Return to Hong Kong Island for a Century

Chapter 372 I don't understand

At that time, Hong Kong Island was home to all kinds of organizations from around the world. On the one hand, it was the closest free port to the mainland, and on the other hand, it was the most densely populated place where Chinese and Western people met.

Therefore, there are many organizations here that collect various information, and some organizations have even set up regional command centers here.

The Hong Kong Patent Office quickly published the transport aircraft patent applied for by Li Song. Anyone with even a little industry experience could tell something was wrong with the transport aircraft at a glance.

Meanwhile, in Ame, although it was 10 p.m., the McDonnell Douglas office was brightly lit, and the shareholders, engineers, and CEO all had different expressions on their faces.

"Impossible! Someone must have leaked information. This is aimed at our latest model transport aircraft. Look at the size of the fuselage, look at the layout!" McDonnell Douglas's engineer roared as he looked at the dimensions of the A-type transport aircraft.

"Look at this high-wing structure!"

“Look at this sweeping edge…” the McDonnell Douglas engineer practically roared.

Although there are some minor changes, the overall structure is very similar.

Because patent applications only cover the aircraft's appearance and structural diagrams; the specific production technologies and processes are not patented and remain each company's core secrets.

The C-17 was a military transport aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas for Aramco, but at that time the Aramco Air Force had not yet adopted McDonnell Douglas's design. It first flew in 1991 and began mass production in 1992.

McDonnell Douglas's senior management and shareholders are now facing a headache because this design was based on the requirements put forward by the US Air Force last year. The drawings had just been sent to the US Air Force when a similar patent application appeared in Hong Kong Island.

This?
Could it be the US Air Force?
Or is it that other companies are behind this?

"Let's wait for the Air Force's response." McDonnell Douglas's CEO was also helpless, because several departments of Aramco were in chaos, with the Air Force, intelligence agencies, and others working overtime overnight.

"This is plagiarism, plagiarism, blatant plagiarism!" the McDonnell Douglas engineer continued to roar.

Because this is a huge order of hundreds of aircraft, which can bring McDonnell Douglas enormous profits.

“Actually, I don’t think it’s like they copied our blueprints. Instead, it seems like they’re following the development requirements of our Air Force. The internal design seems to be better than ours, especially the rapid loading and unloading system inside the cargo hold. It seems like we don’t have that, right?” one shareholder asked.

"Indeed not, because we're not sure if our design will win the bid. We'll only proceed with the design once it's adopted," the engineer explained. He added that it was just a preliminary design, and they would only continue designing once the Air Force adopted it and allocated funding.

"Actually, I don't think it matters much either. Look at the B-type transport plane..."

“The design is even better than our C5,” another shareholder said.

The CEO sighed inwardly. The reason these shareholders said that was because they were also very frustrated, since they couldn't say it was plagiarism.

This patented transport aircraft is more perfect and superior than McDonnell Douglas's design drawings. McDonnell Douglas's design drawings only contained a preliminary plan because it was uncertain whether it would be selected by the US Air Force, so the company would not invest too much money in the design.

In fact, after McDonnell Douglas's design drawings were approved by the Air Force, the Air Force allocated funds to continue refining the drawings and conducting various tests, such as cargo loading tests and designing cargo handling systems. It was not until 1985 that the formal manufacturing of the test aircraft began.

If this matter is brought up in the open, it's easy for people to misunderstand and think that McDonnell Douglas copied Parkson's product.

It's like the engine patent lawsuit between MTU and Baisheng. Baisheng applied for a complete system of engines, including 4-cylinder, 6-cylinder, 8-cylinder, and 12-cylinder engines, and in many aspects, their designs were superior to MTU's, while MTU only applied for a patent for an 8-cylinder civilian engine.

MTU couldn't apply for a 12-cylinder engine because it was the engine for the Leopard 2.

Now, Baisheng Company's aircraft patents are based on more comprehensive designs, complete blueprints, while their own designs are merely raw blueprints.

More importantly, there is also the B-type transport aircraft, whose internal double-deck design is superior to that of the C-5, and it can be seen that both transport aircraft have many core features.

McDonnell Douglas's engineers were speechless; the CEO's words made perfect sense.

"Now it all depends on the Air Force," the CEO added.

Everyone is waiting for news because the Air Force definitely needs to give an explanation. McDonnell Douglas handed over the blueprints and full-size model to the Air Force, and now someone has applied for a patent that conflicts with their design.

Because the more detailed patent information was with the Air Force, McDonnell Douglas only obtained a portion of the information.

The US Air Force, along with experts from several other departments, are conducting a joint study.

With more people working overtime, more people are eating late-night snacks, which in turn increases pizza sales at nearby shops.

Later, someone specifically studied this and found that when Amei's departments worked overtime, the number of takeout orders from nearby pizza shops would increase!

The top officials of the US Air Force were also overwhelmed when they saw these design drawings.

These two transport aircraft are designed to be superior to the transport aircraft currently in service with the US Air Force.

"Liar!!" A department head exclaimed upon seeing the information that had just arrived from Hong Kong.

"Bullshit logistics and transportation!"

"Excuses are just excuses!"

"How could a civilian transport plane have so many wheels!"

"And they even added supports to the landing gear!"

"The most obvious thing is that it's designed for short takeoffs." Everyone discussed this after seeing the interview materials.

"Still no news from the engineers?" The Air Force's top leader felt extremely frustrated.

Even though it's just a drawing for a patent application!

But nobody knows when these two transport planes will actually appear in the news.

Because BMW's aircraft manufacturing plants are moving too fast!
This aircraft manufacturing plant can no longer be evaluated using ordinary standards.

It could be today, it could be tomorrow, it could be a year, it could be two years!

This has made the head of the US Air Force feel somewhat anxious!
Because you never know when they might announce information about the transport plane when you wake up.

What's even more alarming is that there's no way to find out the manufacturing progress of Chang'an Aircraft Manufacturing Plant through other channels.

Chang'an Aircraft Manufacturing Plant manufactures everything itself. Although there are other supply chain manufacturers around the plant, they have no way to access relevant information.

For companies like Aramco, the aircraft manufacturing progress can be determined through other related manufacturing companies.

Because the aircraft manufacturing and power equipment used by Aramco are from General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.

Moreover, Chang'an Aircraft Manufacturing Company is located in a separate industrial zone outside the city cluster!
Any suspicious person will be detected as soon as they get close!
Uncomfortable!

The head of the US Air Force was upset, and the head of the intelligence department was also upset or apprehensive!

Because you never know what that damn Parkson company will do next. Since last year, the entire department has been working like crazy!

One person applied for tens of thousands of patents, covering an outrageously wide range of topics!

Where did these patents come from?

Most people think that intelligence gathering is like in the movies, involving infiltration and covert filming?
no no!

Most of it consists of scattered public information, and then various traps are set for some important figures.

That's right!

The risks of such infiltration and covert filming are too great; even the most elite agents would find it difficult to accomplish!
Of course, this doesn't mean that top agents can't do it.

Rather, it's unnecessary; there are simply too few top-tier spy locations.

Moreover, since we know where the necessary items are located, we can start by targeting people who have access to them.

It's safer, since training an agent who can infiltrate the enemy can take many years.

Many technologies are universal, and military technology can be seen through civilian technology.

Therefore, all of the tens of thousands of patents applied for by Baisheng Company need to be interpreted one by one, especially in some key areas, such as aircraft design, which involves a lot. Aircraft design itself is a very high-level technology. Behind a successful aircraft design is an excellent design team, as well as various other auxiliary technologies, such as wind tunnels, materials, and electronics.

Without these supporting factors, it is impossible to design qualified blueprints. Material properties and processing technology are required to design blueprints.

For example, the design of a simple landing gear is completely different with or without a 10,000-ton hydraulic press, as is the structural design of an aircraft.

For example, the size of the hydraulic actuator that controls the flaps is closely related to the overall level of hydraulic actuator manufacturing.

Not to mention the engine. For example, before designing a transport aircraft, McDonnell Douglas would determine the engine model, power, and fuel consumption with General Motors. Only then would they design the size, payload, fuel tank size, and so on of the transport aircraft.

It's not that it's designed haphazardly. Laymen might think that it's possible to design haphazardly, but in the eyes of experts, such haphazard design looks too fake.

Therefore, the intelligence department had no doubt that Chang'an Aircraft Manufacturing Plant was capable of producing the CA201 aircraft.

but!

but!

That's way too fast!

Doesn't it take several years for an aircraft to go from design to prototype?

In addition, it could take almost ten years for the maiden flight to be finalized.

Look at this Chang'an Aircraft Manufacturing Plant, what is this? You had your first flight in just one year?

I bet they're going to start mass production in just six months!
Therefore, the head of the intelligence department has a lot of headaches.

The key issue is that Li Song is a globally renowned author. Even the intelligence agencies are unsure whether the Third Master Temple incident was orchestrated by certain Eastern countries to promote Li Song.

More importantly, Ame's main opponent now is the bear, and Li Song has a dual identity, one from the mainland and one from the UK, making his identity sensitive and complicated. Therefore, there is no way to take any effective action against Li Song.

"What's going on? It's been several hours, why haven't we received an assessment report yet?" The head of the intelligence department felt hungry and realized that several more hours had passed.

"We've run into some trouble; there are some parts of the design drawings that we don't know how to explain," the assistant quickly said.

"Useless!" the head of the intelligence department snapped irritably.

Then we arrived at the expert evaluation area.

"Something's not right here. Why was this structure added?" Several experts were examining the internal structure of the wing, scratching their heads and muttering to themselves.

"What's going on?" the head of the intelligence department asked.

"This area has an outer skin, but an extra U-shaped structure inside. This U-shaped structure shouldn't exist, and there are also some extra pipes inside the wing structure," the engineer quickly said.

"Moreover, there are dozens of such useless structures throughout the entire drawing."

"Judging from the pipeline structure, it seems to be a retrofit or installation of some equipment, but what kind of equipment would need to be installed on the wing?"

These are spaces that Li Song has reserved for future electronic and intelligent modifications, because this type of transport aircraft has a long service life.

These are devices that have been fitted with electronic equipment or anti-missile equipment.

For example, multifunctional optoelectronic devices can be used to track missiles behind them, or miniature active phased array radars can be used to mount miniature missiles for defense.

This defensive micro-missile has a very short range, only about one kilometer. This defensive missile can intercept missiles behind transport planes.

The warhead will explode in a directional manner, ejecting a large number of projectiles to destroy missiles behind it.

Of course, later on, it could also be disguised as some energy weapons. At that time, most of these transport aircraft were used as the mother nests of drones. The Type A transport aircraft could carry hundreds or thousands of drones of different sizes and models at a time.

They can follow behind fighter jets, which can then command these drones. Alternatively, they can be guided by early warning aircraft or surveillance satellites.

That's right. As satellites have evolved, they have become a massive early warning system that can directly guide various unmanned weapons in combat.

It can strike any target anywhere in the world.

Don't underestimate the A-type transport aircraft. The C-17 has a maximum capacity of 823, or some say 871. That's right, it was when the United States evacuated from Tokharistan.

"..." The head of the intelligence department looked at the structural anomalies and extra pipelines pointed out by the experts, and was also full of questions.

Why do this?
Adding to the structure increases the weight, whether it's the pipelines or the internal U-shaped structure. Could there be other equipment that we don't know about?
The Air Force officials also arrived, and after seeing the problem, they were also full of questions: What are these structures for?
Are some Eastern countries doing something shady?

At this time, Li Song was at the BMW factory, looking at the sample cars. There were four models of cars: 1.5L, 2.0L, manual, and automatic. The engines were also divided into cast iron and aluminum alloy. In developed countries with better traffic conditions, aluminum alloy was used, while cast iron was used in places with poor traffic.

"Not bad, not bad!" The 1.5L sedan is like the old Santana, and the 2.0 is a bit like the Geely Emgrand.

The 2.0 looks more upscale, with a smoother look on the hood and rear.

“Mr. Ma, after the sedan is launched, I would like to reduce the price of the minivan by 30%,” Li Song said to Ma Shengli.

"This?" Ma Shengli was a little confused about Li Song's decision to lower the price, since minivans were in short supply.

(End of this chapter)