Chapter 366: Japan’s domestically produced passenger aircraft MRJ!
In the office of the president of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, President Kawasaki Akizo was making tea for Li Rongcheng with a smile on his face, and the atmosphere was very harmonious.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries is an important parts supplier for Boeing passenger aircraft, and Li Rongcheng has been the president of the Asia-Pacific region for a long time. The two have a good relationship both in business and in private.
The boiling water has been poured into the pot, but it still takes some time for the aroma of the tea leaves to be heated out, which is a good time for the two to chat.
"Mr. Li, I was shocked to hear that you resigned from the position of President of Asia Pacific not long ago. I thought something happened to you. But when I saw you today, you are still radiant and looking relieved. " Kawasaki Akizo was very relaxed in front of Li Rongcheng. He put on a tweed coat and looked very casual.
Li Rongcheng laughed: "Something happened. The headquarters asked me to resign on my own, so I didn't force myself to stay."
"Oh?" Kawasaki Mingzang showed a hint of interest: "You have been working in the Asia-Pacific region for many years and have never made a mistake. Why does Boeing headquarters require this?"
Li Rongcheng didn't seem to want to talk about Boeing anymore: "I have nothing to do with Boeing now, so how about we not talk about my old employer this time?"
Kawasaki Mingzang was stunned for a moment, then laughed heartily: "Okay, okay, I won't say any more. I won't say any more. It's obvious that you still have some resentment."
As if he felt it was about time, Kawasaki Mingzang straightened up slightly and poured Li Rongcheng a cup of tea: "I've suddenly become fond of green tea recently. It's light and refreshing. You should try it."
"Can you change the taste?"
Kawasaki Mingzo had always liked black tea, but he didn't expect that even his taste for tea had not changed.
"People can change, so why can't tastes change?" Kawasaki Mingzang looked at Li Rongcheng meaningfully: "What's the matter with you changing your club this time?"
Li Rongcheng did not drink the hot tea immediately, but looked at the clear water ripples in the teacup and said: "I am working for Mr. Xu Cang now."
"Xu Cang..." Kawasaki Mingzang took a sip of tea: "Is that the little guy who made an emergency landing in Tokyo Bay?"
"Kawasaki, you need to maintain minimum respect for my boss. This is also respect for me." Li Rongcheng said seriously.
Kawasaki Mingzang was stunned for a moment: "It seems that you think highly of him."
"If you could work with him, you would have the same feeling," Li Rongcheng said sincerely.
"That may not be the case." Kawasaki Mingzang drank the remaining tea and said, "Tell me, what is your business regarding Xu Cang?"
Li Rongcheng then picked up the teacup and took a sip: "Do you have any spare capacity for fuselage parts?"
Kawasaki Mingzang didn't expect Li Rongcheng to ask this. He crossed his right leg and said, "I don't quite understand what you mean."
"Recently, we have been attacking Bombardier. Previously, the fuselage supplier of Bombardier's C Series aircraft was AVIC. Now, AVIC has severed cooperation with Bombardier and will never cooperate again. Airbus of Germany will certainly not produce fuselage parts for Bombardier. The only one left is you." Li Rongcheng smiled and said, "As the last link, we hope you will refuse cooperation with Bombardier."
"Bombardier?" Kawasaki Mingzo silently poured himself another cup of tea, with no special expression on his face, which made Li Rongcheng feel unsure.
After waiting for a while, Li Rongcheng seemed a little nervous: "Kawasaki, this shouldn't be a big order for you . If you don't accept it, the impact won't be very obvious."
"Is it really so profitable to build airplanes?" Kawasaki Akizo leaned back slightly and looked at Li Rongcheng with a smile: "Everyone is building airplanes, such as the guy next door."
"Next door?" Li Rongcheng was stunned for a moment: "Mitsubishi Heavy Industries?"
When this name was mentioned, Kawasaki Mingzang's face flashed a hint of coldness: "What a disgusting name."
"Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is also going to build airplanes?" This was the first time Li Rongcheng had heard of this news. "What kind of airplanes are they going to build?"
"Regional airliners, mainly those with less than 100 seats, are relatively... safe in this area."
Li Rongcheng hesitated for a moment and said, "Spacejet?"
"Yes, that's it." Kawasaki Mingzang sneered: "Don't you know that too?"
"But does this have anything to do with the thing I mentioned?" If he came to listen to Kawasaki Aizawa's complaints, as a friend, Li Rongcheng could listen to him for a whole day.
After all, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries have never had a harmonious relationship.
However, Li Rongcheng came here with serious business this time, and he would rather get the serious business done first and then talk about other things.
"Do you think it doesn't matter?" Kawasaki Mingzang supported himself on the armrest of the sofa and slowly stood up: "My ancestors founded Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and there is a rule in the experience passed down from generation to generation. If you can't defeat your enemy in a certain field, then support another one."
Li Rongcheng's eyelids jumped, and he immediately felt something was wrong: "What do you mean?"
"Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' regional jet MRJ has a market positioning that is highly consistent with Bombardier's CRJ and Embraer's ERJ. We currently do not have the ability or the desire to get involved in the aircraft manufacturing industry, but we do not want Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to enter either. In this case, from my standpoint, I need to support an enemy that can maintain competitiveness against MRJ in the regional jet field." Kawasaki Akizo paused, "Perhaps supporting is not accurate, it should be maintained."
Li Rongcheng probably understood: "You want to use Bombardier to contain Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' MRJ passenger aircraft?"
"Now in the regional jet market, Bombardier's CRJ and Embraer's ERJ are in a dominant position, which is a good situation. If Bombardier goes down, it will inevitably leave a lot of market share in the regional jet market. This is good news for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' MRJ, but bad news for us, isn't it?" Kawasaki Mingzo took a deep breath and said, "You should understand what I mean. I will not allow anything that breaks the balance between us and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to happen."
Li Rongcheng said solemnly: "There is no one in the regional jet market that has the ability to reshape the power dynamics between the two of you."
"No, no, no." Kawasaki Akizo shook his head. "As a senior practitioner in the civil aviation industry, you shouldn't say that. Even I know that in the future, the market size of regional airliners will exceed 5,000. This is certainly not as good as the mainline airliner market, but it should not be underestimated. Moreover, we are close to the fastest growing region in the world for civil aviation, which is obviously an opportunity for development. Therefore, I must remain vigilant about Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' MRJ."
Kawasaki Mingzang pursed his lips and said, "Bombardier cannot die now, at least not before Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announces the end of their Spacejet project. It cannot just collapse like this."
After saying that, Kawasaki Mingzang walked to Li Rongcheng, picked up the teapot, and poured more tea for Li Rongcheng: "You should understand what I mean."
Li Rongcheng raised his eyelids: "Understanding is one thing, and whether or not you agree is another."
"Oh?" Kawasaki Akizo's eyes flashed with surprise: "What does this have to do with whether you agree or not? Isn't this my own choice?"
"But don't you know that Boeing is also involved in the sanctions against Bombardier?" Li Rongcheng asked seriously, "Shouldn't you be consistent with Boeing on this matter?"
"Bombardier has taken Boeing's orders, so we have to give it a try, that's all. Boeing is far less proactive than Airbus in its attitude towards Bombardier. If Boeing headquarters is really so tough on Bombardier, they should have informed us long ago, but they didn't." Kawasaki Mingzo said with a smile, "This shows that Boeing is not very willing or has little motivation to expand sanctions against Bombardier."
After all, if Bombardier hadn't snatched Boeing's order, Boeing would have been more willing to be a spectator.
Moreover, even if the order is snatched away, Boeing tends to simply cut off Bombardier's access to the US market and does not have a strong desire to kill Bombardier.
After all, Boeing is quite happy to keep Bombardier to disgust Airbus.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries has a high degree of consistency with Boeing in many areas of interests, and its sense of smell is also quite sharp. It is for this reason that when Li Rongcheng mentioned Boeing, Kawasaki Mingzo did not waver at all.
"So, the deal can't be settled?"
Kawasaki Mingzang spread his hands and said, "I am only acting in the interests of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, without any personal feelings involved."
"Kawasaki, there is one thing you may not understand." Li Rongcheng raised a finger. "You are trying to create trouble for the MRJ passenger plane from a market perspective, but isn't this a rather naive idea? What you should consider is not whether Mitsubishi Heavy Industries can sell the MRJ after it is built, but whether this aircraft can be built at all."
Kawasaki Mingzang was still smiling, but when he heard Li Rongcheng's words, he was obviously stunned: "What do you mean?"
"If I remember correctly..." Li Rongcheng recalled: "According to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Spacejet concept, the aircraft's hydraulic system comes from Parker Aerospace, the aileron, spoiler, elevator and rudder control systems come from Nabtesco's actuators, and the electrical system comes from Hamilton Sundstrand. In addition, suitable suppliers have been found for fire detection, fire extinguishing systems, pressurization and air source systems, APU, flaps and slats, inert nitrogen gas system generators, and engine bleed air environment control systems. But... these are not the most critical things."
Kawasaki Mingzang frowned: "I don't understand what you are talking about."
"What is the most important point about regional jets?" Li Rongcheng suddenly asked.
This question stumped Kawasaki Akio. Although Kawasaki Heavy Industries is the hardware provider for Boeing passenger aircraft, Kawasaki Akio is not a professional civil aviation practitioner after all, especially when it comes to operations.
However, Li Rongcheng did not keep the secret: "The most important thing about regional aircraft is the cost performance."
Li Rongcheng snapped his fingers and said, "Due to their operating environment, regional aircraft are mainly aimed at small and medium-sized airports. The routes between these airports are naturally insulated from high-end products. Therefore, how to reduce operating costs as much as possible while ensuring a certain passenger experience is the most important concern for regional aircraft. Among the various systems of an aircraft, where is the largest part of the operating cost?"
Kawasaki Mingzang understood now, and just said one word with a cold look in his eyes: "Engine."
"Yes, it's the engine." Li Rongcheng smiled and said, "Most engines of regional aircraft are simplified versions of trunk aircraft engines. Although they are simple in structure and cheap in price, they are not powerful enough to meet the needs of short runways at regional airports or airports in plateau areas. In addition, despite the low price, the fuel consumption rate of regional aircraft engines is still unsatisfactory."
"It's cheap, fuel-efficient, and powerful. How can it be so good?" Kawasaki Akizo snorted.
It is inevitable that while the prices of regional jet engines have been reduced, some of the advantages of mainline jet engines have also been lost.
"But it's different now." Li Rongcheng smiled and said, "Pratt & Whitney's GTF technology has re-entered the test phase. According to Pratt & Whitney's plan, in addition to the PW8000 engine for trunk aircraft, there is also a PW1200G engine for regional aircraft..."
Before Li Rongcheng finished speaking, Kawasaki Mingzang suddenly shouted, "Impossible, isn't Pratt & Whitney's GTF technology always at a standstill?"
"Mr. Xu Cang agreed to cooperate with Pratt & Whitney. With enough room for trial and error, will GTF technology remain stagnant?" Li Rongcheng said seriously, "Don't you know about the Trent 1000?"
After that, Li Rongcheng added: "Kawasaki, it was Mr. Xu Cang's idea to encircle Bombardier, and he is very concerned. If you can help, even if Pratt & Whitney successfully develops GTF technology in the future, it will not be exported to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries."
GTF technology is Pratt & Whitney's technology of using planetary gears to adjust the low-pressure fan, which is the technology that Xu Cang has always liked. This technology can greatly improve the operating efficiency of the engine without excessively increasing the price of the engine, especially since Pratt & Whitney originally planned to apply GTF technology to regional aircraft, namely the PW1200G engine.
Aircraft development has the advantage of being a latecomer. If Mitsubishi Heavy Industries can be the first to use the PW1200G, it will have a clear advantage over the CRJ and ERJ in terms of cost-effectiveness, which is certainly something that Kawasaki Akira does not want to see.
Why does Pratt & Whitney regard GTF technology as an engine revolution, and even hesitate to promote it because it is too anti-traditional?
That's the appeal of this technology.
"If I remember correctly, the concept design of MRJ mentioned the choice of Pratt & Whitney's GTF technology for the power system. However, the advancement of Pratt & Whitney's GTF technology was stagnant at that time, and it was only used as a backup plan in the concept design." Li Rongcheng said: "However, now this optimal plan is about to become a reality."
Li Rongcheng has seen the conceptual design drawings of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' MRJ passenger aircraft.
However, at that time, Li Rongcheng did not think that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries would really get involved in the aircraft manufacturing industry, so when Kawasaki Mingzo first mentioned it, Li Rongcheng did not think about it.
Kawasaki Akizo's face was gloomy. If Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' MRJ passenger aircraft could really reap the first dividend of GTF technology, it would really be possible to take advantage of the situation. After all , Pratt & Whitney should also be willing to first operate GTF technology engines in the field of regional aircraft, and then promote it to mainline aircraft.
"Kawasaki, eradicating the problem at its source is the safest approach." Li Rongcheng continued, "In addition, if Bombardier arrives, after we take over Bombardier, we will integrate the technology of Bombardier's C Series aircraft with the domestic ARJ21 to develop a new and better regional airliner to seize the East Asian market in advance. In the future, even if MRJ comes out, the market they can obtain will be quite scarce."
To sum up in one sentence, there are many disadvantages if you don’t cooperate, but there are many advantages if you cooperate.
Kawasaki Mingzo looked unhappy. He felt as if he was being manipulated by Li Rongcheng at will.
However, he did not feel angry about this. In front of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, his discomfort was nothing. The question was whether what Li Rongcheng said was true?
"However, all this comes down to whether the GTF technology can be successfully developed, right?" Kawasaki Akiza paced back and forth in the office: "I have seen the first draft of GTF, and I don't think it can be solved by trial and error. In addition, you seem to equate Xu Cang with an infinite number of trial and error, but he is a human after all, and he will definitely encounter some situations that humans cannot solve."
In the final analysis, Kawasaki Mingzo did not think that the chips Li Rongcheng put out were effective.
"We are the only remaining supplier of fuselage parts for Bombardier, which means we have greater bargaining power." Kawasaki Mingzang said calmly, "Since your premise is not true, why don't we take this opportunity to make a fortune from Bombardier?"
Li Rongcheng frowned: "The conditions are not met. This is just your personal opinion."
"This is just idealism, isn't it?" Kawasaki Mingzang said with a smile: "Even if you ask the president of Pratt & Whitney Power now, he probably wouldn't dare to give a definite answer. In this case, isn't it just relying on your own intuition, right?"
Li Rongcheng stood up and faced Kawasaki Mingzang: "So, this is your choice?"
Kawasaki shrugged: "I trust my instincts. I don't think either the PW8000 or the PW1200G will be successful."
"Really?" Li Rongcheng nodded: "I will bring this answer to Mr. Xu Cang."
After saying that, Li Rongcheng straightened his clothes and pretended to leave.
Seeing that Li Rongcheng was about to leave, Kawasaki Mingzang was a little surprised: "Just leaving like that?"
"What else?" Li Rongcheng patted Kawasaki Mingzang on the shoulder: "Do you want me to beg you?"
"If you beg me, maybe I will agree." Kawasaki Mingzo said with a smile.
Li Rongcheng buttoned up his suit, stretched it a little, and nodded slightly: "No need for this."
As the voice fell, Li Rongcheng walked to the door, but stopped at the door, turned around and looked at Kawasaki Mingzang: "Kawasaki, as a friend, I feel sorry for you."
Kawasaki Mingzang frowned: "What do you mean?"
"This moment is very important to Xu Cang. Most of the time, he would tolerate many things, but now... if they are not friends, then they are... enemies."
Kawasaki Mingzang frowned even more tightly: "Are you threatening me?"
"No, this is just a piece of advice." Li Rongcheng smiled and said, "When you change your mind, tell me."
After saying that, Li Rongcheng left Kawasaki Mingzo's office.
In the empty office, Kawasaki Mingzo frowned.
He knew that Li Rongcheng was not the kind of person who liked to make empty threats, but if what Li Rongcheng said was not false, then...what kind of...retaliation would Kawasaki Heavy Industries suffer?
"Xu Cang..."
…
Ahhh…
In the cockpit, Xu Cang rubbed his nose and muttered, "Who is talking about me?"
"Mr. Xu, if you feel tired, you can take a rest." The captain even said with some flattery.
Xu Cang looked down at his casual clothes, smacked his lips, and moved his gaze outside. There was a clear sky.
He stretched himself and muttered to himself, "It seems like nothing's wrong, should I take a nap?"
