, Lin Ju seldom intervened proactively. He almost forgot that he could cheat like this.

After understanding the situation of the aviation engine department, Lin Ju also learned about the current progress of XW-9 and XW-10.

The XW-10 engine with a large bypass ratio was about a month away from completion, while the smaller bypass ratio XW-9 had essentially achieved its design goals and was ready to be tested on an aircraft.

But there was a problem: there were no aircraft to be found....

The XW-9, with a maximum thrust of 13.9 tons, was designed for flights up to thirty thousand meters in altitude. The New Distant Factory only had an old Drawing 154, which at most could test the XW-10, leaving the XW-9’s performance unable to be verified.

Moreover, the test aircraft had to meet specific requirements. Ordinary aircraft could not withstand flying at three times the speed of sound above thirty thousand meters—a aluminum alloy airframe would turn into noodles. It had to be a titanium alloy or a specially graded stainless steel airframe to endure that.

The problem was that such an aircraft was not available domestically, and couldn’t be bought from abroad...

The XW-9 and XW-10 engines were highly anticipated for foreign sales. How to harvest RMB without pulling off a performance miracle?

After being promoted to B+, the head of the aviation engine department grabbed Androff and requested the design of a new verification aircraft dedicated to high altitude and high-speed flight.

This type of verification machine did not need to meet any performance indicators, other than ensuring that the air intake was large enough and perfectly displayed the engine’s performance—everything else could be make-do. Androff took on the task and said that he would increase the design effort to complete the design more or less simultaneously with the An-1250.

In the system panel, the Capital Acceleration Institute task "XF01 high-altitude high-speed verification machine" was established, officially starting R&D. The design to manufacturing process was estimated to consume three to five hundred million RMB.

XW-30 was also initiated. This jet engine core, with a substantial thrust of 33 tons, still based on the jet portion of WCR-09, would see its bypass ratio increase to an astonishing 8.2—only the GE90 could surpass it.

In just one afternoon, Lin Ju found himself having been drained of over ten billion by these system engineers...

Fortunately, these investments still held the potential for return. Lin Ju could only hope to earn a bit more back.

What Lin Ju did not anticipate was that the very next day, there would be another attempt to withdraw money from him.

"Hello Mr. Lin, we represent the Hua Ying Shareholding Group and thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with us."

Lin Ju sat behind his desk, gazing bewilderedly at the four or five people in front of him, one of whom he recognized.

They were from the Hua Ying Group’s film production crew, and the movie they were about to shoot was: The Wandering Earth.

In 2012, Hua Ying Shares acquired the rights for The Wandering Earth, with the intention to adapt it into a film, but after three years of preparation, had just confirmed the director this year: Guo Fan.

According to the original history, even after taking on the project, Guo Fan would still need two years, with filming set to officially begin in 2017 and the release scheduled for the Spring Festival of 2019.

Now, it should still be in the script revising stage, so what were they doing at New Yuan?

Lin Ju glanced at Guo Fan, who was somewhat sheepishly hiding behind the others.