Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry

#501 - Alliance

When Dongda entered fields like aviation and high-end electronics, Ren Zhong felt the immense pressure exerted by the superpower. Helpless, with the market and buyers on their side, Ren Zhong had to play by their rules.

Although Dongda's rise was rapid, its starting point was simply too low.

From the end of the Anti-Japanese War to the end of 1959, the annual economic growth rate reached an unprecedented double-digit figure, averaging an astonishing 15%. In about 15 years, it achieved more than an eightfold increase. However, the overall economy was still more than twice behind the top dog, Rogue Eagle. Dongda's GDP exceeded 200 billion US dollars, but Rogue Eagle surpassed 500 billion US dollars. Excluding the Big Bear, whose strength was opaque, John Bull's economy closely followed Dongda, exceeding 100 billion US dollars and ranking third.

Fourth place was held by Gaul with over 60 billion US dollars, followed by the traditional powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy.

Between 1950 and 1960, Japan's GDP growth rate was 10%, closely following Dongda and higher than the Western powers. However, due to its weaker foundation, its total volume was lower than that of the traditional Western powers.

In this situation, the ones who could speak with authority, apart from the isolated Big Bear, were Rogue Eagle, Dongda, and John Bull.

In this timeline, John Bull benefited from cooperation with Dongda and firmly maintained its colonies in Black Africa, now renamed the Confederation of Autonomous Territories. Except for unified foreign affairs and defense, the economy was slowly becoming independent, but the core economic areas remained controlled by John Bull's traditional financial groups. Economic lifelines such as mines and grain were owned by John Bull's financial groups.

Therefore, in terms of total economic volume, John Bull in the Bright Sword world had more than 300 billion US dollars more than its counterpart in the main world. This was one reason why they now dared to challenge Rogue Eagle. Excluding the continental European countries within the Big Bear system, the total economic volume of the countries moving towards the European Community exceeded 300 billion US dollars. This volume was relatively close to Rogue Eagle. If they could win over Kangaroo Country and Maple Leaf Country, which were originally John Bull's autonomous territories, the overall economic volume would reach about 430 billion US dollars, almost reaching Rogue Eagle's level.

This was the confidence John Bull had in leading Europe.

In comparison, the other powers had little interaction with Dongda, and their development speed was not much different from that of the main world.

From Ren Zhong's perspective, this situation was quite beneficial to Dongda.

Because it bound John Bull through interests, thereby gaining many conveniences in Europe.

Precisely because John Bull had a stronger foundation than the other few, the idea of the European Community was now being pieced together by John Bull leading the way with the Anglo-French-German locomotive.

Moreover, John Bull in this Bright Sword world, with the support of Dongda, was much more proactive than in the main world, and its determination to promote it was also greater.

Thus, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) was established first, beginning the construction of European standards for the European aviation industry. The first priority was to obtain the first European standard airworthiness certificate for the Airbus A300!

As it was EASA's first project, everything was handled specially. With the joint promotion of airlines such as Lufthansa and Air France, which had long been eyeing the Airbus A300, the certification was very smooth.

The first impact of obtaining this EASA airworthiness certificate was that, in addition to Air France and Lufthansa, airlines from more than a dozen wealthy European countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Greece also began to order in bulk.

For them, the Airbus A300 was the mainstream for major European routes. If they did not seize this opportunity, according to the current routes, the routes between major cities in England, France, and Germany were mutually open, each accounting for half. If there was a large difference in passenger aircraft, the passengers of their own airlines would definitely be lost in large numbers. Therefore, on their international routes with each other, they had to use the same passenger aircraft to compete, which gave the Airbus A300 a huge opportunity.

Of course, behind this, the Airbus A300's excellent economy was also another driving force.

At the same time, on European international routes, although there were no explicit regulations yet requiring a newly established EASA airworthiness certificate to fly, after all, this organization had just been established, and no other passenger aircraft except the Airbus A300 had such certification. However, after everyone purchased the Airbus A300, everyone would tacitly agree that newly purchased passenger aircraft must have EASA certification in the future, even if FAA certification was not valid in the European international aviation market.

The four giants of Rogue Eagle watched all this happen quickly in stunned silence. When they brought their mature model passenger aircraft to EASA for certification, they realized that they seemed to be shooting themselves in the foot. The way they had dealt with the Airbus A300's certification in the past was now the way EASA dealt with them.

Tit for tat, there was no ambiguity.

In the East, Dongda also took the lead in establishing the Asian Aviation Standards Board (AASB), promoting Dongda's CAA standards to the AASB. All international flights to Dongda in the Asia-Pacific region now had to pass the certification of this organization. At the same time, the AASB and EASA jointly signed a mutual recognition agreement, linking the Asia-Pacific region with the European region.

Two sets of standards began to be compatible. Dongda's CAC-120 and the early Yun-8 and Yun-6 were the first to pass the AASB market certification.

These three passenger aircraft were promoted to the Asia-Pacific and European regions. Of course, for the European region, the CAC-120 was not suitable for competing with the Airbus A300, but the new Yun-6 and Yun-8, which had been converted to turboprop engines, achieved good results in European low-cost airlines.

After all, these two passenger aircraft with less than 100 seats, after the flight speed was increased, with excellent fuel efficiency and the originally cheap purchase price, the operating cost per seat was the lowest in the current Bright Sword world. They were very suitable for low-cost flights within a range of 2500 kilometers. With a flight speed of up to 650 kilometers per hour, the current Yun-6 and Yun-8 had no problem flying long distances. Basically, there was no problem flying 2500 kilometers in 4 hours.

In this way, Dongda's Yandu Aviation Industry Company's three signature passenger aircraft gained a foothold. The CAC-120 was conquering cities and territories in the Asia-Pacific region, and the ten-year pre-order volume exceeded 800 aircraft!

In Europe and Africa, and in the regions influenced by John Bull's traditional forces in the Middle East, after EASA's efforts, the ten-year pre-order volume of the Airbus A300 also exceeded 800 aircraft! The sales of both sides were evenly matched, and now they were expanding their production lines to complete the new production capacity of 100 aircraft per year!

In the Bright Sword world's aviation hegemony, Dongda and John Bull jointly carried out a preliminary occupation of the Asian, African, and European markets.

For Ren Zhong, of course, he was happy to see such a situation.

After all, the American market was Rogue Eagle's backyard, and he should not try to shake them for the time being. It was enough to occupy most of the Asian, African, and European markets now, which could fully support the next development plan of the aviation industry.

Now it seemed that the separate CAC-150 (Airbus A310) plan was a bit conservative. It was time to launch a four-engine intercontinental passenger aircraft plan.

After several months of discussion, the CAC-400 (Airbus A340) project was born. This is a four-engine wide-body intercontinental airliner, based on the Airbus A340 of the main world, which can provide six different configurations covering from 250 seats to 475 seats, from intercontinental routes to ultra-long-range intercontinental routes.

In terms of engines, it uses the Rolls-Royce and Dongda jointly developed three-spool engine RB211. The maximum range is designed to be 14,000 kilometers, which can basically cover the capitals of most countries in the world from Misty City. The popular European to North American and South American routes are all within the range, except for a few South Pacific countries such as the Kangaroo Country and South Pacific island countries from Misty City.

Similarly, international routes departing from Yandu and Modu of Dongda can fly directly to any city in Europe and any city in North America, except for South America, which requires refueling in the middle.

For intercontinental airliners, a range of 12,000 kilometers is actually enough. Reaching 14,000 kilometers already covers most of the routes on the earth. In terms of passenger capacity, the initial design of the Airbus A340 started with 250 people and gradually stretched to a super-large airliner with 475 people!

This design is relatively advanced for the current situation.

Compared to its real hypothetical enemy, the Boeing 747, the research on this aircraft has not yet been put on the agenda.

As for its real enemy, Douglas's DC-8-40, the competitor has already test-flown and is now in the process of obtaining airworthiness certificates, planning to put it into commercial operation in 1961. The time is lagging behind a lot, but fortunately, there is the advantage of late development. This project, the super-large airliner that test-flew in the Bright Sword World in 1965, appeared a few years later, but it adopts the advanced power of the three-spool turbofan engine. In terms of indicators, it is a generation ahead of the Douglas DC-8. If it comes out, there is no doubt that it will tear off a large piece of the DC-8's market!

Now with the success of the Airbus A300, if the Airbus A340 achieves these performance indicators as scheduled, success can also be expected, because it is 5 years ahead of its strong opponent Boeing 747 in time. If nothing unexpected happens, Boeing will start thinking about this four-engine intercontinental airliner after the Airbus A340 is successful. Now their energy is still focused on the three-engine Boeing 727. The intercontinental airliner still relies on the 707 to conquer the world.

Suffering from the insufficient development of aero-engine power at this time, the North American aviation giants are now engaged in three-engine medium- and long-range regional airliners at this stage.

Although later history proved that this was a detour, someone always has to pay tuition to know.

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In the face of real pressure, not every giant has a seer like Ren Zhong who can avoid lightning, knowing that new aero-engines will break all this soon, making three-engine airliners flash in the pan, wasting a lot of R\u0026D expenses in vain.

Because the life of an airliner should actually be very long. From the initial version to the final shutdown, it often lasts for thirty or even fifty years or more. The entire product line life cycle of the Boeing 707 is 37 years, and the entire product line life cycle of the Boeing 747 is as high as 53 years.

Facts have proved that the super airliner project is not a good deal. You can't develop ultra-long-range super-large airliners just because of a very small number of needs, such as the need to fly directly from Misty City to the Kangaroo Country. There are too many international airports now. A transfer in cities like Dubai or Mumbai is not much slower than a direct flight, but the flexibility is obviously much higher. After all, it is much more difficult to gather 900 people from Misty City to the Kangaroo Country than to gather people from Misty City plus Dubai and Mumbai to go to the Kangaroo Country.

Unfortunately, not many people saw this clearly at the time. Everyone thought that the larger the airliner, the lower the cost per seat. However, after the competition in the air route became fierce, striving for the load factor was the key. Passengers can completely choose a multi-segment splicing method to reduce their travel costs.

Practice has proved that ultra-long-range large aircraft are of course needed, but it is not the bigger the better and the farther the better!

Four engines, 400+ seats, and a range of 14,000 kilometers are the technical route indicators that Ren Zhong has set for this airliner, so that R\u0026D expenses can be effectively controlled. You must know that the cost of completely re-developing a new airliner is very high. The R\u0026D cost of the Airbus A380 is as high as 25 billion+ US dollars! And this airliner has only sold 251 units in total. In other words, the amortization of R\u0026D expenses alone is as high as 100 million!

According to its average selling price of 400 million US dollars, the amortization of R\u0026D expenses accounts for as much as 25%. In sharp contrast, the development costs of the A330 and A340 models in the 1980s totaled 2.5 billion US dollars (1986 currency value), while the sales volume of the Airbus A330 was 1,527 units, and the sales volume of the Airbus A340 was 375 units, totaling 1,902 units. The amortization of R\u0026D expenses per aircraft was only more than 1 million US dollars. According to the price of the A340, which is about 200 million US dollars, the amortization of R\u0026D expenses is only about 6%, which is completely different from the A380.

From the history of the main world, the best-selling aircraft are actually twin-engine narrow-body airliners, namely the Airbus A320 series and the Boeing 737 series, which is what Ren Zhong values most.

According to Ren Zhong's plan, CAC-120 / CAC-150 / CAC-180 / CAC-200 will follow the A320 route, covering the 100-200 seat-class medium- and long-range narrow-body aircraft market. However, in the future, the range will be extended from more than 3,000 kilometers to about 6,500 kilometers, which can cover most of the distance of international flights. However, on the technical route, these four types are mostly common. CAC-120 / CAC-150 is purely stretched, and CAC-180 / CAC-200 is widened + stretched, from 5 seats per row to 6 seats to meet a larger passenger capacity.

Obviously, this kind of technical route evolution is the least difficult, and the R\u0026D expenses are also more controllable.

Dongda, through joint research and development with John Bull, and with the help of CAC-120's clever entry, takes a step first in the medium- and long-range narrow-body aircraft market. With the steps not going wrong, there is a glimmer of hope to defeat Boeing in the future.