Chapter 78: Assembling the Drone

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Tang Rui, hope I’m not disturbing you.”

“No, Professor, 1 was just having tea and daydreaming.”

In the afternoon, Tang Rui received a call from Professor Yu.

This puzzled him because he hadn’t done anything recently, nor had he caused any trouble.

“Everything okay? Are you currently researching variable cycle engines?” Yu asked.

“Yes, Professor, how did you know?”

“Well, some Air Force personnel contacted me, and they mentioned that your flight report included information about tests on variable cycle engines.”

“Yes, that’s right. 1 conducted the tests the night before yesterday, and so far, the results are promising.”

“Could you tell me which specific part you’re working on?”

“The variable bypass ratio has been successfully achieved. The transition between subsonic and supersonic phases still has some issues.”

“Do you need any assistance with that?”

He took the initiative to offer help. It wasn’t like him, considering he wouldn’t ask like this after that day.

Tang Rui hesitated for a moment and asked, “Professor, do you think I need assistance?”

“Whether you need help or not depends on what you want. If you plan to start an aircraft power manufacturing company and rely on this, then go ahead and work on it yourself. If you don’t want that, and you encounter problems, you can ask for help,” Professor Yu replied with a smile.

Tang Rui understood the message clearly. It was a straightforward message.

No one was forcing him, and it wasn’t about compelling him to share his technology. If he wanted independent intellectual property and planned to make money from it, then he should do it on his own without interference. If he didn’t want to rely on it for income, he could make demands and set conditions.

“Professor, it’s quite challenging. The precision required for this variable cycle engine’s manufacturing is very high. Can you help me obtain a few five-axis machining centers and a ioo,ooo-ton integrated forging machine?”

“And several five-axis machining centers? Do you want hand-cranked ones too? I’ll have some pulled from the warehouse for you. As for the 100,000-ton integrated forging machine, tell me where you want it, and I’ll build you a space launch base. Then, you can produce and launch rockets,” Professor Yu responded without much enthusiasm.

He asked you to make demands, and now you’re just fooling around.

Even if you hadn’t made any progress on this variable cycle engine yet, it seemed like he could actually fulfill your requests.

“Hehe… Professor, can you also help me manufacture the turbine and blades?”

“Sure, anything else?”

“No, the rest are minor issues that I can handle.”

“Alright then, handle it yourself.”

“Okay, I’ll send the blueprints to your email later.”

He hung up the phone, and Tang Rui had his assistant, Celia, display the blueprints for the variable cycle engine.

Tang Rui looked at the blueprints, took out a separate set of components, and sent them to Professor Yu’s email.

These were the most challenging parts to manufacture. With the current capabilities of the company, they wouldn’t be able to do it unless they made a significant breakthrough.

On the other side, after receiving the email, Professor Yu didn’t even look at it. He stored the data on a secure portable hard drive and handed it over to the military personnel.

The military personnel took the hard drive and went to a research institute in Northeast China.

Tang Rui was quite familiar with this place, and any military enthusiast would know it.

It was the Taihang Engine Institute, where the J-15 fighter’s engines were developed and produced.

After the researchers at the institute reviewed the data on the hard drive, they were baffled.

Firstly, the data was incomplete. The primary data provided was related to the turbine and blades, but there was no information on the engine casing or nozzle.

Secondly, the design in the data completely subverted their expectations.

“Are we sure this data is correct?” one researcher asked.

“I guarantee it’s correct. The data sent by the other party is genuine.”

“But this doesn’t make sense. Even for a variable cycle engine, having only three stages of compression is too few. Our previous designs required at least five stages, and three stages won’t meet the requirements.”

“What if we add a compressor in the intake duct?”

“It’s not feasible, even if we place the intake duct at the nose, the compression wouldn’t be enough.”

“It is enough. For example, we could add a shock-cone structure at the nose and position the intake duct in the turbulent shock wave’s location. That should be sufficient.”

“Then it won’t be stealthy. According to what you’re saying, I should have four intake ducts, two subsonic and two supersonic, which would be even better.”

The group of researchers argued while examining the data. No one could convince the others.

“Let’s not argue for now. Look at these parameters. Can we make it?”

The director of the institute impatiently said.

He had asked them to examine the data, not to argue with each other.

“We should be able to, but the precision requirements are a bit high, and the high-temperature performance requirements aren’t very stringent.”

“Then let’s start by making two sets, and we’ll figure it out later.”

Meanwhile, Tang Rui was unaware of these developments. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t care.

After all, when he saw the structure of the variable cycle engine, he was also puzzled for a while. However, this kind of thing couldn’t be understood just by looking at the turbine blades; one needed to consider the whole picture. If he laid out all the design drawings, they would understand why it was designed this way.

In the following two days, equipment, components, supplies, and vehicles kept arriving at the company. Fortunately, the original repair shop yard was spacious enough; otherwise, there wouldn’t have been enough space to park all the vehicles.

It wasn’t until October 1st that the number of delivery vehicles began to decrease because most of the items had been delivered.

Originally, Tang Rui had planned to go out with Li Shuyao on October 1st, but with all these components arriving, he had no time for a date.

He couldn’t help it. Assembling a large-scale drone was more exciting than a date.

Moreover, Li Shuyao didn’t have her ID card with her, so what was the point of going out?

Tang Rui simply told Li Shuyao that he had to work overtime on October 1st.

Then he led a group of researchers and plunged into the makeshift assembly workshop to start assembling the drone.

Currently, everything was ready except for the engine.

Even if some components hadn’t been delivered yet, it didn’t affect the assembly process.

“Steady, a bit forward.”

In the temporary assembly workshop, everyone was wearing basic dust-proof suits and working. The gantry crane lifted the aircraft frame, and the people below began assembling it.

Tang Rui used a laser rangefinder to measure the distances and directed the others.

Everyone was assembling an aircraft for the first time. Designing an aircraft was their expertise, but when it came to assembly, they were inexperienced.

“Take it slow, let me see how to do this.”

After saying this, Tang Rui immediately had Celia simulate the assembly process in 3D based on the assembly drawings.

He needed to understand it first..