October 8,

On the first day of work after the National Day, three senior executives including Academician Wu of Shanghai Aircraft Company came to Xinghai Group.

Mu Yang and Academician Wu were acquaintances, so he met him. After drinking tea in the office, he took Academician Wu and others to the laboratory to see the engine prototype.

The laboratory building is in the third phase of the industrial park, opposite Xinghai Building. It takes a few minutes to get there in the company's viewing car from Xinghai Building.

"Mr. Mu, your company is really big. Building a bridge directly between the two industrial parks is impressive enough."

While sitting on the factory bus, Academician Wu and other guests looked at the scenery around Xinghai Group curiously. After getting off the car, they praised Mu Yang.

"There is no need to cross the road, the circulation of materials is more convenient and safe."

Mu Yang looked back and glanced at the bridges, which were seven or eight meters higher than the road Xinghai Avenue and more than ten meters wide. They directly spanned both sides of Xinghai Avenue. There was one every three or four hundred meters.

Academician Wu saw security guards at regular intervals and looked around with vigilant eyes, fearing that he might miss something suspicious.

Some security personnel are fully armed except for their guns.

In addition, there are observation posts at the heights of some buildings, which interact with ground personnel. However, it is difficult for ground personnel to detect because there is too much one-way glass. If you use military infrared thermal imaging cameras for reconnaissance, you will find many infrared features.

The observation posts were painted with special paint and built with shelters to prevent detection by these devices.

Of course, current military infrared thermal imaging cameras have high temperature sensitivity, and anti-detection methods can only cause misjudgments. However, the effect of remote detection is less effective. If someone uses these devices for detection outside the company, they will be discovered.

Academician Wu was a little confused, but it was not convenient to ask. He guessed that the internal security of Xinghai Group was really tight.

After a while, Mu Yang took Academician Wu and others to the exhibition hall on the first floor of a laboratory building. There were two assembled engines in the exhibition hall. One had its casing assembled, and the other's casing had been disassembled.

Exposing the internal pipeline layout and structural parts gives it a more industrial artistic feel.

The super boss was coming to watch the day after tomorrow, so Mu Yang asked Han Li to put the engine in the exhibition area in advance. It was impossible for him to bring Academician Wu and others into the core area of ​​the experimental building, let alone let them see the Jun engine.

When Academician Wu saw the prototype, it was like seeing a work of art. He stepped forward to watch it carefully and praised it from time to time: "It's really a work of art. Look at the pipeline layout. It's so orderly. Look at these fan blades.

The blades are exactly the same, and the surface finish is so high. Mr. Mu, why don’t they look like they were machined? Or were they machined and then ground?"

"It is made by metal 3D additive process, and the blades are integrated." Mu Yang stood beside him and smiled.

"Oh, no wonder, I didn't expect that the roughness is so low, no lines can be seen, it has reached the level of mirror surface, which is not much different from fine grinding."

"Well, the requirements are high. It is very laborious to process these blades, the fault tolerance rate is low, and the manufacturing cost is too high." Mu Yang said, the overall processing cost is too high, and maintenance is difficult. If it breaks, it can only be dismantled as a whole and sent back to Xinghai Group.

Rework.

For repairs, you must first scan and check with the original drawings to find out which parts are defective, and formulate a repair plan and process before repair welding can be carried out.

Repairs are troublesome, and if the amount of repairs is large, it is better to make a new one.

After viewing the engine prototype, Academician Wu and three other guests wanted to discuss cooperation with Xinghai Group. Mu Yang handed the matter over to the company's sales department and ignored it.

Mu Yang already knew the manufacturing cost and quotation of the XH-AN05-01 engine.

The international quotation of the LEAP-1C turbofan engine is US$14.5 million per unit. Each C919 requires two units. The engine cost is US$29 million, accounting for 29% of the US$99 million selling price of the C919.

Therefore, if Shanghai Aircraft Company plans to sell the finished product of C919, CFM International will make the majority of the profit.

The engine is an important component on the aircraft. Generally speaking, its value accounts for 20%-30% of the value of the entire aircraft. The smaller the aircraft model, the higher the engine value proportion. The larger the aircraft model, the lower the engine value proportion.

The XH-AN05-01 engine is much more advanced than the LEAP-X1C. Even if you offer a friendly price to Shanghai Aircraft Company, the quotation will definitely be more than 100 million yuan.

After the C919 is equipped with the XH-AN05-01 engine, it will definitely be sold at a premium, no longer $99 million.

Of course, the price will not be much higher. After all, the price of mainstream medium-sized civil aviation aircraft in the same industry is not much different from that of the C919.

For example, the price of the Airbus A320NEO passenger aircraft is US$110 million, the price of the Boeing 737-MAX8 is about US$120 million, the price of the Boeing 737-MAX7 passenger aircraft is US$99.7 million, and the price of the 737-800 passenger aircraft is US$96 million.

The Boin 737-800 was first delivered in 1998 and is an older model. The C919 is a new model. The avionics system and airborne equipment are relatively advanced, using a large number of advanced composite materials, advanced aluminum-lithium alloys, etc.

That's why it sells more expensively.

In terms of engines, there is actually not much difference.

The engine of the Airbus A320NEO passenger aircraft is LEAP-1A. It is different from the LEAP-1C used in the C919 only in the package content. It lacks the nacelle, EBU, nozzle, thrust reverser and other configurations, but the core engine body is exactly the same.

The cost of XH-AN05-01 engine produced by Xinghai Group is not high, weighing less than two tons. Most structural parts and blades are manufactured using metal 3D additive technology. The cost of composite materials is one thousand yuan per kilogram, which is one to two hundred yuan.

Ten thousand yuan.

If some high-precision parts are manufactured by machining, no matter how expensive they are, they will not cost much more than the cost of metal 3D additive manufacturing.

The production cost is not high, but the testing cost, R&D cost and other costs are high. If about 100 units are produced, the comprehensive cost will be about 20 million yuan.

However, if the mass production exceeds 1,000 units, the comprehensive cost may not exceed 15 million yuan, or even less than 10 million yuan.

By selling one hundred engines, Xinghai Group has already made back all its costs.

So, in terms of actual selling price.

Taking into account the competition among peers, the price of peer aircraft, the advancement of its own engines, and the most important, fuel economy, lighter weight, Xinghai Group's single unit quotation to Shanghai Aircraft Company is 100 million yuan + four-year fuel savings.

, which is 115 million yuan, equivalent to 17 million U.S. dollars.

That is to say, the C919 can save 0.63 tons of fuel per hour when paired with the Xinghai Group's engine. According to the current oil price of 4,800 yuan per ton, it can save about 3,000 yuan. The average trip takes more than two hours, and one trip saves about 7,000 yuan.

Generally speaking, if a civil aviation aircraft flies no less than 1,000 times a year, that is, more than 2,000 hours, it can save 7 million yuan a year. In four years, it will be about 30 million yuan, which is equivalent to a single aircraft saving fuel.

is 15 million yuan.

Four years later, it saves nearly 10 million yuan in fuel costs every year compared with its peers.

The lifespan of a civil aviation aircraft is more than twenty years, generally calculated in hours, about 60,000 hours.

This is equivalent to spending an extra 30 million yuan and saving the cost of an airplane in more than ten years.

As fuel prices get higher and higher, the more money you save.

115 million yuan is a friendly price for Shanghai Aircraft Company. If the price is too high, Shanghai Aircraft Company will not make any money.

If there are no restrictions on export sales, it will definitely be more expensive.

Judging from the current situation, there are only two major international civil aviation aircraft manufacturers. The exporters include Airbus and Bodan.

Therefore, Xinghai Group cannot export, it will only sell to Shanghai Aircraft Company, and it cannot design engines specifically for Airbus and Boin. This money is really unprofitable, and the aerospace development of Western countries must be restricted.

Otherwise, what would Muyang do with aircraft engines?

The market demand for civil aviation aircraft is neither large nor small. About a thousand civil aviation aircraft are delivered globally every year, of which China's market accounts for more than half, both of which are divided between Airbus and Boshen.

Generally, civil aviation aircraft are equipped with two engines, that is, 2,000 engines, with a market size of US$30 billion, of which medium-sized passenger aircraft account for a large share.

After hearing the analysis and quotation from Xinghai Group's sales department, the senior executives of Shanghai Aircraft Company found out that the comprehensive cost of their C919 was 30 million yuan more than before, equivalent to 4.5 million U.S. dollars.

Then, the quotation of C919 must be increased by at least US$5 million, and the international quotation must be more than US$105 million.

However, the engines are more advanced and the fuel economy is better. Overall, they are more competitive than their counterparts. I believe customers will choose them.

Therefore, they readily accepted the offer of 115 million yuan and looked forward to the C919 even more.

Previously, the localization rate of C919 has reached 30%.

However, some core technologies still rely on foreign suppliers including General Motors, Honeywell and other foreign suppliers, which poses the risk of "stuck neck".

Now using engines from Xinghai Group, localization has increased to more than 60%, and is expected to reach more than 80% in the future.

C919 can drive the aviation manufacturing industry chain to continuously upgrade to the high end, break the monopoly of the domestic civil aviation aircraft market, and move towards breaking the monopoly of the international civil aviation aircraft market.

However, for the C919 to truly go global, it still needs to obtain airworthiness certification from the European Aviation Safety Administration (EASA) and the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Due to the developed aviation industry in China and Ouzhou, the airworthiness certification systems of EASA and FAA are more complete. Their airworthiness standards have also become the de facto access standards for the international civil aviation industry. Many countries will refer to the standards of the two or directly

Civil aviation aircraft entering the country are required to meet these standards.

It should be pointed out that the rise of domestically produced large aircraft directly challenges Boyin and Airbus and faces many "non-technical factors" obstacles.

A lesson learned from the past is the Canadian company Bombardier, which once developed a C-series passenger aircraft with more than 100 seats to challenge the large aircraft market. However, it encountered heavy suppression and had to sell the project to Airbus.

But no matter what, even if it cannot grab the international cake, the domestic cake is still enough for Shanghai Airlines.

Domestic airlines will definitely support C919 due to its state-owned nature, not to mention it is more fuel-efficient.

When C919 is mass-produced and production costs are reduced, the quotation will definitely drop;

Similarly, as the volume of XH-AN05-01 engines increases, the production cost will also decrease, and the quotation to Shanghai Aircraft Company will also decrease.

In the end, the two parties initially negotiated cooperation.

…

October 10, 2015, Saturday.

early morning.

Mu Yang got up as usual, rinsed his mouth and brushed his teeth. Although his wealth was already several trillion yuan, his breakfast remained the same. An egg, a cup of hot milk, a bowl of powder or a snack, that's all.

If you are hungry after working the morning shift, there are some snacks in his office to satisfy your hunger.

The difference is that these ingredients are not bought, but grown and raised in our own ecological garden. It currently covers an area of ​​several thousand acres and is supplied not only to our own home but also to the company canteen.

Of course, the company has a large number of employees, and the several thousand acres of ecological park alone will certainly not be able to meet all the food needs.

Mu Yang's two children were over two years old and could walk independently. He had just finished breakfast and was about to go to the company when the two little guys had already taken the elevator downstairs. Seeing their father going out again, they hurried over and asked for a hug.

one time.

"Dad has to go to work. You have to be obedient at home." Mu Yang picked up the two siblings in turn and patted their little faces before letting go.

"Bye Dad!"

Seeing that their father had just gotten into the car and the car had not yet left, the two little guys waved and quickly returned to the house.

"Brother, dad is not at home anymore, you can watch TV."

"Well, don't come back so soon." Xiao Fan nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, with a smile on his face.

"No, I won't be able to come back until evening." Xiao Xi pouted and replied.

Suddenly, there was a sound of brakes outside the villa. The two little guys had just sat down on the sofa and were about to turn on the TV. When they saw Mu Yang walking back, their expressions instantly dropped and their eyebrows furrowed into a straight line.

"Dad, why are you back?"

"Dad forgot to bring his mobile phone." Mu Yang waved and quickly walked towards the stairs.

In less than a minute, he came down from upstairs again and left in a car.

This time, Xiao Xi ran to the door of the villa and ran back to the house after seeing her father get in the car and leave.

"Brother, daddy is finally gone. It was so scary just now." Xiao Xi patted her chest with both hands and exhaled exaggeratedly.

"Dad doesn't let us watch too much TV, but it's very interesting."

The two children are also looked after by a nanny. As long as they do not touch dangerous objects, they will not interfere with their movements, including food and drink, and they cannot help them feed them.

Outside the villa, there were more than a dozen bodyguards patrolling.

The villa where Mu Yang's family lives, there is a villa next to it where the bodyguards and nanny live.

Mu Yang, who had already left home, didn't know what the two little guys at home were thinking.

Today, he has an important task.

He wanted to come to the company for inspection, which was decided during the National Day. In addition to him, he was also accompanied by the head of the mechanical department and the main leaders of Shengshi.

The original plan was to bring experts here, but in the end they didn’t. Mu Yang is a top expert himself, so why bring experts here?

Mu Yang arrived at the company at eight o'clock early. After seeing the president Zhou Chen, he told him some things about today.

Yesterday afternoon, Mu Yang had told him that someone from above would come this afternoon and asked him to make arrangements and meet with the leaders together.

The leader mainly came to see the engine. Zhou Chen explained to Han Li and asked him to arrange for someone to sort out the 5S on site.

Xinghai Group organizes 5S five minutes before getting off work every afternoon, conducts a general cleaning before getting off work every weekend, and also performs equipment maintenance before the National Day holiday. 5S usually does a good job, so it does not take half a day to tidy up the site.

Already.

In the past two or three years, one or two super bosses have come to Xinghai Group for inspection every year.

Even leaders from other departments come more often.

If they are not super bosses, leaders at other levels will operate as usual when they come to Xinghai Group and will not specialize in 5S. Muyang also prohibits the company from having formalities and welcome ceremonies, so as not to affect R&D work and production.

Nowadays, even if the super bosses visit and inspect, the whole group will not engage in 5S. The Xinghai Group is too big to visit, even in one day.

At two o'clock in the afternoon,

Mu Yang and Zhou Chen met

After the boss and others were polite, they came to a conference room. Zhou Chen introduced the company's development in the past two years, focusing on the development of aero engines.

The boss was holding the tea cup in one hand and the cup lid in the other. He was in a happy mood and said: "Mr. Mu, aviation engines are very important to the country. Xinghai Group has developed a world-leading civil aviation engine, which directly broke the market monopoly of Western countries.

.

At the beginning of this year, it was discussed above to establish my country's aero-engine group and establish a complete industrial chain for the development and production of my country's aero-power, in order to improve the overall level of my country's aero-engines and solve aero-power problems based on independent innovation.

But I didn’t expect that you took a step first, and it was a big step. It is full of surprises and I am gratified.”

In the previous life, in 2016, a state-owned holding group company jointly funded by GW Institute, BJ Kakimasa FU, Huaguo Aviation Industry Group Company, and Shanghai Aircraft Co., Ltd. had a registered capital of 50 billion yuan.

In this life, the C919's first flight has progressed a little faster, and the decision to form an engine group has been advanced.

But unexpectedly, Xinghai Group set off a big firework just before they discussed the combination.

The newly formed engine group planned to develop the third generation civil aviation engine, but unexpectedly, Xinghai Group had already developed the fifth generation top engine.

It seems that it will be embarrassing for Huaguo Engine Group to develop the third generation.

Mu Yang was a little embarrassed. He kept the secret very well, and said, "Aren't you worried about outside interference? If you disclose the plan before it is developed, wouldn't it make people laugh at you because you don't know the heights of the world?"

The boss couldn't help but laugh: "Dreams are the source of vitality, and the Zhonghua nation is a nation that dares to pursue dreams, which is reflected very well in you.

If there is no dream, where will the inspiration for research and development come from?

You can be down-to-earth and calm down to engage in scientific research. This spirit is worth promoting and carrying forward.

Engaging in scientific research is not about being a popular star. Real talent and learning are the real skills. If you do formalism all day long, you won't accomplish anything."

“The leader is too praised.”

After chatting in the conference room for a while, Mu Yang took the leaders and others to the engine laboratory.

Ten minutes,

Everyone came to the civil aviation engine exhibition hall.

Among these leaders, except for the boss and the head of the mechanical department who know a little bit about aircraft engines, the other leaders don't know much about it.

For them, being able to develop a civil aviation engine is very impressive. If you tell them any performance parameters, it is probably difficult to understand.

Of course, since I am coming to visit and inspect, the engine parameters of Xinghai Group have been announced, so I quickly charged it up recently to learn more about it.

After watching the engine with praises, there happened to be an engine life test today, so Mu Yang took everyone to the test site.

The engine test was more shocking than looking at a dead object. There was a buzz in the venue, but the sound heard in the observation room was very small.

Mu Yang introduced to the boss:

"We have completed the international civil aviation engine test project requirements. The test results are no problem and can be carried on the aircraft for test flight. However, we have added some test projects in order to become more familiar with our own engines and to be more secure.

The reliability of each component is currently being tested. We need to detect which components suffer fatigue damage first and record the data on the wearing parts."

"How many hours of operation are required?"

"Generally, the requirements for civil aviation engines are to accumulate no less than one thousand hours. Our requirements are higher. Let's keep testing to see what the upper limit is. It will make you feel better." Mu Yang replied, the lifespan of an engine

It can reach more than 50,000 hours. It is impossible for them to test tens of thousands of hours. Not to mention the price, time does not allow it. It runs ten hours a day and it took more than ten years to complete the test.

"Isn't this test very expensive?"

"Yes, we are testing at 110% over power. It consumes a lot of fuel. It's close to one and a half tons per hour. We test for more than ten hours every day." Mu Yang said, then asked Han Li next to him, "How long does it take to test this engine?"

Already?"

After announcing the engine to the outside world, Mu Yang told Han Li to stop concealing the test. In order to conceal it, he had to be careful when purchasing aviation fuel and testing.

Han Li said respectfully: "So far, this engine has accumulated 255 hours, and no problems have been found yet."

"Here, it costs nearly 10,000 yuan to burn oil per hour. The cost of this test is too high." The boss and other leaders said in surprise.

"In order to test the limits of the engine, we have conducted a number of destructive tests. We have scrapped 11 of them, and we will continue to do so. This is a bottomless pit, so the cost of engine development is very high."

Mu Yang's words made the leaders at the scene even more surprised.

After about fifteen minutes, the engine test inspection ended.

During this process, the boss chatted a lot with some scientific researchers, said a lot of compliments, and encouraged them to keep up their efforts.

On the way out of the engine testing site, the boss said to Mu Yang: "Mr. Mu, it is rare that we can develop a world-class civil aviation engine, and its technical level has reached the world's No. 1 level."

After finishing speaking, he asked how likely it was to be counterfeited. After all, if Shanghai Aircraft Company plans to export the C919 in the future, the engine will inevitably be dismantled for study.

Mu Yang pondered for a moment and analyzed: "Leader, there is this hidden danger, but it will be difficult to break through in the next ten years.

Even if you know the Xinghai Group's engine, you can't imitate it, it's too difficult.

For example, the pores inside the blade must be manufactured using metal 3D additive technology. If ordinary metal 3D additive equipment is used, the technical level cannot reach the level of forgings and the accuracy is poor, so it cannot be manufactured at all.

The breakthrough here is very difficult, but just in case, we do not sell metal 3D additive equipment to the outside world, and the confidentiality level is the highest.

In addition, for example, if our company's metal 3D additive equipment is stolen, it cannot be used normally.

Our company's metal 3D additive equipment is the fastest and most accurate when used in conjunction with the independently developed AD 3D software.

Generally, AD software sold externally does not have functions such as linking with metal 3D additive equipment, automatic identification, and automatic generation of scanning modules.

The engine also involves high-temperature-resistant composite materials, which can be copied not only by stealing the technology.

Of course, even if you steal our company's engine technology, you can learn some experience, which is not useless."

In fact, Xinghai Group's metal 3D additive technology is the core technology. No matter how much money it costs, Muyang will not sell it. It is with this technology and this core manufacturing foundation that we have aero engines, rocket engines, etc.

Cutting edge products.

"Well, then I'm relieved." The boss nodded appreciatively.

After inspecting the civil aviation engine project, the boss wanted to inspect the progress of Xinghai Group's high-speed rail and hyper-high-speed rail projects, which involve national future transportation strategy issues. By comparison, it seems that the civil aviation industry is not that important.

However, hyperloop and high-speed rail projects have conflicts of interest with civil aviation.

However, it will take a long time for high-end high-speed rail to be popularized, and it is impossible to replace civil aviation within ten years.

As for the hyperloop project, if it is to be developed successfully, Muyang's plan will take about three or four years, and it will also need to go through several years of verification and various procedures. If it is actually operated, it will not be possible in seven or eight years, and if it is popularized

, that time was longer.

Muyang will give the civil aviation engine a window of time. When Xinghai Group has almost made enough money from the civil aviation engine, it can vigorously launch the hyper-high-speed rail and advanced high-speed rail.

After inspecting the hyperloop project, the boss wanted to have a private chat with Mu Yang about the country’s future transportation strategy and listen carefully to Mu Yang’s thoughts.

In the chairman's office, there were only two people, Mu Yang and the boss, sitting facing the tea table, drinking tea and chatting.

Mu Yang explained his general plan. Even if the hyperloop and high-speed rail are successfully developed, they will still need national support for development and popularization. The time for popularization will depend on the timing, the international situation, and national needs.

"Okay, your idea is quite good. After you successfully develop it, the higher-ups will start an analysis and discussion on this matter.

Even if I retire, I don’t have to worry about this project. As long as it is good for the development of the country, the higher-ups will provide strong support." The boss said, giving Mu Yang a promise.

Mu Yang understands, but in a few years, this big boss will retire.

At the end of the conversation, Mu Yang hesitated and decided to tell him:

"Boss, you are here today. I am taking this opportunity to tell you something very important. I plan to reveal it to you in advance. It needs to be kept confidential and cannot be disclosed to the outside world for the time being."
Chapter completed!