Back in 1978, I was admitted to Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Chapter 147 This is the Y-10, not a copy of the Boeing 707!

Delasco also saw Qin Liang clearly, and a surge of anger instantly rose in his chest.

"Of course, even with two small wings added, it's still a Boeing 707! The size is the same, both have four engines, both are low-wing monoplanes, both are..."

Qin Liang revealed a disdainful expression: "If that's the case, then all cars in the world are the same, just four wheels and two sofas. You're saying this plane is a modified Boeing 707? How about we make a bet?"

"What are you gambling?"

"I'll bet 100,000 francs if this plane is a Boeing 707!"

Unfortunately, there are no reporters or ordinary spectators here, but... those who have gathered around are all people from the global aerospace industry, which is actually better. With them as witnesses, Delasco wouldn't dare to renege on his promise.

One hundred thousand francs!

Delasco was stunned. That was a huge sum of money! Several months' salary for him!
The franc is not as valuable as the US dollar or the British pound. The exchange rate with the US dollar is around 4.5. One hundred thousand francs is more than twenty thousand US dollars!
"What? No money?" Qin Liang took out a cigarette from his pocket, put it in his mouth, then took out a green banknote, snapped it on, lit it with a lighter, and put it to his lips.

It's a pity there weren't any cigars on hand, otherwise using cigars would have been even more pretentious.

This scene stunned everyone present. Wasn't the East supposed to be very poor?
The meaning is quite clear: if you're poor, get lost!
"Okay, let's bet. This is clearly a Boeing 707!"

"Okay, then could you please measure the length and wingspan of our aircraft first? Did you bring a handheld laser rangefinder? If not..."

Visual inspection can only give you a rough estimate; you need to take measurements to know the exact numbers!

"We have it!" a voice rang out.

Qin Liang looked over and saw another familiar face: Cheney from British Aerospace! It seemed the Paris Air Show was very important, so many companies had recalled their expatriate employees.

Britain and France are both cooperating and competing. Now, this situation presents an opportunity to annoy the French, and the British are eager to try.

One person stands at the front of the aircraft holding a laser rangefinder, while another person stands at the rear holding a light shield; the length of the aircraft is then calculated.

"Fuselage length: 42.9 meters!"

Delasco's face darkened.

"Wingspan, 42.2 meters!"

Qin Liang smiled and said, "Thank you all for your help. Um... Mr. Delasco, what are the specifications for the Boeing 707 again...? I've forgotten. Do you remember?"

The Boeing 707 has many models, some with longer fuselages and some with shorter fuselages, but none of them can match the dimensions of the Y-10! As for the wingspan, the difference is even greater!

"Don't you remember? Or do you know you lost and are too afraid to say it?" Qin Liang said, "I suddenly remembered again. The aircraft we purchased from Dongfang is a Boeing 707-320C, 46.61 meters long and 44.42 meters in wingspan. These dimensions don't match our Y-10! Do you want to check if we cut off a section of the Boeing 707 fuselage and then reassembled it?" Laughter erupted. Cutting off the fuselage and reassembling it was no problem, but to make it fly again... it would probably break in two in the sky.

“Even if this plane isn’t a Boeing 707, it’s still a copy!” Delasco was clearly unwilling to give up: “You Easterners have no aircraft design capabilities; all you can do is copy!”

"Mr. Delasco, I never expected you to say something so uninformed! Mr. Cheney, could you please explain it to me?"

Cheney said smugly, "Unless the shape is exactly the same, without any changes, like the old Russian Tu-4, which was a one-to-one replica of the B-29 bomber, if the size changes, then the wind tunnel needs to be blown again and the stress calculations need to be redone, and it will be a completely new aircraft."

This thing can't be scaled down or enlarged proportionally. If the wings are changed, the whole aircraft changes. Just like the Y-20 in later years, it was not a copy of the Il-76 because the most basic airfoil was different.

Only laymen would say that our Y-10 is a copy of the Boeing 707!

“Mr. Delasco, if you don’t have the money, then forget it. I won’t bother with you if you can’t come up with the 100,000 francs bet. But there’s no need for you to be so unreasonable just to avoid paying. Everyone here is a professional…”

"Hmph, you Easterners don't have the ability to develop your own aircraft. From the founding of the nation until now, you Easterners haven't designed a single aircraft yourself!"

"Oh, Mr. Delasco, that's your misunderstanding. Not long after the founding of the nation, we designed our own CJ-5 trainer... never mind, let's talk about this aircraft. Besides the different fuselage size, there are many other differences. Do you see our engine? Do you know what model it is?"

Aircraft manufacturers and engine manufacturers are usually not the same company. The civil aviation engine market is almost entirely monopolized by Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney, and General Electric. This Y-10...

Delasco walked over to the engine and examined it closely; it wasn't any engine he was familiar with!

"Come on, look ahead. These fan blades are made of carbon fiber composite material, which we developed ourselves. They are lightweight and high-strength. This is a first for us in the industry!"

Instantly, many in the crowd widened their eyes – composite material blades! Many companies researched this, and many had to give up; unexpectedly, the Easterners had succeeded! The fact that it could be installed on an airplane and flown over was enough to demonstrate its reliability!

"Come on, take another look at this winglet. We know that many airlines are currently researching it, but we are the first to actually launch it in commercial flights. Moreover, the contact area between our winglet and the wingtip is smooth, which reduces the interference drag at the junction of the wing and the winglet, thus keeping the vortex away from the flat part of the wing. We are the first in the world to use this technology! Its drag reduction effect can reach 7.2%!"

Lanchester was the first to notice the problem at the wingtip, where, under suitable weather conditions, a twisting band of air would appear, like a small, overturned tornado, or a vortex.

Although it looks cool, this thing is a big problem; it reduces the efficiency of the wings.

However, at the time, there was no way to study these technologies in theory. It wasn't until the Cold War that winglet technology began to come into the view of airlines. Especially after 73, with the surge in oil prices, engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center began research again, and their research result was to vertically install winglets onto the wingtips! For example, the U.S. Air Force provided a KC-135 aerial refueling tanker to test this type of winglet.

However, the aircraft's maiden flight did not take place until after July 1979.

Now, the winglets installed on the Y-10 aircraft are being shown to the outside world for the first time, and they are even more advanced hybrid winglets: attached to the wing with smooth curves instead of sharp corners! This technology is already from the 1990s!

(End of this chapter)