What was first brought to Shenfei by Grumman was an overhaul line for the F-14. Qi Yiming also paid a lot of money for this overhaul line.
After the 12 Tomcats arrived and took flight, they were basically poorly maintained, and some even failed to fly at all. Iran sent those fighter jets that were basically used as "organ donors" to Qi Yiming first. , needless to say, a large number of them are disabled people who are missing arms and legs.
Mycroft is the chief technical director sent by Grumman to cooperate with China. Facing Qi Yiming, who is almost a tyrant in the United States, he still showed a very reserved and respectful attitude.
"Sir, this batch of aircraft basically needs a complete overhaul and maintenance. After our preliminary inventory, we found that at least more than 700 parts need to be replaced. Before your Shenfei masters the overhaul line, this batch of parts You can only enter through our head office.¡±
Qi Yiming nodded and turned to ask another Chinese engineer beside him. This person is Shenfei's new F-14 project leader and a senior engineer from a red police base named Xia Gaohong. "Xia Gaohong" Worker, do you think how many things Shen Fei can recover now?"
"Not too much. Our company is still undergoing rectification, and some equipment has not been fully utilized. However, after the installation of the overhaul line is completed, we can slowly try the production and replacement capabilities of some non-critical components. The first batch of components will definitely It will be imported from the United States, but our team believes that the upgrade verification work should start from this first batch of aircraft, and the priority is to improve the power system and avionics system of the fighter aircraft.¡±
Mycroft couldn't help but frown. Not long after he came to Shenfei, he had a very average impression of this Chinese aviation manufacturing company. Many workers were not particularly qualified, but the level of a group of people headed by Xia Gaohong was very high. If possible, he would like to encourage these people to go directly to the United States to join Grumman.
Although they have good abilities, Mycroft did not expect that this group of people would skip the steps of repairing these fighters first and start by replacing major components and directly upgrade the fighters. In his heart, he wanted to pour cold water and say that this was impossible, but after all, he was a guest soldier sent by Grumman to help solve the problem. Customers are God. Since the Chinese want to cause trouble for themselves, then just ask them. .
Mycroft actually feels that even Grumman may not be able to achieve the kind of comprehensive upgrade planned by the Chinese. Although the Chinese say that they will not change the aerodynamic aspects of the Tomcat significantly, of course they cannot change it, because these fighters are all ready-made, and they cannot just think that the main wing area is not enough, and then weld another one, or look at the tail fin. If it's uncomfortable, cut off a piece or something.
But the Chinese want to properly upgrade and replace the fighter's power system, avionics system, weapon system, etc. This kind of workload itself is so staggering that Mycroft's scalp goes numb just thinking about it. However, he can't imagine that his Chinese colleagues are engaged in this career with such a high working status. Even they have already begun to work. Some improvement projects have been planned. For example, they have brought over the homemade engine and are ready to install it and test it.
Without Mycroft and other Grumman technicians who were directly involved in the design and construction of the F-14, it would certainly not have been possible. Mycroft is also very curious to see what level the avionics and power components produced by Chinese counterparts have reached.
Qi Yiming actually didn't show the best system to Grumman. In fact, he didn't think there was much value in overhauling the F-14. His opponents in the 1980s were all weak. No. It is worth taking out the AESA radar, which Qi Yiming relies on as the top secret, as well as a series of components such as the helmet-mounted display and the super mission computer. He personally prefers to further improve the level of AWG-9 radar, such as replacing old tube and transistor components, using better integrated circuits to improve data processing capabilities, etc. In addition, the glass cockpit is modified, and the flat-panel display replaces the old instrument panel of the F-14. At the same time, outdated things like the three-piece sealed clamshell canopy also need to be replaced. Although Qi Yiming has no plans to get an integrated canopy, the bubble-type canopy used by standard third-generation aircraft must at least be installed.
The flight control system may be the biggest thing that needs to be changed. The famous 1553B data bus of later generations has not been used in the F-14. This centralized time division serial bus has been used since the F-20 Tiger Shark, which has no export record. , with the characteristics of two-way transmission, reliability and immediacy, and the fault-tolerant dual redundancy also starts from here.
Because of the emergence of the big bug Qi Yiming, the J-10 Raptor fighter, which is actually the third and a half generation, has already used quad redundancy, but this data bus is still based on MIL-STD-1553B.
After the improvement of the F-14's flight control, another big demand point for combat performance is the weapon system. When he was in the United States before, Qi Yiming had already proposed to Grumman that XiongCat is compatible with domestic weapons, and Grumman has promised to open it to Shenyang Aircraft Co., Ltd. such as the weapons management code. Furthermore, in order to improve combat efficiency, Qi Yiming does not plan to give the helmet sight, but the helmet sight that Mig-29 has should be equipped with it.
To complete this series of complex tasks, it is necessary for an enterprise to have an efficient modern management model. Therefore, Qi Yiming carried out considerable rectifications for Shenfei, which was still under the prefix Guo, but had control over itself.
Leaving behind the technical geeks Xia Gaohong and Mycroft and others, Qi Yiming took his main business assistant Zhou Yutong around Shen Fei's factory. Zhou Yutong held a folder and reported to Qi Yiming as he walked: "Create a mess. It took us more than a month to basically dispose of those departments from our core business. Now they are all under the name of Shenfei Group, but they have different names, and they are basically not involved in management. It¡¯s time for the aviation business. We have replaced more than half of our leadership in the aviation sector, mainly with some engineers from Dalinol and some of the management talents we hired before you stopped the J-8II project. The engineers have finished it. There are definitely no orders from the country, but I suggest selling it in the international market. Even if you don't make much money, the business is still running well. "
Qi Yiming nodded. The divestiture of non-aviation businesses was an important measure for him to streamline his troops and streamline his administration. It is not possible for these military factories to have no civilian business, but the leaders who are responsible for the production of refrigerators and motorcycles cannot be responsible for the production of fighter jets in the afternoon. This kind of thing is too unreliable.
Zhou Yutong added: "We have concentrated the most capable technical staff and workers in the entire group on the aviation business. Preliminary results show that work efficiency has been greatly improved. The work groups and 'flat management' you advocated 'We also think it's good to have a few engineers lead a group of workers to work on a small project, and then rely on senior engineers to use parallel engineering to compile all the small projects into a complete large project. Our Tomcat upgrade plan is similar. mode."
The reform model of enterprise organization proposed by Qi Yiming was not common in this era. It would be 20 to 30 years later that more enterprises in the high-tech field would appear. Because larger companies are more afraid of bureaucratic management, and too rigid and direct vertical management is very serious for technology companies. Moreover, the biggest problem with the status now is that the motivation of the employees is not very high. Qi Yiming directly used the two magic weapons of honor and reward and punishment. Now it can be seen that the company is developing in a relatively healthy direction.
He is relatively good at doing these things, but the specific operations are a matter for the employees. Most of the employees of the original factory are now mainly familiar with the process with a few Red Alert engineers stationed by Qi Yiming and the experts of the original factory. The way of working seems to have become easier, but the production efficiency has actually improved.
What most people are most busy with now is studying the small things they have been assigned to. For example, the power group is studying how to install the smaller WS-10A on the big F-14, and the avionics group is studying Research how to improve and then secretly copy the AWG-9 radar inside the Tomcat, and so on.
They basically lack experience in developing these third-generation fighters, but the leading red alert engineers have hard skills. It is also a good working model for everyone to give these main forces a shot and learn along the way.
Zhou Yutong reported some more situations, and Qi Yiming expressed satisfaction with how to improve and upgrade the F-14. Qi Yiming proposed a policy of providing money and people, but he couldn't do much, so he simply returned to Dalinol. base.
Returning to the plateau where the sky is high, the wind is light, the clouds are light and the grass is green, the whole person's spirit will be relaxed. Dalinuoer Lake will be a famous scenic spot in this area in later generations, but I'm afraid there will never be another chance in this plane. . It was already summer, and there were swarms of gray swans playing in Dalinol Lake. The horses and prairie yellow goats who didn't know who got them were eating green grass not far from the base. The base has special regulations that prohibit the hunting of any wild animals within 100 kilometers of the base. This is why this metal science fiction place can be perfectly integrated with the natural ecology.
Although everything was beautiful, Qi Yiming clearly realized that his main business could no longer be conducted from this remote but beautiful place. He needed to handle the affairs of the capital closer, report to the bosses, and go to Shenyang to see Plane upgrades are in progress, and he also hopes to start building a shipyard now. So now Qi Yiming believes that it is time to open a branch base.
Qi Yiming finally chose to drive the secondary sub-base to Huludao. Although it was still some distance away from Shenyang, it was still closer than Dalinuoer. What's more, Huludao was also a good port in the north. Qi Yiming these days A lot of equipment has been provided to the Army and Air Force, but the Navy is still watching helplessly.