The reason why the Aerospace Department and Tengfei group use the retired IL-18 aircraft to refit such an alternative transport aircraft is mainly due to the promotion of practical needs.
If the enterprises in the system of the Aerospace Department do not necessarily have such demand in another one or two decades, it is mainly because these aerospace enterprises had complete supporting plans when they were building, and the relevant supporting plants, assembly plants, test sites and launch sites were all connected by special railway lines.
After the large parts of the launch vehicle leave the factory, the special freight train can be directly hoisted to arrive in a point-to-point straight line, which is convenient, fast and efficient.
The problem is that if you put it in the Tengfei group, it will not work.
Because Tengfei group grew up savagely on its own, in order to survive in the early stage, it is impossible to consider the perfect supporting planning as planned, as long as it can produce and deliver raw materials and products smoothly.
What kind of dedicated railway line? The struggling Tengfei group really can't do it. At the same time, the railway department can't invest in developing dedicated railway line because of an ordinary enterprise.
Of course, at that time, the ordinary railway and road transportation of Tengfei group's products was enough, and there was no need to make anything special.
Not enough. Everything has changed since the production task assigned by the Aerospace Department four years ago, because Tengfei group undertakes the processing and production tasks of the secondary fuel tank of a certain launch vehicle and the primary fuel tank of a certain missile as well as some missile bodies.
Originally, these things could not be done by Tengfei group. There are many enterprises under the Aerospace Department, some of which can undertake such tasks.
However, due to the failure of one space launch mission and the failure of two missile tests, the space system found that the machining accuracy of the supporting factory did not meet the design requirements of a launch vehicle and a new missile.
On the one hand, it is the equipment aging of the supporting factory, on the other hand, it is also the design index of the two models.
It's not impossible to import equipment and carry out comprehensive transformation, but it takes time, which has a huge impact on space launch and national defense security. Therefore, the head of the old headquarters, who had not retired at that time, accepted the appointment of the headquarters and personally made a thorough investigation in various enterprises of the Aerospace Department to see if he could concentrate the advantages of each factory and solve this problem, or even do a good job for it We are ready to build a new factory.
As the existence of the two major businesses across aviation and aerospace, Tengfei group is naturally the target of the old head of the headquarters. As a result, it doesn't matter. Although it's not as shocking as when he visited Tengfei group for the first time, it still refreshes his understanding of Tengfei group.
In particular, the R & D center of Tengfei aviation technology, located in Xingzhou, is blinded by its internal composite material achievements. That's all. The key is the supporting production equipment and processing technology. Tengfei group has also set up a 7788 factory to match its excellent production and processing ability. What factory will it build? Just produce it directly in Tengfei group.
Hearing this result, Zhuang Jianye, who accompanied the head of the old headquarters to inspect, almost didn't cry.
He doesn't want to do so much in aerospace. Instead, he plans to take advantage of the elimination of old equipment by the Aerospace Department, upgrade the industry, and become a supplier of materials and equipment as before, making a low-key and luxurious profit.
Just because of this, when the old head of the headquarters comes over, Zhuang Jianye will try his best to take out all the things that press the bottom of the box. How can he think that all the words of the old head of the headquarters are in his hands.
Zhuang Jianye, a real man, hardly fainted in the toilet.
Of course, no matter how much you cry in the toilet, you still have to listen to the old head of the headquarters. What's more, it's the will of the country, not measured by money. So shortly after the old head of the headquarters left, Tengfei group began to trial produce large parts of the Aerospace Department in Xiping factory.
It has to be said that the vision of the head of the old headquarters is still very strong. In less than half a year, the secondary fuel tank of a certain launch vehicle and the primary fuel tank of a certain type of missile produced by Tengfei group have all reached the design standards, and have passed the audit of the expert group of the Aerospace Department, and can carry out large-scale production.
And then That's the problem.
The diameter of such parts is generally from two meters to three meters, or even larger; the smallest length is 8 meters or 9 meters, among which the diameter of a certain type of missile body is 3.5 meters and the length is 17.4 meters due to the design requirements, and it needs to be integrated.
Such large structural parts have exceeded the length of ordinary freight train carriages. They need special carriages to be shipped. That's all. The key is that these big ones are all precision parts. It's not too expensive to say that they are as delicate as babies. They can't be knocked or touched during transportation and transshipment.
In this regard, the weakness of Tengfei group's early planning is highlighted. Even if there are no dedicated railway and highway lines, the terrain in the southwest is very complex, and there are many tunnels and curves, which makes people suspect. In such a road condition, if you want to ensure that there are no problems with large precision structures, you can look like a world record.
What to do?
The answer given by Tengfei group is to use aircraft for air transportation, and quickly come up with a highly feasible scheme.
There are limitations in land transportation, and there is no way to transport by ship, so aviation seems to be the only choice, so the Aerospace Department discussed it, and finally the head of the old headquarters decided to set up the project.For the sake of this project, Tengfei group, which undertakes the task of refitting, has even suspended the project of advanced light transport aircraft, which has been continuously promoted. It has taken nearly two years for Tengfei group to concentrate all its efforts and bring out the most pressing technology in recent years. It has just changed the two retired Air Force il-18s into the Soviet Union's ilyushen Design Bureau.
There is no way. In order to be able to load such large structural parts as the missile body, the fuselage has been subversively expanded by Tengfei group, forming a huge warehouse with a length of 20.56 meters, a height of 5.9 meters, a width of 5.9 meters and a volume of 713 cubic meters, which can easily accommodate the large structural parts such as the carrier rocket or missile body produced by Tengfei group.
As soon as the two "special air vehicles" were used, they immediately won the praise of the Aerospace Department, and the demand was very high. Considering the transportation mission of the whole helicopter of Tengfei group to Xiangzhou assembly plant and other aspects of precision parts, the two "special air vehicles" were in short supply.
This time, the damaged jt9d engine of Boeing 767 will have a chance to compete with the Aerospace Department. Otherwise, it may not be able to arrive at any time.
Of course, Zheng Yongning won't tell Wang Huan about these things. After all, it involves aerospace manufacturing, especially the production of a new type of missile body. It's not possible for anyone to come into contact with it. Even with the help of Zhuang Jianye, Zheng Yongning, many details are not clear, and outsiders can't say so much in detail.
It's just that in order to facilitate the rapid transfer of precision components in the group, two il-18s were specially refitted at a huge cost.
But even so, Wang Huan is still very surprised. He thinks that Tengfei group is not so big. He is about to ask for the details of the "special air vehicle". When he hears the roar of the engine from the sky, Wang Huan subconsciously looks up and only looks at his body. It's a shock. He can't help but think that the appearance of the plane is too weird to describe, He could only point to the stupid plane above and ask, "that's..."
Zheng Yongning replied with a smile: "ah, that's our" special air vehicle "special transport aircraft."