Yes, Beechcraft has long prided itself on the safety of their King Air aircraft: the King Air series aircraft was first born in 1964 and has been proven for 29 years as of this year;

But the An-14 and An-28 are not weak, the An-14 was designed in 1957, 9 years earlier than the King Air series, the An-28 is actually just an enlargement of the An-14, and even once called it the An-14M at the beginning, and its safety is also worthy of the Antonov Design Bureau's pride: except for pilot errors or special extreme weather problems, these two aircraft have never been wrecked due to mechanical failure, stable performance, safe and reliable, Even stable and reliable can feel terrible, but that's exactly what an airplane needs.

What's especially bad is that the King Air series is not cheap, and the cheapest King Air 90 costs $700,000...... This was the price 4 years ago...... The King Air 200 sells for a whopping $3 million, and the King Air 350 is even more outrageous: $5 million!

Compared with the sales price set by their boss, Beechcraft Company is simply opening a black shop to sell human meat buns!

Acton now understands too well the subtlety of his boss's idea of opening the sales company next to the sales company of Beechcraft: it's the rhythm of life and death in Beechcraft.

Beechcraft swallowed its anger? Well, then let's watch my business continue to decline...... Which rich man's money is not blown by the wind, two planes with similar safety, quality, space and comfort, one of which is more than a third cheaper, how do you choose?

Beechcraft is angry and wants to file a lawsuit with its own company, saying that it is engaged in malicious competition?

That's great, in Acton's opinion. This is exactly what my company is doing, and it just gives my company a huge publicity opportunity: look, we are so powerful that Hawker Beechcraft can't sit still, and we want to suppress us in this way...... You look at their selling price, and then look at our selling price, they are simply slaughtering you like a fat sheep compared to the company, buy a plane or come to our company!

There is no comparison, and there is no way to know, with obvious data comparison, compared with their own company's An-14/28 series, the King Air series space is not advantageous. Security is not dominant, price is not dominant, and fools know how to choose, no wonder Acton said that his boss has a grudge against Beechcraft...... As for the comfort of the cabin, it all depends on the strength of the modification company and the willingness of the aircraft manufacturer to pay for it.

Acton is looking forward to it right now. I was looking forward to the opportunity to see for myself the proud salespeople of Beechcraft as they boasted to their customers about the spacious interior, the safety features and the cheapness of the King Airplane, and they looked at the An-14/28 business jet next door to them. What kind of expression will it be on the face.

Even if Beechcraft took their newest 1900D regional jet, which prides itself on being able to walk upright in the cabin, and converted it into a business jet. You don't have to be afraid: the maximum height of the cabin of the 1900D is 1803mm, and the interior height of the cabin of the An-28 is 1.6 meters, although the difference is 20 centimeters, but with the ability of the Hawker Beechcraft to make money, the 1900D business jet is really hell if they don't sell it for 10 million US dollars!

Not a few fools would spend at least $6 million more for those 20 centimeters.

And their own company has another fatal advantage: they are able to produce their own turboshaft engines, which is very important for the Pratt that has always been used. For the Beechcraft company of the Whitney PT6A series of engines. It's bad news...... Pratt. There's no doubt that the Whitney Company always had to make money selling engines.

So, under the premise of having such a big advantage, Acton is really optimistic about the prospects of his company. As for saying that Lin Hongfei's two planes are aimed at the King Air series of Beechcraft, this is not wrong, Lin Hongfei is indeed following the strategy: just like what Audi did in the Republic car market in the previous generation.

Mercedes-Benz and BMW launched a new model, Audi looked, hey, this car is good, very popular with the market, then we will do it! So we can understand that BMW has an X5, Mercedes-Benz has a GL500, and Audi has a Q7; The BMW 5 Series came out with a GT, and Audi followed with an A7; BMW has a 3 Series GT, and Audi has followed with an A5.

BMW was annoyed, and pointed at Audi's nose in a hurry and scolded: Nima, can you not learn from me? Anyway, you are also known as the top three in the German system, BBA, can you have a little dignity?

Audi shrugged his shoulders and denied it: "I'm sorry, I didn't steal your patent."

The half-angry BMW has no tricks at all, because Audi really didn't steal BMW's patents, it just looks like the shape is almost the same, it's just a hatchback sedan...... Even Honda has the audacity to learn from Audi, and on the basis of its own Accord, it has launched a poetry picture compared to BMW's X6.

Well, these Acton didn't know what to do, so he could only look at the smile that suddenly appeared on his boss's face and felt inexplicable, and asked his own question: "That's right, boss, our prospects are bright, but these years are when we need to burn a lot of money, An-14/28 is already old, after all, they were developed by the former Soviet Union in the 50s and 70s, we have to give them weight loss: in many places, we can completely replace them with forest materials, In my assumption, the An-14 should reduce the weight by 300 to 800 kilograms, and the An-28 should be reduced by 500 to 1000 kilograms. ”

"Most importantly, we need to build on these two aircraft, make modifications to them that comply with Part 25 of the Federal Aviation Regulations, and use American and international standards for instrumentation, avionics, control equipment, and power systems, build at least two prototypes each for testing, and ensure as much success as possible in applying for airworthiness certificates in the United States and European countries...... If you are planning to use our own turboprop engines for these two aircraft, then the application for the turboprop engine certificate should also start soon. ”

In saying this, Acton does not think that the An-14/28, two aircraft that have been around for two or three decades, are rags that should be swept into the dustbin of history, and his boss should design an aircraft that looks cool and sci-fi enough to attract customers if he wants to occupy a place in the world business jet market...... This is an idiot's idea, for all aircraft, safety is the most important thing, obviously there are time-proven, safe and reliable aircraft do not need, instead of designing an aircraft from scratch that makes everyone doubt safety, that is what an idiot will do.

Speaking of which, Lin Hongfei did not realize that he had inadvertently chosen the most frugal and lowest-cost development path that an American company, or an enterprise must choose if it wants to develop: first determine a foundation, and then continuously improve and fill in on this basis, and even develop new functions to continuously improve its performance, but in any case, it is based on this foundation.

Just like the American F-15 and F-16 fighters, from the first generation to the present, they have been upgraded countless times, and their combat effectiveness is several times that of the original design, but at first glance it does not seem to have changed much. In this regard, the F-15 and F-16 are not even the best, the best representative is the C-130 "Hercules" transport aircraft, which is called the anti-sky.

Come up with an excellent initial design, on the basis of this initial design of continuous improvement and development, this is undoubtedly the most cost-saving and least risky approach, "live" has to be so "budget-conscious", not like a big hair, what needs to be redesigned a very busy, relying on their own family thick extravagant waste, it turns out that no matter how thick the family can not withstand the big hair so tossed, and finally tossed themselves to the end.

"I know that of the $650 million loan granted to me by Citibank, almost $300 million is to do these preliminary work for our turboprop-powered business jets and jet business jets," Lin Hongfei nodded, "But, as for you, Mr. Acton, your task is also very heavy, from now on, you only have one month to assemble your team, and a month later, the project will officially begin, a year, a year and a half at most, during this time, you will not only have to complete the weight reduction of the aircraft, At the same time, you have to come up with a prototype; After the prototype comes out, it will take another year and a half at most, and you will have to help me get the FAA airworthiness certificate, and you only have two and a half to three years for the whole process. ”

When Lin Hongfei said this, Acton's face was already starting to turn blue: "Boss, if I don't understand correctly, do you plan to hand over the work of the An-14/28 and Tu-134B to me, and then these three aircraft must come up with prototypes that comply with Part 25 of the Federal Aviation Regulations within a year and a half?" ”

"Your understanding is correct, and I am not wrong, you are responsible for the improvement of the three aircraft and the manufacture of prototypes at the same time," facing Acton's blue face, Lin Hongfei nodded affirmatively, "I revised the previous statement, in order to complete this work, all the personnel of the company can follow your dispatch, and I will also try my best to find designers and engineers who are familiar with these three aircraft from the Antonov Design Bureau of Ukraine and the Tupolev Design Bureau of Russia to assist you in completing these tasks." (To be continued......)