Chapter 749 - 722: They are all OEM Factories

No matter what kind of organization, during its initial phase, there are always issues of unclear responsibilities, vague functional divisions, and blurred management boundaries, and the Space Force is especially so.

Although it has become an independent military service in the system, the Space Force is actually still in a state of trusteeship by multiple parties, from the military and the Academy of Sciences to the Aerospace Development Committee, each having considerable involvement that cannot be severed.

The nascent Space Force needs the transfusion from these established organizations to build itself, but conversely, there is overlap in their scopes of responsibility and the systems are unable to clearly define boundaries. The only choice is to handle issues on a case-by-case basis and to adapt flexibly.

This situation will continue until the Space Force has a fully formed systemic force. Until then, what it can develop into depends entirely on the chief officer’s ability to advocate for himself. Lu Jianfei’s sudden assignment here was not just because of his personal capabilities, but also for his much-valued thick skin—crude as it may sound, it is about needing to beg everywhere.

In such circumstances, winning over people’s hearts first becomes extremely important.

Even if half of the crew members of the March are actually employees of the Xinyuan Company, Lu Jianfei is still quite confident in attracting them to the Space Force:

The soldiers serving on a space warship are at least engineers-level technical talent, which is extremely difficult to cultivate on our own.

Only the ground crew/pilots of the Air Force and commissioned officers above sergeant in the Army and Navy have the potential to convert, which already greatly limits the scale of personnel in the Space Force. The future combat forces might only number in the thousands, which is surprisingly few.

The current 26 seed members are thus exceedingly valuable, with the entire Space Force relying on this backbone for construction.

"Comrade Li Sheng, my visit this time was largely unexpected, so my preparations aren’t very thorough, but I can still share with you some matters."

Lu Jianfei’s gaze moved past him to the other curious crew members, and Li Sheng immediately understood:

"Please follow me, we’ve set aside a conference room in the Chenlong Cabin, it’s very quiet there."

The two of them left the central cabin of the March one after another, leaving behind crew members whose voices immediately grew louder.

"Quiet! Some of you follow me to the space shuttle, the rest return to your stations!"

Hu Dong immediately put a stop to the meaningless discussion, directing the crew members to start working, then looked towards Lian Xinwei, who was lost in thought and hadn’t moved.

"Squad leader Lian?"

"Hm? Oh, I was distracted."

Lian Xinwei came to his senses and was about to leave when he turned around, looking jokingly at the insignia on Hu Dong’s shoulder:

"Vice-captain Hu, are you interested in becoming a real soldier?"

"What do you mean."

There was no readable expression on Hu Dong’s face, but Lian Xinwei knew he was somewhat stirred by the idea; without saying much, Lian quickly disappeared from sight.

...

Yizhou.

"Chief Designer An, Chief Designer An!"

Zeng Xiangdong shook Androff’s hand vigorously while nearly shouting his greetings, which were still drowned out by the noise at the scene.

Around them boiled a crowd upon crowd of people, and on a temporary platform not far away, the final thanks were underway, with loudspeakers sounding particularly loud, carrying across the entire factory area.

It was July 25th, and after the unrestrained efforts of Southwest Commercial Aviation, the 611 Institute, and Xinyuan, the Southwest Commercial Aviation Company’s Yizhou Large Aircraft Manufacturing Base was officially completed.

In fact, the factory buildings had been completed last year, and the equipment and production lines had all been installed by the end of April. The nearly three months since were spent filling out the staff and tuning the equipment.

New Yuan provided Southwest Commercial Aviation with nothing more than design and technical equipment support. As for the massive production line workers and component supply negotiations, it all had to be handled by Southwest Commercial Aviation themselves.

At that time, Southwest Commercial Aviation flaunted their self-developed and self-produced brand and recruited people nationwide, even poaching a batch of skilled workers from COMAC.

In April, when they were calibrating the equipment, which also counted as a trial production, the Yizhou manufacturing base received parts for two C822 and two C832 aircrafts and began trial assembly. While building and adjusting, they finally assembled the first C832 that passed acceptance checks.

Southwest Commercial Aviation at last had its own production capability and immediately held a ceremony. Numerous political figures and industry peers were in attendance.

When Androff arrived at the scene, Zeng Xiangdong greeted him with the utmost enthusiasm.

Star Airlines, a spin-off company, was not considered a competitor. It bore a relationship to Southwest Commercial Aviation more akin to that of a design bureau and a factory, and they had several competitive products.

Just within Zeng Xiangdong’s knowledge, in the first half of the year, Star Airlines independently developed two types of turboshaft engines: one for medium helicopters with a power of 2000 kilowatts, and one for heavy helicopters with a power of over 6000 kilowatts.

Not to mention that the military was immediately interested in procurement, the State Grid with a robust demand for outdoor operations, and several construction companies immediately wanted to develop large helicopters based on these. Currently, it is rumored that they have reached cooperation with Honda Aviation and Changfei to start developing several new helicopters.

But what concerned him the most was the C1000 project. The aerospace industry around the world was buzzing with the wager between Star Airlines and Boeing; both the C1000 and Boeing 3707 had to complete their maiden flights within the year, or the party in breach would face a hefty fine.

Boeing 3707 occasionally shared updates; from the maiden flight of its design prototype XB70 Valkyrie earlier in the year, it is now said to have been brought back into the modification workshop. Boeing is attempting to produce the first prototype of the 3707 by modifying this nearly 60-year-old bomber.

However, this is a massive project. It requires engine replacement and airframe modification; even with an existing foundation, they may not dare to try flying before the end of the year.

The progress on C1000 has always been shrouded in secrecy, with Androff occasionally disappearing, but until now, no physical model has been seen.

Zeng Xiangdong was always concerned about this significant order, as the scale of Star Airlines couldn’t possibly deliver so many supersonic airliners.

"How many people do you have now?"

"Over seven thousand! We’re going to expand to ten thousand this year!"

"Then you still need to work hard; the C1000 will require additional production lines and test procedures."

"Chief Designer An, is the C1000 prototype about to fly?"

"We’ve started work; the main airframe has just been sent for forging."

With just one sentence, Androff nearly choked Zeng Xiangdong on his saliva, who coughed for a long time before expressing his disbelief:

"There are only five months left, and you’re just starting to build now?"

Androff nodded. The design work for the C1000 hadn’t taken too long. Mainly, he was afraid that Boeing would default on their agreement, so he waited until Boeing had invested sufficiently into the 3707 project before deciding to start the construction of the C1000 prototype.

The first prototype would be manufactured by Xinyuan. Although costly, the benefit was that the speed was incredibly fast; it only needed two months to start from scratch.

His confident expression left Zeng Xiangdong momentarily speechless. Giving up on the idea of further questioning, Zeng switched to saying:

"Southwest Commercial Aviation fully supports the C1000 project. If you need a test flight location or other support, you can count on us to cooperate."

"Thank you, but I still hope you can first ensure the yield rate of the production line. I will come for an inspection later."

"Of course... but what do you mean by ’you all’?"

"Oh, Star Airlines will soon be bidding for the C1000 contract manufacturing factory. COMAC has also joined. I visited their factory, it’s pretty good."

"??!"