Chapter 206: Am I the father of 737MAX?
Two days later, the apron of Daocheng Yading Airport was crowded with people. Usually, this world's highest civil airport is not very popular, but today it is quite lively.
If you look closely, you can see that there are many foreigners of different skin colors among the crowd on the apron, and they are all dressed neatly and look very formal. Standing at the front of the crowd are the person in charge of this 777, the verification personnel from EASA and FAA, and the observers from CAAC.
As the limit of twin-engine passenger aircraft so far, the Boeing 777 deserves such treatment.
At the front, the person in charge put his hands behind his back and stared at the huge aircraft quietly parked at the end of the runway in the distance. As long as it survives today's test, the suffering of the Boeing 777 will come to an end.
Li Rongcheng stood respectfully beside the person in charge, which showed how high his status was. In fact, two days ago, when he decided to exchange two 737-900 aircraft for the LEAP engine adaptability solution without asking the headquarters, he had already demonstrated how powerful he was.
Breathing the cool morning air, the person in charge leaned slightly and said, "Li, the weather is good. It looks like our test will be successful soon."
Li Rongcheng was slightly stunned. He knew that the person in charge spoke Chinese fluently, but he had hardly ever used Chinese when communicating with him. Why was he speaking Chinese to him today?
However, Li Rongcheng did not think much about it and answered in Chinese: "Of course!"
"Hmm!" The person in charge just responded lightly and said nothing more. He looked in the direction of the Boeing 777 with an expressionless face and remained silent.
In the observation area, the CAAC observation group headed by Sheng Gaoliang, Director of the Aircraft Airworthiness Certification Department, was also paying attention to the Boeing 777 at the end of the runway.
"Director, this plane has such a big engine!"
"Yes, I see that the engine is larger than the diameter of the 737 fuselage next to it."
Amid the exclamations of his colleagues, Sheng Gaoliang's pupils shrank slightly: "The 3.43-meter-long super-large air intake can reach a maximum thrust of 127,900 pounds. Is this the world's top industrial capacity?"
"One hundred and twenty-seven thousand nine hundred pounds?" A colleague was shocked to hear such an accurate number for the first time. "The thrust of this engine is enough to exceed the combined thrust of five CFM56 engines."
Sheng Gaoliang clenched his right hand into a fist and did not respond to his colleague's words.
At this moment, in the cockpit of the Boeing 777, Boeing's chief test pilot Ye Xian was conducting the final inspection of the aircraft, while Xu Cang, who was standing next to him, was wearing an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose, pulling his seat back, folding his arms, and closing his eyes to rest.
The oxygen mask worn by Xu Cang is supplied by an independent device of half a meter square on the right side of the seat. It is completely independent of the cockpit's oxygen supply system. Moreover, this device can generate more than two hours of oxygen, which is enough to cover the entire test process.
Behind Ye Xian and Xu Cang, an FAA and an EASA assessor were adjusting their seats. This time, they would follow the test throughout the entire process to ensure that Ye Xian could complete all the test items and provide feedback on the degree of completion of the test.
At first, Ye Xian was able to hold back his anger and inspect the cockpit, but after glancing at Xu Cang's leisurely appearance several times, he really couldn't help it.
"Xu Cang, we at Boeing spent so much money to invite you here, is it just for you to come and sleep?"
Xu Cang raised his eyelids and asked, "Did the plane crash?"
Ye Xian was startled: "No."
"Why are you calling me if nothing happened?" Xu Cang was a little annoyed: "Or do you think you can't fly a plane by yourself? If you say so, I can help you out reluctantly."
What level of pilot is Ye Xian? Flying solo is not difficult for him, but he just can't stand Xu Cang's behavior.
"Forget it, you should just go to sleep."
Xu Cang snorted, raised his right foot, and pushed the air outlet under the PFD to the upper right corner. It had been blowing towards him, making his knees cold. Xu Cang was still thinking, he was less than 30 years old, why were his knees not warm? He felt uncomfortable with just a little wind. Should he take care of them in the future?
As he was thinking, Xu Cang temporarily gave up the idea of sleeping, took out a small bottle of oral liquid from the small compartment on his right, and then he found a straw from somewhere, inserted it, took off the oxygen mask, and began to drink leisurely on the spot.
Ye Xiandu had already planned to ignore Xu Cang, but in the blink of an eye, he found that Xu Cang was drinking oral liquid in public, and he immediately flew into a rage: "What are you doing? How dare you drink anything during the flight?"
Xu Cang brought the bottle pattern closer to Ye Xian and said with a smile, "Rhodiola rosea, for preventing and treating altitude sickness."
"You..." Ye Xian was choked by Xu Cang. He really couldn't understand why the headquarters had lost their minds and invited this living Buddha to do nothing but worship him.
I heard that if the test is successful, a supplementary agreement will be signed afterwards, and Boeing will transfer two 737-900s to Xu Cang for free. This made Ye Xian, who already felt that Xu Cang had taken advantage of him, even more angry.
While the two people in front were talking, the EASA assessor who had just sat down in the back said with a smile in fluent Chinese: "Xu Cang, right? This year's ICAO CAAC area commissioner waiting list has been sent to our EASA. I heard from my friend that your name is on it."
For Xu Cang, who planned everything, this was a matter of course, and there was nothing to be surprised about. So, Xu Cang turned his head slightly and said politely, "Please be flexible."
"Haha, we belong to the department responsible for aircraft airworthiness review, not personnel qualification review. It's useless for you to ask me to be flexible. However, my friend is indeed in charge of your area, and I heard that the head of CAA even went to him to talk about your case." The EASA assessor was obviously implying something: "Mr. Xu, I didn't expect CAA to give you face."
Xu Cang raised his eyebrows. It seemed that the people from CAA kept their promise. They said they would help him solve the problem of EASA's commissioner review and they did it for him.
"We're just helping each other." Xu Cang smiled, turned around and drank the last sip of Rhodiola rosea oral liquid, found a paper bag to carefully put it in, and then folded the bag and sealed it. After thinking for a while, he drank half of the bottle of mineral water at hand before giving up.
“It’s so damn hard to drink!”
Even after finishing half a bottle of mineral water, Xu Cang still had a strong medicinal smell of Rhodiola rosea on his tongue, and half of his face was drooping.
Wow, after drinking this mouthful of bitter water, it was more effective than any stimulant. Xu Cang immediately became energetic.
Xu Cang put on the oxygen mask again and slumped in the seat for a few minutes, but he just couldn't muster up any sleepiness. Finally, he sat up straight, scratched his head, and decided not to sleep anymore.
"I thought you could really sleep peacefully all the way!" Ye Xian snorted beside him, and then shouted directly on the radio: "5431, ready, apply for driving on the spot!"
5431 is the aircraft number of this 777. Since this training is not any form of flight, there is naturally no temporary flight number, and the call sign is replaced by the aircraft number.
"5431, you can drive on the spot! In takeoff configuration, get ready to report." The airport tower replied.
"receive!"
Ye Xian immediately began the pre-start procedure. The overall layout of the Boeing 777 is somewhat similar to that of the 747, but only similar. There are six DUs in total, three MCDUs, one for each seat, and another CDU in the middle of the left and right panels of the central console. The autobrake and other switches are also placed on the right side of the upper DU, and the landing gear handle is a smaller version of the 737. The spare attitude indicator, altimeter and navigator are located on the left side of the upper DU from top to bottom.
In addition, the Boeing 777 is a product of the new era after all, and it does not use the old layout of the 737, so there are many additional places in the components.
However, after all, they are all Boeing series, and the basic concepts are actually the same. As long as you are a Boeing pilot, you can basically transition to other models smoothly after a little adaptation.
In fact, Xu Cang did not fly the Boeing 777 very often. The most important thing was that in an era when Xu Cang could try out aircraft models at will, this so-called twin-engine extreme Boeing 777 had been dethroned by its successor, the 787, known as the Dreamliner.
Who doesn't like the Boeing 787?
Of course, it doesn’t mean that the Boeing 777 is a failed model. At least at the moment when Xu Cang was reborn, the Boeing 777 was still shining and giving heat, while the A380 had already planned to announce its discontinuation of production, which was a real failure.
Since it was not a real flight, there were relatively fewer restrictions. Ye Xian completed the startup procedure on his own, while Xu Cang clicked on the CDU identification page and found the engine model of this aircraft?
"GE90-115B?" Xu Cang raised his eyebrows in confusion: "Shouldn't this engine be used in the second-generation model?"
"Hmm?" Ye Xian was still setting up the final configuration of the started aircraft in order to prepare for takeoff. However, when he heard Xu Cang's words, he was also a little surprised: "You also know GE90-115B?"
Xu Cang curled his lips: "What kind of secret is it? It's just GE90-115B. Now GENX is a secret, right?"
Before Ye Xian could say anything, the FAA assessor behind him said in a teasing tone, "Mr. Xu, since you know it's confidential, why did you tell it?"
"It's just a name, what's there to hide?" Xu Cang raised the corner of his mouth. It seemed that GENX was indeed under development.
Xu Cang is still quite looking forward to how much shock this civil aviation engine with the largest diameter and most powerful thrust in history can bring.
Xu Cang tightened his seat belt and directly replaced Ye Xian who was already ready, saying on the radio frequency: "5431, ready, request to take off."
"5431, after takeoff, follow the scheduled plan, climb to 7,800 meters within ten minutes, fly to point A for subject operations, runway 33, clear for takeoff!"
"Roger that, runway 33 is clear for takeoff!"
This point A does not belong to any waypoint on the map, but is a temporary point located by longitude and latitude. This point is carefully selected. There are mountains and ridges below and near point A, and there are few people. Even if there is a problem with the test flight, it will basically not cause any harm.
Moreover, point A is located in the empty airspace between two routes and will not cause any impact on the two nearby commercial routes.
In addition, since there are some relatively sensitive areas in the southwest region, and this aircraft is registered abroad and there are foreigners on board, it is not allowed to maintain low altitude for a long time. Therefore, it is required to climb to a high enough altitude in a short time.
To climb to 7,800 meters in 10 minutes, it is necessary to maintain an average climb rate of 2,500 feet per minute, which is quite high. However, the Boeing 777 was nearly empty during this test flight, so an average climb rate of 2,500 feet per minute was not difficult.
Sure enough, as the takeoff permission was granted, Ye Xian released the brake and stepped on the accelerator to the maximum. Under the huge roar of the two GE90s, the whole airport seemed to be shocked by the huge operation sound. The grass outside the end of the runway was blown away by the airflow from the engines.
It only took two or three seconds for the thrust to increase and two deep marks were blown onto the grass.
On the tarmac, Sheng Gaoliang was affected by the airflow from the engine, and his windbreaker rustled. His colleague handed him earplugs: "Director, earplugs, the noise is too loud."
However, Sheng Gaoliang did not take it. This sound was the roar of the World Dragon, and he wanted to hear it again.
Suddenly, Sheng Gaoliang's heart contracted, and the Boeing 777 moved. The world's largest twin-engine passenger plane shot out like an arrow from a bow. I don't know if it was because of the abundant moisture in the morning, but two long strips of moisture formed on the wingtips of the Boeing 777, making this already highly technological product even more dreamy.
Just when Sheng Gaoliang was still calculating how long the takeoff distance of an empty Boeing 777 would take, the plane suddenly soared into the sky after crossing the middle of the runway. Then, driven by two powerful engines, the Boeing 777 pierced the sky with an incredible posture, almost like pulling onions out of dry land.
"What a big climb angle! Aren't they afraid of stalling?" It was the first time that my colleague saw a Boeing 777 pull up without a passenger, and the visual impact was almost engraved in his soul. This was not a fighter jet, but a large passenger plane that could seat nearly 400 people. Even if it was empty, it could complete the initial climb at a nearly vertical angle. In his mind, he could not even think of it.
In the cockpit, Xu Cang watched Ye Xian pull up from the initial attitude of fifteen degrees for takeoff. After the attitude exceeded twenty-five degrees, Xu Cang looked at Ye Xian deliberately, and when he found that his expression did not change, he did not say anything.
However, after the posture passed 25 degrees, Ye Xian was still leading backwards, and finally Xu Cang almost had to lie down and look at the sky.
"That's enough. I know your engines are powerful. Two full-horsepower GE90-115Bs can fly into the sky even if they are tied with bricks. Just show it off. Don't you feel uncomfortable in this emergency take-off state?" Xu Cang said a little unhappily.
This kind of crazy probing on the edge of a takeoff stall is usually only used in emergency takeoffs, especially for military aircraft. It's not that Xu Cang deliberately made things difficult for Ye Xian, but this state would bring a certain amount of load to the pilot.
Of course, Xu Cang was not unable to bear the load, but he was not a cheapskate. He felt uncomfortable with this load state, so why should he maintain it for so long?
Ye Xian didn't listen to Xu Cang's words until the EASA assessor said it was okay. Only then did Ye Xian gradually switch to a more normal climbing method.
"The Boeing 777's power and aerodynamic performance are indeed excellent enough to maintain such a fast climb even when taking off from an airport of more than 10,000 feet," the EASA assessor praised.
Some excellent large passenger aircraft can complete such maneuvers when empty, but the basic premise is that they are at low-altitude airports. The Boeing 777 just completed this maneuver at Daocheng Yading Airport, which is more than 10,000 feet above sea level, and the significance is completely different.
"After this test, you will truly realize how excellent the 777 aircraft is." Ye Xian said with some pride.
"Actually, I also think that the 777 is a good aircraft. After it passes this test, Chief Ye will give me a price as an acquaintance?" Xu Cang said with a smile.
According to the rules of the civil aviation market, the price for acquaintances is not a small amount, it can be discounted by 40%, which is a very amazing discount.
Perhaps he was a little flattered by the title of Chief Ye. After all, the same words spoken by different people have completely different effects. Who is Xu Cang? Judging from his flying skills alone, he is almost the best. Being flattered by such a person, Ye Xian couldn't stand it and almost agreed on the spot.
However, Ye Xian still maintained some rationality and said with a smile: "Mr. Xu is very sincere. I will report it to my superiors and fight for it for Mr. Xu."
Xu Cang nodded slightly: "That's troublesome."
"Okay, okay!" Ye Xian said, and immediately started to increase the speed and retract the flaps.
Due to the increase in speed, the plane's climb rate once decreased to about 1,500 feet per minute. However, Ye Xian was not worried about this. After the plane's flaps were retracted and entered a smooth state, the plane began to enter a rapid climb state again, increasing the climb rate to more than 5,000 feet per minute, and it could be maintained all the time. This climbing performance was simply appalling.
Moreover, Xu Cang saw that this Boeing 777 still had some power left, and the throttle had not even been pushed to the limit!
Although Xu Cang has various opinions about Boeing, he has to admit that this world civil aviation giant has extremely strong strength, which is an ironclad fact.
As a result, in less than seven minutes, the Boeing 777 had climbed to the predetermined altitude, and then flew to point A according to the predetermined trajectory, and carried out some predetermined subjects at point A.
In fact, just as Xu Cang guessed, the Boeing 777 is an aircraft without obvious defects. The previous verification flight problems were simply unexpected conditions and wrong fuel choices. Now, the only problem of wrong fuel has been solved, so there is naturally nothing to worry about.
As expected, in the various subjects that followed, Xu Cang was basically just a spectator, leisurely watching Ye Xian alone working hard to demonstrate the performance of the 777. Although it was a bit boring after a long time, one of the subjects still left a deep impression on Xu Cang.
That is, they also need to descend quickly on the return journey. At the initial stage, Ye Xian operated on the CDU. Xu Cang took a look and found that Ye Xian somehow called up some pages that Xu Cang had never seen before.
Then, while Xu Cang was still figuring out how to access these unfamiliar pages, Ye Xian simply stepped on the throttle, and then, in front of everyone's slightly surprised gazes, he actually turned on the reverse thrust of the two engines.
Reverse thrust in the air!
Due to his experience in Jakarta, Xu Cang is more sensitive to reverse thrust in the air, even if it is reverse thrust under slow engine thrust.
However, unlike what Xu Cang expected, apart from the obvious increase in vibration of the fuselage, there seemed to be no other abnormal conditions. Of course, under the reverse thrust in the air, the aircraft's descent rate began to drop sharply, with the maximum exceeding 6,000 feet per minute.
During this period, Ye Xian even stepped on the accelerator for a short time, which made Xu Cang a little nervous. However, nothing too frightening happened, and even the vibration of the fuselage did not increase significantly, which made Xu Cang feel very surprised.
He knew that the Boeing 777 was a good aircraft, but he was surprised that it could complete the actual test of reverse thrust in the air so easily.
This not only puts extremely high demands on the engine, but also the structural strength of the fuselage is slightly weaker, and the consequences are unimaginable. Ye Xian dared to do such a dangerous thing as accelerating in such an occasion, which shows that he has sufficient confidence in the 777 aircraft.
Just before landing, Ye Xian actually manually cut off one of the engines. According to the plan, he wanted to use one engine to land the 777 at Aden Airport.
Single-engine landing is a test of whether the engine is powerful enough, and whether the aircraft's aerodynamics are good enough to support flight with a 50% power loss.
The incredibly high altitude of Daocheng Yading Airport will undoubtedly greatly weaken the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft. If a Boeing 777 can land at Yading Airport with a single engine, it can basically prove that it can land at any civil airport with a sufficient runway in the world with a single engine.
At this moment, on the apron, the person in charge squinted his eyes and looked at the Boeing 777 that had already appeared on the fifth side of the runway. He looked down at his watch and a smile flashed across the corner of his mouth: "The time is just right, it looks like it's going well."
"This is the only thing left to land." Li Rongcheng responded with a smile.
"Hmm!" The person in charge saw the plane on the fifth side getting closer and closer. He was silent for a while and suddenly said, "Li, do you have any relatives in the United States? I remember your father is in France. You are not married, do you have a girlfriend?"
Li Rongcheng was stunned for a moment, and instinctively felt something was wrong, but since his boss had spoken, he still answered obediently: "I don't have a girlfriend yet, and I don't have any relatives in China."
The person in charge hummed: "This is good, no worries!"
"Hmm?" Li Rongcheng didn't understand for a moment: "Yes... Is there any problem?"
At this time, the Boeing 777 was already very close, the oppressive feeling that covered the sky was already within reach, and it would land in an instant.
"Li, when I was talking to Xu Cang about something a few days ago, I mentioned that there were two companies that were targeting him. He was a little surprised, but not a lot, which made me feel very strange."
Just as the person in charge was speaking, the Boeing 777 landed on the runway. The huge noise somewhat covered up the person in charge's voice.
"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you clearly..."
From that side angle, Li Rongcheng clearly saw that the face of the person in charge, who had been smiling all the time, was now covered with a biting frost. When the Boeing 777 finally stopped steadily on the runway, he slowly turned around and faced Li Rongcheng directly: "In view of your many contributions to the company before, we will give you a generous severance package. Go back and submit your resignation!"
…
The test of Boeing 777 was as boring as Xu Cang expected. Perhaps, if it weren't for the oral solution of Rhodiola rosea, Xu Cang could really sleep from beginning to end .
However, although the process was a bit boring, the reward was still quite generous. If there was a chance, Xu Cang would rather be bored a few more times.
After getting off the plane, Xu Cang was led by Boeing staff to a small room. There was only a small table in the room with a paper agreement on it. The person in charge and Li Rongchen were sitting next to the table.
However, compared to the smiling person in charge, Li Rongcheng looked a little dazed.
Xu Cang noticed Li Rongcheng's abnormality at the first time, but before he could think about it, the person in charge knocked on the table and said, "Mr. Xu, this is a supplementary agreement, which includes the transfer of the two 737-900s. Of course, the customs duties for the two aircraft have nothing to do with us. We can't give away the aircraft and pay for it, right?"
After this interruption, Xu Cang's attention was drawn to the past, and he said with a smile: "Of course, we will pay the tariff. Can you deliver the goods within half a year?"
"Delivery within a year is the fastest speed we can allocate. I hope Mr. Xu can understand." The person in charge said with a smile: "The 737-900 model is applicable to a relatively narrow range of scenarios. I'm not afraid of you laughing at me, Mr. Xu. In our opinion, the 900 model is not a success. It is precisely because this model is not so successful that the production capacity is not high. Basically, there is only one person for one job. If you want to allocate two extra aircraft from it, half a year is indeed too long."
Xu Cang grinned: "It's not that we can't spare two planes, it's just a bit troublesome, right? Ten million, I can give you ten million as your hard work fee for the deployment."
This is really not the person in charge who is deliberately making things difficult for people. Xu Cang is also a civil aviation person. He knows that it is indeed difficult to free up two aircraft in the first half of the year with a fixed production capacity, so it is reasonable to give 10 million.
The person in charge actually doesn’t care much about the 10 million. For ordinary people, 10 million is indeed a lot, but for him, it’s just that.
At least compared to the 10 million, the person in charge was more curious about one thing: "Xu Cang, are you really that anxious? You can't wait for half a year and would rather spend an extra 10 million? Or will the flight being delayed for half a year make your airline unable to operate?"
"No, no, no, I'm just worried that you won't be able to deliver the goods in a year! Or rather, you won't have the energy to deliver the goods."
The person in charge jokingly said: "You don't believe what I said?"
"No way! How could I not believe you?" Xu Cang said with a smile: "I just don't believe in the entire Boeing!"
The person in charge narrowed his eyes and said, "What do you mean? One year later, is there any problem?"
At this time, Xu Cang did not answer the person in charge, but walked slowly to the table, picked up the pen next to it, signed his name on it, and then took his own copy.
"Okay, how relaxing!" Xu Cang clapped his hands. "Don't think too much. What could possibly happen? One year is one year. Anyway, if we can't deliver the goods, you will have to compensate us. Don't you want to know how to solve the adaptation problem of the LEAP engine now?"
Person in charge: “What do you say?”
Xu Cang smiled and said, "Does the engine have to be made into a regular circle?"
The person in charge was stunned: "What do you mean? The external nacelles of the second-generation 737 engines are already elliptical."
"I mean to do it more thoroughly, and completely separate the accessory boxes on both sides," Xu Cang raised a slightly sarcastic smile, "Also, move the engine upward as a whole, but this may damage the structural strength of the wing, so it may be necessary to move the engine hanger forward. Of course, this change requires increasing the height of the front landing gear. The specific value is naturally for you to figure out on your own."
The person in charge thought for a moment: "However, if we do this, the force arm of the thrust acting on the fuselage will become longer, which may cause some unexpected changes, right?"
"That's not something I need to worry about." Xu Cang originally wanted to end the conversation here, but for some reason, Xu Cang still added: "It may have a negative impact on the aircraft's maneuverability at high speeds. Perhaps you can pay more attention to it."
The person in charge frowned. He was also a technical person and probably understood what Xu Cang said, but it was unknown whether he took it seriously.
Xu Cang saw the expression on the person in charge's face and sighed. This was the most direct tip he had given Boeing. As long as Boeing still had a little conscience...
