Free Web NovelChapter 776: Chapter 420: Appearance Really Matters
Zhang Gangchuan received a reply from his superiors, knowing that the prototype would be transported to the Power Engineering Laboratory. He regretted submitting the report and thought it was ’equivalent to losing a prototype’.
In fact, he was not prepared to lose the prototype. He just thought that sending the prototype over for Zhao Yi to take a close look, study it, and review the accompanying materials would be enough.
The Power Engineering Laboratory did not have adequate facilities to make the engine run, and since it couldn’t even be turned on, it was impossible to conduct any other research.
So before Yuan Haitao and his team arrived, Zhang Gangchuan said he would ’cooperate with all tasks’, but he only planned to have them come over for a short time, expecting them to return in a few weeks.
Yuan Haitao was the team leader and one of the high-end technical personnel in the R&D group.
He cared about the prototype even more than Zhang Gangchuan did.
There were only a few Kunlun engine prototypes built, and this one was built under Yuan Haitao’s full supervision. He had visited the 508 Factory (a military-industrial factory) responsible for production more than a dozen times and had overseen the assembly process throughout.
Zhang Gangchuan only cared about the fact that the Kunlun engine R&D team lost a prototype, or that a lot of time and money was wasted on useless things, but Yuan Haitao cared more about the prototype itself.
Now the prototype built under his supervision was going to be taken apart.
Yuan Haitao knew better than anyone how complex the Kunlun engine was, and he didn’t even know if the prototype could be started normally after being disassembled and reassembled. But what was certain was that reassembly would lead to even more problems.
However, Yuan Haitao had no choice.
His orders were to cooperate fully with the work, and this not only came from Zhang Gangchuan but also from the Aviation Group, which sent people over to express concern about the delivery of the prototype and emphasized cooperation with Zhao Yi. They could bypass Zhang Gangchuan and report to higher-ups if there were any demands.
This represented the importance placed on Zhao Yi by the higher-ups.
Therefore, their entire team was here to serve Zhao Yi, and even the prototype being transported was for Zhao Yi’s benefit. Zhao Yi could dissect the prototype for research, and even if he decided to throw it into the water to see if it would float, they had to comply.
Because this was an order.
Yuan Haitao was so heartbroken that he could hardly breathe, and he could not bear to look at the prototype any longer. He simply gave the order to ’disassemble it’ and then went somewhere else to avoid seeing it.
After a while, when the engineers were waiting for someone to come and instruct them on how to proceed with disassembly, Yuan Haitao finally came over, holding a thick file which he handed to Zhao Yi, "Academician Zhao, this is the design data for the prototype. You can take a look first."
Yuan Haitao had probably calmed down, and his expression became much more natural.
Zhao Yi knew that Yuan Haitao was very dissatisfied with his decision and was very reluctant to disassemble the prototype. He had been waiting patiently just now, understanding that people need to be empathetic towards each other. If he were in that position, he would’ve been just as puzzled.
So, it didn’t matter.
He just nodded, took the files, and went to the side to read them while leaving the disassembly work to Yuan Haitao.
...
Disassembling the Kunlun engine was not a small task, as there were numerous lines and pipes on the external part alone. Once the outer shell was removed, the interior was filled with extremely delicate instruments that could not be bumped even slightly.
No one else could be involved in this task, so only a few engineers could do it, with Yuan Haitao only able to stand by and give directions.
Thus, the disassembly process was quite slow.
Zhao Yi did not pay attention to the disassembly work and just sat in the distance, studying the design data seriously.
At the same time, he became very serious.
The reason why he decided to disassemble the prototype was because it would be difficult to create ’adequate conditions’ by looking at the whole. He needed to understand all the components in order to know how to improve them.
The documents in his hand were very helpful.
The data contained detailed design drawings of the prototype, including the detailed structure of various components. Instead of looking at the structural drawings directly, he looked at the general appearance of external pipes and circuit constructions. The data contained the names and functions of each pipe and circuit.
The data was immensely useful. Zhao Yi had a rough understanding just by glancing through it once.
Suddenly, he furrowed his brows.
Seeing Yuan Haitao standing in the distance, focusing on the disassembly work anxiously, Zhao Yi called out, "Captain Yuan? Can you come over for a second?"
"Coming."
Yuan Haitao quickly turned around and replied, then loudly reminded the others, "You all must be careful, not even a single screw can fall on the ground. A little bit of dust could cause problems."
Only after saying this did he walk over.
The engineers on site sighed in frustration. One person retorted, "I don’t believe that an engine installed on an aircraft doesn’t have any dust. Not to mention dust, there’s even bird poop!"
"But our prototype is different. It already has a lot of problems. Besides, we should also understand Captain Yuan’s feelings. The prototype is his blood, sweat, and tears. It was supposed to be exhibited last year, but it was abandoned due to too many issues."
"Now that it’s disassembled into components, there will definitely be more problems when reassembling, and in the future, the Kunlun engine’s airshow, I estimate, will have nothing to do with Captain Yuan."
"Forget about Captain Yuan, it has nothing to do with us."
"True."
Zhao Yi called Yuan Haitao over and started asking him about various design questions. There was a lot he wanted to know that wasn’t available in the documents, so he had to rely on Yuan Haitao, who was familiar with the prototype.
What he was asking about wasn’t exactly professional, but rather about circuitry, piping installation, and so on. Most of the questions were about ’external positioning,’ such as, "Why is this pipe here? Why not put it a bit higher? It intersects with another pipe inside."
"These two white ones should be fuel pipes, right? Or something else? It feels too abrupt placing them above?"
"And these circuits, why are they piled up right here?"
Yuan Haitao couldn’t answer most of these questions because he didn’t know who designed them. Finally, he simply said, "Our research is mainly focused on technical and design issues; we haven’t paid much attention to appearance. As long as the engine can run and provide enough power, that should be enough."
Zhao Yi understood the pragmatism, but still couldn’t accept the ’ugly’ appearance. He said, "But what if there are problems? The exterior is so complicated, and everything is piled up together. It’s not easy to find issues!"
"That’s true."
Zhao Yi nodded and changed the topic, asking, "How long will it take for your disassembly work?"
Yuan Haitao hesitated and said, "Two days, give or take? It would be better if it were three days. The facilities here aren’t great; even putting the components away is a problem. Also, I’ve reported to the higher-ups, requesting some basic machinery to be brought over. If we can get some of the components running, we can experiment."
Zhao Yi gave Zhang Gangchuan a thumbs up and laughed, "That’s precisely what I was thinking, Captain Yuan. You’re awesome."
Yuan Haitao chuckled and didn’t say anything more.
In fact, he knew that he had to disassemble the engine before making the call to have some basic equipment shipped from the base. He hadn’t thought about it earlier, but just now when he went to ’cool off,’ he thought that since they would have to disassemble the engine anyway, why not take advantage of the opportunity and inspect each component to see if they could identify any problems that could be improved upon as they reassemble?
Maybe...
Anyway, it’s much better than doing nothing after disassembly.
...
After looking through the materials for a while, Zhao Yi felt that he had learned enough and left. He couldn’t do anything about the situation here, so he decided to go back and look at the documents, while also making some sketches of the ’exterior design’ that popped into his head.
While studying the ’terrible exterior’ before, he had constantly looked at the functions, positions, and other aspects of the circuitry, piping, and other components.
These were more than enough conditions.
With enough conditions in place, using the "Connection Law" could easily give an ’excellent’ design – perfect, at least for his own aesthetics.
Although the ’exterior design’ wasn’t overly complex, because it involved circuitry, pipes, and a lot of components, it was still rather intricate to draw.
Zhao Yi returned to his dormitory and started drawing the design. It took about three hours to fully express what was in his head onto paper, but he didn’t indicate the specific parameters.
For example, how long the pipes should be, what proportions should be used, and so on.
He didn’t note these because the design didn’t need it for now. The prototype had been disassembled into components, so it didn’t matter when they would reassemble it or design a new set; the exterior design could also be updated then.
Zhao Yi saved the design on his computer, thinking that it might come in handy later. Then he went back to studying the materials, wondering where to start in order to improve the Kunlun engine.
At first, he thought of using his own abilities, like the "Connection Law" and "Supervision Law," to find and solve problems with the engine, make new designs, and perfect the plans. However, after some careful thought, this didn’t seem like a good idea.
One reason is that the engine was too complicated.
This complication wasn’t a problem for him to solve; rather, improving one component would inevitably change its parameters, thus affecting other components or even the engine’s overall operation.
Another reason is that a new design or plan might not be accepted due to technical limitations.
Even if his ideas were more perfect and efficient than the current ones, the factory might not be able to make them. This is because with a better plan comes higher technology, and higher efficiency components may require better materials to perform at their best.
And so on.
This was a situation of moving one hair and affecting the whole body.
After careful consideration, Zhao Yi decided to make a major adjustment. Since he was going to help improve the Kunlun engine, he had to do it to the best of his ability. This was how he approached research, and it would be the same for practical applications. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
So, he would have to create a process for improvement, making sure that the first and second components don’t end up getting affected sequentially. freewёbnoνel.com
That wouldn’t do.
After studying the engine design materials carefully, Zhao Yi had a deeper understanding of the whole situation and knew where to start working on it.
