Chapter 119 - 115 Converging Paths from Different Ways_1

Ever since he had started a frenzied dash under the compulsion of the system, Lin Ju hadn’t taken the time to plan for himself for quite a while.

Although he did not partake in the busy work of technological R&D, there was no shortage of affairs to attend to at New Yuan, especially the last manned mission, which had so many overlapping parts that it was constantly draining energy.

As the boss of an aerospace company, Lin Ju had always dreamed of riding a spacecraft of his own making into space.

Unfortunately, this was met with full-fletched resistance from the company’s senior management. They wouldn’t say it was impossible, but they kept delaying it, saying things like, "wait until space flight stabilizes."

But if entering the sky at 300KM wasn’t feasible, surely below 30KM should be, right?

It was only when Lin Ju saw the ARJ21 getting ready for modification that a sudden idea struck him:

Having achieved a considerable degree of aviation autonomy, New Yuan owned the airspace of the entire New Yuan City and the seven adjacent cities. Below 15,000 meters, one could fly with just an application, above that, one could fly at will, and there was no need to apply for permission to fly within a 100-kilometer radius around the New Yuan jurisdiction.

With the Air Force covering them, the sky was virtually unregulated for New Yuan.

So Lin Ju decided: to organize a flight team.

With the system’s crazy pace marching toward space, a vast number of astronauts would be needed, and he estimated that Factory 507 wouldn’t be able to train them fast enough.

Moreover, Lin Ju intended to send engineers into space too, and it would be far too much trouble to travel all the way to the Capital. It would be better to build a training center and create a flight team to foster the employees’ interest in flying.

He could also practice himself, and one day, when the senior management wasn’t paying attention, he might quietly slip aboard the XN90 spaceship and head to space without any launch preparations.

To highlight his professionalism, Lin Ju decided to design his own basic plane first. He spread out the blueprint to show his skills, only to have to abandon the idea when contradicted by an engineer from the aviation department:

"Boss, we all use electronic drafting. These paper blueprints are only kept as occasional backups."

"..."

"What’s your name? How long have you been with us?"

"My name is Wang Xun, I was previously the deputy chief engineer at Stone Flight, and I have been employed for four months. I have designed a type of transport plane before."

Lin Ju was taken aback. He had only heard of Airworthiness Manufacture, Shenyang Aviation, Shandong Aviation, Honda Aviation, and Hongdu. Which one was Stone Flight?

"Stone Flight, the Shijiazhuang Aircraft Manufacturing Factory?" Seeing Wang Xun nod, Lin Ju couldn’t help but wonder:

"I feel like I’ve never heard of Stone Flight. You were the deputy chief engineer of a transport plane, so how could you have been released so easily?"

Wang Xun hemmed and hawed for quite a while, looking embarrassed, before finally saying:

"The transport plane I designed was... the Y-5B."

"The Y-5? Do you mean the one from the ’50s, the one our Union copied from Androff’s ’40s design of the An-2?"

Images of an old double-winged, propeller-driven airplane appeared in Lin Ju’s mind, and he immediately understood why Wang Xun could switch jobs so easily.

Forget it, forget it... to have reached the position of head of the aviation department, he must have gone through system upgrades.

"I plan to establish an aerospace team to train our own astronauts, how do you think we should proceed?"

Seeing Lin Ju move past that ignoble Chapter, Wang Xun breathed a sigh of relief and quickly got back on track:

"We need at least a low-speed basic training aircraft, a mid-level, subsonic training aircraft, and an advanced, supersonic training aircraft. Pilots are trained progressively, and it takes at least two years."

Lin Ju: "Then let’s start by designing these aircraft. We can buy or produce them ourselves in New Yuan. Buying is too expensive."

Wang Xun eagerly assured with a thump on his chest, "Absolutely no problem, boss. I can design these planes, it won’t take much time."

In his view, this was a great opportunity to elevate the status of the aviation department. Currently, the top-ranking department in the company was the Astronautics Propulsion Department led by Guo Shen, followed by Androff’s Rocket/Spacecraft Design Department, then the Electronics Department, with the aviation department almost at the bottom of the list.

A few trainer aircraft? He, a Grade B engineer, couldn’t design them?

Wang Xun was much more adept than Lin Ju, and he quickly sketched a simple three-view diagram on his computer:

"The speed of a basic trainer aircraft must be kept below 300 kilometers per hour, as it’s a plane for new trainees to practice on. It can use a cheap and durable piston engine; 300 horsepower will be sufficient. Equip it with a tricycle landing gear and a sliding canopy."

Lin Ju looked at the simple diagram; wasn’t this just the CJ01 Aircraft!

But Wang Xun knew this too, and defended his choice:

"The configuration of these types of basic trainers are quite similar. It’s fine to copy a mature design directy without much modification."

Lin Ju: "No, the CJ01 is too outdated and doesn’t fit our positioning. Change the canopy to a streamlined teardrop shape, and don’t worry about the cost."

Wang Xun, acknowledging that you’re the boss and you’re right, immediately modified the side view of the canopy to a teardrop shape.

"Also, I remember propeller aircraft have a torque effect that requires the pilot to manually press on the rudder for trim, right?"

"Yes, but it’s not a big issue for a basic trainer, the trainees should be able to handle it."

"Change it to fly-by-wire controls; let the computer do the trimming. Make flying as effortless for the trainees as it is in a game."

Fly-by-wire on this old propeller plane? Wang Xun thought this was the first time he had seen such extravagance from the boss.

But Lin Ju’s demands were far from over:

"The nose wheel needs a fairing too. The aircraft’s surface must be smooth and sleek!"

"Can we fit a small radar under the nose of the plane? An aircraft can’t be without radar."

"Why are there exposed control lines? All wiring should be internal, with hydraulic transmission!"

In the end, Wang Xun estimated the cost of this luxurious promax version of the basic trainer aircraft to be at least triple the original estimate.

Only then did Lin Ju seem somewhat satisfied, asking:

"What about the engine? Surely, there’s no need for us to build a piston engine."

Wang Xun: "Indeed, there’s no need. Perhaps we could collaborate with Southern Car to get a wind-cooled, turbocharged V8 aviation engine, which would be pretty straightforward."

"Then let’s finalize it, and name it the CJ01 Training Aircraft based on the first initials. How soon can it be produced?"

"Twenty days, at a cost of around 350,000 yuan."

"..."

Lin Ju thought about it and felt that an aircraft of this level probably wasn’t too challenging; with New Yuan’s production capacity, twenty days wasn’t an exaggeration.

"Then let’s start with a production run of 50. What about the intermediate trainer aircraft? Are we using propellers or jet engines for that?"

Wang Xun casually wrote and sketched on paper for a while, then looked up:

"Small jet engines are not very cost-effective, but a propeller-driven aircraft of this category would require at least 1200 horsepower and wouldn’t be cheap either. It might be better to use a turboprop engine with acceptable costs and power output. A redesign won’t take much time.

"Moreover, with enough horsepower, we can use a coaxial contra-rotating propeller design to completely avoid the roll torque produced by the torque from the onset. If we have 2000 horsepower... we can reach 1050 km/h no problem, and keep the cost at around 1.8 million yuan."

Turboprop engines are also jet engines, but they output power through both the propeller and jet thrust with varying proportions depending on the design. Large-horsepower turboprop engines can actually be cheaper than piston engines due to different designs.

Wang Xun took a bit longer to draw this time, as he had to consider the turboprop engine’s volume, center of gravity, and external resistance. Finally, a sleek, streamlined coaxial contra-rotating propeller aircraft was drawn.

This time Lin Ju was more familiar with the concept: "Westland Flying Dragon?"

Wang Xun was flustered: "The design of propeller aircraft has already been thoroughly explored by predecessors. We can only end up converging on the same solutions!"