What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 272 Exile Three Thousand Miles

Wow, it really is an A4E!

Zhao Yaohua took an overnight train and arrived at the shipyard early in the morning to prepare for the delivery of the A4E.

The dozen or so accompanying technicians were also amazed. Although the A4 was no longer considered advanced, it still…

Eighteen brand-new A4s were neatly arranged on the lawn; anyone who didn't know better would think they were brand-new shipments just brought from the Grumman factory.

Seeing such a large number, the pilots at Hongdu Aircraft Design Institute became bolder and grabbed their tools to dismantle the wings, otherwise they would have no way to transport them.

On the other side, Zhao Yaohua saw a fully loaded ten-wheeled truck.

Tang Wen lifted the curtain, revealing a complete set of A4E design documents. Although the production details were missing, they were sufficient for reference.

Zhao Yaohua was even more shocked; this thing shouldn't be anywhere else except at the manufacturer's location.

It turns out that fighter jet design is a massive undertaking, and there's simply no way to read all those paper documents, nor is it necessary to read them all.

Zhao Yaohua inwardly marveled at Tang Wen's ability to acquire an aircraft carrier, then heard Tang Wen ask:

"Does anyone have contact with Grumman? What's the situation with the F-11?"

"I asked around, and it turns out that an engineer I had spoken with had contact with me back then."

Zhao Yaohua quickly said:
"That guy said it wasn't very good. The F11 and F11-1F were products of supersonic exploration, and their design was very immature. He didn't recommend using them."

In fact, Zhao Yaohua consulted directly in the name of Hongdu Institute, and Grumman quickly declined.

More than a decade ago, Grumman wanted to sell the F-14, but unfortunately, it couldn't afford it domestically due to lack of funds and resources. In the end, it acquired the Su-27 instead.

As a result, Grumman saw another opportunity when the Type 011 aircraft carrier was launched.

Although the Type 011 cannot carry F-14s, they believe that China will definitely continue to build large aircraft carriers and is preparing to promote F-14s again.

Zhao Yaohua's inquiry made them think that the country was going to use this thing as a carrier-based aircraft, so they responded very seriously, saying that this thing was really no good, and that they should just buy F-14s, or even F-4 Phantoms, which were better than F-11s.

Although Grumman has been acquired by Northrop, it still attaches great importance to its fighter jet business and hopes to raise funds to continue developing the next generation of stealth fighter jets through export sales.

Although Lockheed Martin has already acquired the F-22, the new Joint Fighter Jet (JSF) program was launched a month ago, with multiple manufacturers participating in the bidding. Grumman needs to have the funds to participate.

Zhao Yaohua was of course unaware of these inside details. In his opinion, a dozen refurbished A4s could probably be bought for tens of millions of yuan, so he was not too surprised that Tang Wen had brought over a dozen.

Tang Wen had expected the F11's failure, and with his experience, he no longer clung to this lifeline.

"With these design materials, how long will it take to revise them into a coach model?"

Zhao Yaohua looked at the A4 being studied and disassembled in the distance, thought for a moment, and said:

"We'll disassemble and test one aircraft, then build a new cockpit, and relocate the dorsal avionics bay... Let's just replace it directly. Those old parts should have been upgraded long ago. We'll adjust the weight distribution and re-blown the wind tunnel... About three months."

"so long?"

"Boss, this is already very fast. The additional costs will be at least 40 million yuan, or even 50 million yuan."

Tang Wen's face darkened: "Are you trying to fool me with a notebook?"

Zhao Yaohua: "This is a modification of an aircraft! The aerodynamic layout has changed, the center of gravity has changed, and the entire process of designing an aircraft has to be carried out. A single wind tunnel test costs millions of dollars, so it's unavoidable."

"Don't try to fool me. The A4 is a subsonic aircraft. It doesn't need such a good wind tunnel. Twenty million? If that doesn't work, I'll go to Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group."

"Stop, stop, stop! Don't rush!"

Zhao Yaohua quickly stopped him, thinking to himself that this person was really knowledgeable, but still too young.

For simple small aircraft like the A4, you can just use wind tunnels with other low-level projects, which will only cost a few hundred thousand at most.

"Twenty million is fine, but each aircraft modification will cost extra. You want to give it to beginners to practice on, right?"

We have two types of cockpits: modular cockpits and one-piece molded bubble cockpits, you see…”

"One-piece molding, bubble cockpit with excellent visibility!"

Zhao Yaohua: "No problem. We'll rearrange the cockpit, upgrade the HUD, recalibrate the control data, plus material costs. It'll cost two million per aircraft."

"Let me finish. This is equivalent to upgrading to the latest domestically produced 2.99 generation electronic cockpit system, which is easier to control than the original version, no doubt about it!"

"Besides, since you're a major customer, I'll take the liberty of upgrading you to a new radar and landing assistance system, plus GPS navigation, all free of charge. Pretty generous of me, right?" "Yes, sir."

Tang Wen gritted his teeth and agreed. It was only a few tens of millions anyway, so it wouldn't make much difference.

To minimize casualties among these incompetent pilots, let's just waste some money.

Zhao Yaohua was overjoyed, thinking to himself that his years of foreign trade experience had finally come in handy.

What a rip-off! I wish the Air Force were this easy to fool.

After finalizing the deal, Zhao Yaohua wanted to talk more to strengthen their relationship, but was quickly interrupted:

The students got into a fight.

Tang Wen had already heard a faint commotion, and then he saw a Willys Jeep driving towards him.

When he arrived at the scene, the situation was already under control. All the trainees were gathered on the airport runway, surrounded by a number of trucks and instructors and assistant instructors who were on high alert.

"what happened?"

Tang Wen rushed over and the first thing he saw was a dozen or so people squatting in a row with their clothes in disarray, all with bruises and swelling on their faces.

Chen Quanrong immediately bowed upon seeing him before reporting the situation:

The issue stemmed from the division of students into classes within the club. Previously, the classes were not significantly different, until the preliminary selection of the aircraft carrier led to the formation of flight classes.

The students in the flight class all started from junior high school, and some even had high school bachelor's degrees. They were obviously not pure gang members, and their status in the gangs was not high.

Often, the leaders are ashamed of being illiterate and like to suppress, condone, and bully these highly educated newcomers to prove that studying is useless.

Later, we went to the Greater Bay Area for training. Although it was tough, the regular lifestyle and the high salaries of the teaching assistants were very attractive. It turned out that everyone, regardless of seniority, was ranked according to their training performance. The current class leader would become the future captain or first mate.

However, after the emergence of the flight crew, their status rose rapidly. They not only received allowances second only to regular employees, but also received additional subsidies for flight training.

With a thousand trainees and the social atmosphere of the time, there was actually a subtle division of power behind the scenes. For example, the electromechanical and navigation classes taught by Chen Quanrong mainly belonged to the "battleship faction," while Allison, who was in charge of Mi-type training, belonged to the "aircraft carrier faction," and they often competed with each other during assessments.

To encourage trainees to train harder, the two chief instructors would slightly encourage their competition, which was also beneficial to teaching.

Until the "airborne faction" representing the flight crew was born, the carrier faction thought they had found allies. However, the ground crew who were truly close to them were also being trained in the flight crew. The airborne faction, who had been ostracized before, now soared to the top and ignored everyone, thinking that they were the bosses. They often went to take revenge on those who had bullied them in the past.

Because of the special status of the flight corps, the other two factions tolerated it for a while, until one of the flight cadets lost a fight and pulled out a knife, which resulted in a complete melee.

Although it was quickly stopped, more than 200 people still participated. Two people were seriously injured and sent to the hospital, and the remaining dozen or so core members were removed from the list.

"Please give instructions, Commander!"

"Do it according to the rules of the Greater Bay Area!"

"Yes!"

Several aircraft were pushed onto the runway, and ground crew brought over the modified auxiliary fuel tanks on trolleys.

However, punishing only the ringleader was not enough; Tang Wen also dealt with the rest:
“The students involved in the fight are full of energy, and I happen to have a good place that needs manpower.”

"Let them go to the Spratly Islands for training in a week!"

Tang Wen's voice was quite loud, and those in the front row heard it clearly, immediately deflated.

What kind of place is Nansha? This is like being exiled three thousand miles away!
Tang Wen wasn't satisfied yet, and pointed to the newly added Algerian ship outside the port:

"Starting today, the remaining trainees will be divided into two teams and will go aboard the ship with their teaching assistants for practical training. They will then conduct long-range training in half a month!"

Those who perform well will be put on new ships, and those who perform poorly will be put on old ships!
At the end of the long-distance training, the instructors scored the teams based on their performance in each subject. The top-performing team received a bonus and extra time off, while the losing team had to do extra training and clean up after themselves!

After a series of actions, the troublemakers were exiled to the Spratly Islands, and the remaining people perked up when they heard that there would be competition, so they dared not waste their time in other places.

Moreover, with an additional two hundred people, things will be much more stable in the Spratly Islands.

They wouldn't be wasted as laborers, but instead would take on more demanding tasks and work directly on the ship.

With the establishment of the Nansha base, the first fleet was also to be formed, which brought together the first batch of permanent crew members.

(End of this chapter)