General Nero Mora didn't know whether Fang Lang was a person who could distinguish between public and private affairs, but he was a smart man and it was impossible for him to believe everything Fang Lang said.
Moreover, the use of turboprop engines was also discussed and agreed upon by their Air Force. Everyone knows how difficult this project is.
It would be foolish to give up now because the engine overhaul time is too short.
He is not such a short-sighted person. The reason why he wanted to pull Fang Lang over today was to discuss a solution.
Seeing that Fang Lang didn't show any dissatisfaction on his face, he didn't hesitate and spoke directly:
"Fang, our Aviation Academy has been put into use, and the first batch of students in the school have begun theoretical learning. Soon they will start learning on the aircraft, and we don't have much time left.
Although we have purchased many training aircraft from the United States, I still hope to allow our students to use our own training aircraft for flight training.
Now it seems that the data indicators we set for this trainer aircraft when we designed it might be too high.
Compared with the trainer aircraft purchased from the United States, I feel that our trainer aircraft will not be too advanced. They can be used as fighter jets, and the cost of using them is indeed quite high.
...
...
It seems a bit of a waste to use it as a training aircraft.”
Fang Lang never thought that the Air Force would refuse to accept it. After all, when designing and developing this trainer aircraft code-named T-1, he made many suggestions to Professor Tan Ke.
These suggestions were actually inspired by the Super Tucano, the most successful trainer aircraft project in Brazil in later generations. However, with Brazil's current technical strength, it is definitely impossible to make the current T-1 as good as the "Super Tucano" in later generations.
But at least it has to be close, and the suggestions put forward by Fang Lang have made the current T-1 trainer aircraft very close in all aspects, except that it does not have later electronic equipment and the engine power cannot reach the level of later generations.
Therefore, as long as this aircraft can be successfully put into production, Fang Lang is sure that he can definitely meet the needs of the Air Force.
Now from what General Nero Monnet said, it seems that he thinks this aircraft is too advanced and can be used as a fighter. It seems a bit of a waste to use it as a trainer. This makes Fang Lang a little at a loss for what to say.
Listening to the discussions in the conference room, Fang Lang glanced at Major Leo Kant, who was standing in front of the wall drawings, waiting for everyone to communicate the results, then turned to General Nero Mora beside him and whispered:
"Just now a major said that we should discuss and see what to choose.
It seems that you have some new ideas, please don't hesitate to speak up."
In fact, whether it is General Nero Mora or Fang Lang, or the air force officers here, everyone knows the so-called discussion results, the choice, and the final decision-making power are not in the hands of these officers.
Instead, it was only on Fang Lang and General Nero Mora. After all, the project was led by the two of them.
As the boss of Fangyuan Aircraft Manufacturing Company and also the representative of naval aviation, Fang Lang's ideas are a decisive factor.
So General Nero Mora invited Fang Lang here today, obviously hoping to convince Fang Lang to make some changes to the aircraft. Although the other party did not say it explicitly, Fang Lang already had some vague guesses.
When General Nero Mora heard Fang Lang's words, he did not detect any dissatisfaction in his tone, so he did not hesitate to say:
"Our idea is to see if we can replace this turboprop engine with a more mature piston engine. Even if the performance of the aircraft is affected, we can accept it.
As you know, our air force has limited military expenditures. If we directly purchase the turboprop engine version, we may not be able to afford such a high frequency of overhauls. "
Fang Lang understood what he had heard. As he had expected, the Air Force wanted to use piston engines to reduce the maintenance costs of the aircraft.
Fang Lang actually had no objection to this. After all, the current T-1 project was funded by the Aviation Academy jointly run by the Air Force and the Navy and commissioned to Fangyuan Aircraft Manufacturing Company for design and development.
The funds for the entire project are also shared by both parties. Now Fangyuan Aviation has completed the research and development of the prototype according to the performance parameters of the original design. Fangyuan Aviation has completed the contract in accordance with the terms of the contract.
As for the Air Force feeling that the maintenance cost is too high and wanting to reduce performance and use piston engines, that would be equivalent to starting the original project over again, and in this case, money would obviously have to be invested again.
But for Fangyuan Airlines, there is no loss. Instead, it can get new funds to conduct research on another aircraft model.
In Fang Lang's opinion, there is no problem at all. The money is from the military and the technology has been absorbed by Fangyuan Aviation. What is there to be dissatisfied about?
As for the issue of re-studying the navy and investing in it, Fang Lang had no problem with it. It wasn't like he was paying for it himself, so why would he be unwilling?
So, he said without hesitation:
"If this is the case, the entire aircraft design will have to be redesigned from scratch!
After all, piston engines and turboprop engines are different. If such changes are made, not only the nose part needs to be modified, but the size of the entire aircraft may have to be rebuilt.
Are you sure you want to make this choice?"
After hearing Fang Lang's words, General Nero Mora frowned and said helplessly:
“We understand what you said, and this is why we are struggling.
We have full confidence in Fangyuan Aviation's technical strength. After all, the successful completion of the research and development of the T-1 project has fully proved this point.
We do not mean to abandon the T-1 project, because after our research, we found that the T-1 trainer aircraft can become a very good ground attack aircraft with a little improvement.
If possible, we would like to invite you to resubmit a ground attack aircraft research and development project to the Ministry of Defense and directly transform this T-1 project into a ground attack aircraft.
The new R&D funding will be used to develop piston-engine trainer aircraft.”
In fact, Fang Lang knew clearly that General Nero Mora had another option that he had not mentioned, which was to directly purchase turboprop engines from abroad instead of producing them domestically.
During this period, Britain and the United States already had turboprop engines with overhaul times and power that exceeded this engine. For example, the British Rolls-Royce Dart 525 turboprop engine had a single power of 1,990 horsepower.
However, the size of this engine is definitely not suitable for use in small trainer aircraft.
Fang Lang was very clear about the reason why the other party did not propose this idea. On the one hand, it must be because they wanted to support domestic products. On the other hand, it must have something to do with the fact that he was the boss of Fangyuan Company.
This is a very self-respecting approach.
After hearing what General Nero Mora said, Fang Lang did not answer immediately, but began to think seriously and weigh the pros and cons.
Soon, he thought of a question and had to turn around and look at the other party. He said to General Mora with a little apology:
"General Mora, if a new ground attack aircraft is developed based on the T-1 project, our naval aviation force may not be able to participate."
Fang Lang's words made General Nero Mora's face change. He didn't expect Fang Lang to refuse. You know, this is to take care of Fangyuan Airlines' business.
Seeing General Mora's expression, Fang Lang could only sigh helplessly:
"General, please don't misunderstand me. It's not that I don't want to continue cooperating with your air force, but the T-1 aircraft is not suitable for naval aviation to use on aircraft carriers.
Don’t forget, its takeoff run distance is 380 meters, while the length of our aircraft carrier deck is only 246 meters.”
After these words came out, General Nero Mora was not clear about where the problem was. Such a critical issue was actually neglected by him. For a moment, he didn't know what to say.
In fact, everyone in the conference room had already focused their attention on Fang Lang and General Nero Mora. After hearing Fang Lang's words, they all sighed.
I understand that Fang Lang really can't be blamed for this.
For a moment, the conference room fell into an eerie silence, which made Fang Lang feel very depressed. After thinking about it, he finally broke the silence and said:
"General, I understand your Air Force's thinking.
Since you have decided to use a piston engine as the power of the trainer aircraft, I can negotiate with Fangyuan Aircraft Manufacturing Company and let them raise funds for the research and development.
But when purchasing, we must allow the other party to recover the R&D costs by raising the unit price. What do you think?"
Upon hearing this, everyone in the conference room looked at Fang Lang in disbelief. Everyone understood that the investment in developing an airplane was huge.
Fang Lang actually promised to negotiate with Fangyuan Aircraft Manufacturing Company and let them develop their own products. This is a great favor to the entire Air Force. After all, if not, the Air Force may eventually propose to replace imported turboprop engines to increase the overhaul life of the engines.
This will not only be a major blow to Fangyuan Aircraft Manufacturing Company, but will also make the completely domestically produced aircraft that was once proudly promoted a joke. General Nero Mora, who initiated the project, may even be implicated.
It is certainly possible not to replace the imported engines, but this will cause the Air Force's military expenditure to be severely sucked away by this bottomless pit, and of course the Navy's military expenditure will also be affected.
This is something that neither Fang Lang nor General Nero Mora want to see.
In fact, the current turboprop engine still has a lot of room for improvement. As long as the power research laboratory is given some time, they will be able to overcome these technical difficulties.
Even if that doesn't work, we can get technical support from Britain and the United States, and sooner or later the overhaul time will be extended to meet the requirements, but now the Air Force obviously can't wait any longer.
What really made Fang Lang helpless was that the Air Force actually felt that the T-1 technology was in excess, which made Fang Lang feel a little amused and helpless.
In Fang Lang's opinion, no matter how excellent the T-1 is, it is still just a propeller trainer aircraft. How can it be said to have excess technology compared to a jet aircraft?
Unfortunately, although the current Brazilian Air Force knows that Europe and the United States have long begun to abandon propeller aircraft and enter the jet era, they have not really started to come into contact with jet fighters.
This gave them the illusion that the T-1 had excess technology. Compared to the old trainer aircraft purchased from the United States, the T-1 was much more advanced and could be used as a fighter. This was the real reason why the Air Force now wanted to replace the engine with a piston engine.
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