Free Web NovelChapter 1090: Chapter 540 J-40, 10 Billion Dollars!_1
The arrival of the J-40 was a major event and the core highlight of the air show.
When it was announced that the J-40 was about to make its appearance, there were barely a few people left inside the exhibition hall, save for the necessary staff; everyone else had gathered outside.
The staff of the air show, including those from Kunlun Engines, were just as ignorant and eagerly anticipative as the general audience—they had no idea that the J-40 would truly be unveiled and were extremely curious and expectant.
Zhang Gangchuan was somewhat different.
As the head of the Kunlun team and one of the leaders in the Aviation Group’s R&D projects, he certainly knew the J-40 would be unveiled. But he went outside to see it, too, just as curious and expectant in his heart, because he had never seen the J-40 either.
After the J-40 was unveiled, what remained in Zhang Gangchuan’s heart was nothing but astonishment.
"It’s truly sci-fi, the future; no wonder it was directly dubbed the J-40."
Zhang Gangchuan had been present when Warhawk-1’s model number was fixed as J-40.
At that time, Zhang Gangchuan didn’t pay too much attention to it, merely marveling at Zhao Yi’s genius. Designing a fighter jet could astonish people, but after all, design is just design, and nobody knew how many technical hurdles would be encountered before it became reality.
Among these technical hurdles, there might be some that were " fundamentally insurmountable."
The upper echelons of the Aviation Group had initially judged that it would take at least eight years, ten years, or even longer for Warhawk-1 to reach completion. But they had not anticipated that after the prototype was assembled, no problems arose, and it swiftly completed a series of tests.
Now it could be said that the technology was almost mature, and it matched perfectly with the engine, the speed of which was so fast that it was overwhelming.
Zhang Gangchuan found it hard to imagine how Zhao Yi could be so impressive, designing a sci-fi fighter jet that quickly improved to such an extent.
Furthermore, the WZ-1 engine had already been fine-tuned and could be said to form a perfect match with Warhawk-1.
Then think about it...
The Kunlun team, boasting a large number of technical talents, had been dragging its feet in perfecting the Kunlun engine; even the lower-tier WZ-2 engine had been delayed until now, with numerous small problems still unresolved.
While the Warhawk team completed the design, tuning, and refining of the high-end engine and fighter jet, the Kunlun team had been unable to finish even a lower-end engine to this day.
Comparing the two,
Zhang Gangchuan felt so frustrated he wanted to vomit blood. He could only force a bitter smile and think to himself, "You can’t compare with Zhao Yi! You can’t compare with Zhao Yi! He’s not human! Not human..."
This kind of self-brainwashing did have some effect.
When he returned to the exhibition hall and found a crowd surrounding the Kunlun-2 engine display, Zhang Gangchuan felt even more dismayed.
As a technically oriented leader of an engine project team, Zhang Gangchuan had the pride of an academic, and his pride wouldn’t allow him to stand at the exhibit to engage in ’commercial hype’...
That’s right!
The current job was a hype!
Renaming the WZ-2 engine to Kunlun-2 was a necessary move for secrecy, but to stand at the exhibit and claim that an imperfect engine was refined enough to support mass production and exportation?
"Isn’t that the same as deceiving people?"
"And it’s not just any people being deceived, but a whole group of media journalists, aviation professionals, and even some representatives of national air forces..."
Suddenly, Zhang Gangchuan felt that he himself, the ’swindler’, was quite high-end, managing to hoodwink aviation experts in the field of aviation.
"It’s nothing to brag about..."
He maintained a smile with bitterness inside, as if everything was under control and he had absolute confidence.
Then, he walked over.
"Chief Designer Zhang is here! Chief Designer Zhang has arrived!" freewebnσvel.cøm
"Here he comes! He’s here!"
"Zhang Gangchuan, Chief Designer Zhang, is one of the bigwigs in domestic aviation, a true bigwig! He has always been the leader of the Kunlun team!"
"When it comes to aviation engines, Zhang Gangchuan is second to none in the country!"
"..."
A swarm of media journalists crowded around, their camera lights flashing incessantly, welcoming Zhang Gangchuan as if he were a star.
Zhang Gangchuan stepped back into the spotlight and was immediately questioned by a European journalist, "May I ask, Mr. Zhang, is the J-40 fighter jet equipped with this engine?"
"I’m not at liberty to disclose that."
Zhang Gangchuan shook his head with a smile, "The only thing I can tell you is that the J-40 is equipped with the Aviation Group’s latest developed engine, with top international performance."
The response was very official.
The surrounding journalists nodded in understanding, long accustomed to the official way of speaking, every sentence needed to be interpreted deeply.
An experienced journalist explained to a younger one beside him, "You must be clear about the meaning of his words, I have a lot of experience with this."
"When he just said it was inconvenient to disclose, if you understand it as confidential or unspeakable, you are thinking too simply. In fact, the implication was, ’The answer can’t come directly from his mouth; you need to interpret it yourself,’ which is why the following sentence came."
"That sentence might seem like nonsense, but in fact, it’s leading you to think deeper that the J-40’s engine has been developed by the Aviation Group, and so has this Kunlun in front of us."
"Would the Aviation Group develop two top-end engines at once? Of course not." freewebnøvel.com
"So the answer is clear, the J-40 is equipped with this engine, or rather, an upgraded version of this one!"
