South Africa is also a rich man, although it is subject to international sanctions, but money can make the devil grind after all, and still got technical support from Israel, including radar, avionics, data bus, fly-by-wire flight control, etc., all of which are the original subsystems used on the LAVI fighter.

As the chief designer of the Chinese side of the South African program, Lao Wang is very clear about the technical content of these things, and the relevant information has been obtained and prepared early on, so it depends on the time to take the things back to China to support the development of No. 10 this time.

"The design work on the South African side of the project has been completed, and my work at hand is generally much easier, if I have time next year, I may go back to China to do a face-to-face technical disclosure with the institute, anyway, these materials alone are far from enough. ”

Lao Wang first said his arrangement, and then continued, for Tu Zhengxing, he didn't plan to bring it back to China directly.

"Zhengxing's side, he can set off with you after a while, let him go to the UK to follow up the development of the Qingcheng engine, the aircraft power system is a very important part, if you really want to develop to the chief designer route, then you must have the ability to coordinate the overall situation, just stay here in South Africa It is definitely difficult to get in touch with the latest progress of the Qingcheng engine. ”

This itinerary plan was actually set a long time ago, and Tu Zhengxing did not have any objections, originally his idea was to be able to see more foreign counterparts, and after seeing and practicing in South Africa, it was time to change stops.

However, before that, some situations should be explained clearly, while putting away the drawings on the table, and by the way, he also introduced the recent work handover: "Chief Master Wang's arrangement must be no problem, I will go to hand over with the Chief Engineer of the Tea Falcon helicopter project in the next few days, and I will be able to leave the UK in a few days."

As far as the field of South Africa's aviation manufacturing industry is concerned, the two most bright projects in the 80s are the fixed-wing single-engine third-generation multi-role fighter and the rotary-wing armed helicopter.

Fixed-wing single-engine multi-role fighters need the support of many subsystems and have strong experience accumulation, so South Africa chooses to introduce a large number of foreign research and development forces, but the armed helicopter is an exception, South Africa seems to be very stubborn in this regard, and does not seem to plan to introduce too much foreign technology.

As for why Tu Zhengxing went to hand over the Chafalcon helicopter project, it is not difficult to understand.

After all, the design of the fixed-wing fighter here has been preliminarily determined for a period of time, and dozens of high-end designers have been placed here, although there will be some personnel to follow up the manufacture of the prototype, but there are always people who are idle.

If you want to talk about the difference between fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, it is said that it is big and big, and it is not big to say that it is not big, and there are still some similarities between the two, and only from the mechanical principle, the two still have a lot in common.

Wang Zhengguo was still a little surprised: "Tea Falcon helicopter? Among the designers of our firm who came to South Africa this time, some people participated in the Tea Falcon gunship project?"

This is definitely new news, but it's really interesting, not to mention the technical level of this tea falcon helicopter.

One thing is for sure, it's a complete gunship, and it's fundamentally different from those that are equipped with ground weapons on top of transport/assault helicopters and are mainly used for special forces assault missions.

In the 80s, the Republic obtained a number of armed helicopters, including 8 French original Gazelle ultra-light armed reconnaissance helicopters ordered in the early 80s, as well as the Z-9G project later, and even later the Mi-17 transport helicopter introduced from Russia to install rocket launchers, which is really crazy.

Since the establishment of the Army Aviation Force of the Republic of China, in the face of the pressure of the Sino-Soviet border in the north, a real armed helicopter is a good thing that the Republic Army has been drooling over all the time.

The South African Tea Falcon gunship is actually a huge attraction to the Republic, and the Army Aviation of the Republic of the Upper Plane thought about introducing it around 2000, but at that time, the reputation of the Republic of China Cottage King was beginning to appear, and South Africa heard that the number of purchases from the Republic was only in single digits, how could it not know what the situation was, and finally failed to succeed.

Even though the results of the upper plane are not very good, but the Tea Falcon, Tiger, A129, which were concentrated in service in the nineties or so, still played a good leading role, and the Republic went down the route and also came up with a good product like the Wuzhi 10, but that was already around 2010, and it was already a lot behind in time.

Fortunately, I was originally sending technical personnel to assist in the development of military fighter jets in South Africa, but I did not expect to have the opportunity to participate in the development of armed helicopters.

If the designers could participate in the development of the Chafalcon helicopter in the past few years, Wang Zhengguo would have every reason to believe that after returning to China in a few years, these technicians would be able to immediately make a real armed helicopter for the army to wash its eyes.

"Helicopter gunship? This is a good thing, it seems that the country has been inspecting this aspect of the model, and there will definitely be a future in this area in the future, anyway, I am personally more optimistic, in addition to you, is there anyone working in this project?"

This is the case in small countries, the aviation manufacturing industry is concentrated in one place, but there is no possibility of dispersion, as long as someone comes to work at the Kempton aircraft factory for a period of time, the aviation manufacturing industry of the whole country can probably have a more detailed field assessment.

"There are some, now we have the military fighter design work at hand has come to an end, the prototype here is still difficult to give birth for a while and a half, and it has been idle for two months, just the tea falcon helicopter project next door is short of people, the design department sees that we are relatively idle, and spends money to invite us to participate in the development of the project, and there can be a subsidy of 1,000 US dollars per month, so everyone has been doing projects over there recently. ”

Tu Zhengxing naturally told the situation the truth, Wang Zhengguo smiled after hearing it, and felt that this South African really had a lot of ideas, and he could hire an experienced aircraft designer for only 1,000 US dollars a month, and he definitely didn't lose money.

Yes, since both sides are willing to do so, South Africa is not afraid of the leakage of the technical information of the tea falcon, and the group of aircraft designers in the institute are also aiming for the relatively expensive salary, and it is also appropriate for Zhou Yu to play Huang Gai.

"We are really involved in a lot of fields now, not to mention military fighters, and now helicopters are also beginning to be involved, maybe when a big news will break out, we have grabbed the market of Jingdezhen and Bingcheng Aircraft Factory. ”

If it is only the development of fixed-wing military fighters, it will definitely not work, and the future UAVs, helicopters and so on, all of them must be missing, this is absolute!

If you want to say that the 611 Institute, in the 80s, it was really not only engaged in the development of fixed-wing military fighters, but also in the upcoming 863 Program, the most famous large launch vehicle and space-to-earth round-trip system demonstration, this project has 611 participating in the bidding.

That's right, the 611 Institute, an aircraft research institute under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Aviation, actually participated in the bidding for the space launch project, and there was even more shocking news, which at that time the 611 Institute put forward the design plan for the space shuttle.

Although the bidding was not successful in the end, the Republic's space-to-earth launch vehicle project chose a conservative spacecraft route, which led to the later Shenzhou series of launch vehicles.

But then again, since the 611 Institute can cross the gap between aircraft and spacecraft, and still run to meddle in the bidding of big guys like the space shuttle, now that the institute has the opportunity, it does not need to spend state funds, and its own technicians are going to tinker with helicopters, and I am afraid no one can oppose it.

As for how to arrange the country in the future, it is naturally another matter, anyway, the aviation manufacturing industry in Shudu is developed enough, although the Taipingsi Airport was relocated, and the 5701 factory was also split, but after the factory moved to the Phoenix Mountain Airport, it is still the largest helicopter maintenance center in the southwest of the Republic.

The 5701 factory on the upper plane maintains various aircraft, including the Black Hawk helicopter introduced by the Republic later, the Mi-17 series, and the Z-9 series, almost all of which can be repaired, and finally it is almost necessary to introduce the Mi-17 series for large-scale production, which shows that its technical strength is not bad.

In addition, the 5701 factory is a unit directly under the military, and the relationship with the army is closer.

In this way, people began to think about it again, this guy seems to have a lot to do!

"China is copying France's Super Wasp helicopter, codenamed Z-8, the engine used in the aircraft is Turbo 3C, it seems that this engine is also in the imitation plan, and now the Puma helicopter in South Africa should also be this engine, so I feel that the power system of this tea falcon should not be other engines. ”

The Republic is very firm in the field of turboshaft engines, and has been following the footsteps of the French, and the imitation of the Turbo 3C engine is the turboshaft 6 engine, and the engine is the original power of the straight 8.

This is good news, if you can really imitate the engine with qualified performance, in fact, the market demand in South Africa is not small, although the turbo 3C is not as urgent as the Qingcheng engine, but like this engine, as long as you say that there is a stock, it is also received as an order. ”

The Turbo series of engines is not only military, but also very broad in the civilian market, so South Africa can get the corresponding engine through the civilian market, but these engines from abnormal channels are not very reliable after all, and the number cannot be too much, South Africa of course also hopes to find a stable supply channel.

At this time, a few people in South Africa may not know that the domestic turboshaft 6 engine project is not so easy to get done, and the troubles encountered in the process of project imitation have made the Lanxiang Machinery Factory, which undertakes the task of replicating the engine, a big head.

To say that the power of this turboshaft 6 engine is not too big, after all, its original imitation object only reached 1400 horsepower, as an imitation without the technical support of the original factory, the power data of the turboshaft 6 should be lower, and it is good to be able to barely reach 1200 horsepower.

And this is also the fundamental reason why the Republic of the upper plane did not use the turboshaft 8 on the early Z-6 project, but instead used imported Canadian PT-6 series engines.

There is really no way, the helicopter that can be used on a large scale in the Republic first has a difficulty that must be overcome: altitude sickness!

Why is it that the same Black Hawk helicopter purchased by the Republic has a stronger engine power than that used by the US military; why is it sufficient for the Eurotiger to use the RTM-390 engine that can reach 1,100 horsepower for the Helicopter gunship of the same level, while the early Wuzhi 10 uses the 1,600 horsepower PT6C-67 engine?

The reason is very simple, the planes of the republic are to be used on the plateau, while the helicopters of other countries usually do not have the requirements for take-off and landing on the plateau and combat operations.

Now it can be calculated, the power of the turboshaft 6 engine not only does not reach the original level, but even a little less, if this thing can be used, it is strange.

It is in view of this special situation, and considering the urgent needs of the Z-8 project, that the domestic military made a quick decision and chose to import the engine for temporary use, and this choice came and went, and finally the Canadian PT6C-67 engine came into view.

It is a pity that this kind of project relying on imported European and American engines has the same outcome in the Republic, PT6C-67 series engines have not been able to enter service in the army of the Republic, not only the Z-8 and Z-18 series helicopters used for transportation have not been used in the end, but also with the Z-10 of the year was also fooled into falling heart disease, and the progress of the project was seriously delayed.

It can be said that if the upper-plane republic is not fooled by Pratt & Whitney Canada, and has its own snacks, and does not press all the treasures on the imported PT6C-67 engine, then the situation will definitely be different.

At least the turboshaft 6 project, which imitates the turboshaft 3C engine, can get more resources, and the whole project is as gradual as the turboshaft 8 engine, and the republic can still have a reliable 1300 horsepower turboshaft engine in the nineties.

Now because he doesn't know the domestic situation, Wang Zhengguo is quite happy at this time, this guy wants to contact the relevant units after returning to China, and get South Africa to make a profit as soon as he purchases the engine.

"The domestic engine is already being imitated, and it may be that when you return from South Africa this time, as long as the army projects to develop armed helicopters, we will be able to immediately come up with a plan, and there will be a mature engine available for use, which is much happier than other domestic aircraft designers." ”

For the aircraft designers of the Republic, their greatest happiness is to be able to design the aircraft without being dragged down by engine problems, as long as they can meet this small requirement, they can immediately make you a first-class aircraft.

To actually speak, the turbo 3C engine is still very good, probably can be regarded as the conventional choice of the power system of the medium-sized armed helicopter in the nineties, the tea falcon, A-129, Tiger, the power system of these aircraft is between 1000-1300 horsepower, and the actual performance of people is not remarkable?

"The armed helicopter doesn't have much to do with it, you have the heart to make trouble, I don't object, as long as the development progress of the fighter here doesn't delay me, the rest is up to you, maybe you can get out of another way in the future." ”

Lao Wang's mind is now full of South African plans, and he has not had much contact with helicopter design in his career as an aircraft chief designer, so he naturally doesn't pay much attention to it, just a matter of time, and don't delay the business.