In 1972, with the improvement of Sino-US relations, British people who got wind of the news also came one after another. In that year, Stanley Hook, chief engineer of Rolls-Royce Company, was a small representative of four people. When the delegation came to China, the British delegation introduced the concept of vertical take-off and landing fighter aircraft to the Chinese aviation industry, and introduced the Spey engine, the Olympus 593 and Viper engines used for the Concorde supersonic passenger aircraft and Turboprop Dart engine. After many contacts, Hooker realized that China had a strong interest in obtaining licenses to produce Spey engines (note: at that time, China had introduced Trident passenger aircraft and MK512 Spey civilian engines from third countries).
After many back-and-forth negotiations, Hooker realized that what China was really interested in was not the MK512 Spey civilian engine but the MK202 Spey military afterburning turbofan engine. The engine’s afterburning thrust It exceeds 9 tons, and the thrust without afterburner exceeds 6 tons.
After many rounds of negotiations and two years of negotiations, the patent agreement was not officially signed until December 13, 1975. What Yufeng needs to point out here is that this was also a key concern of Premier Zhou Enlai at that time. project. One month after signing the agreement, Premier Zhou passed away.
But the story of Spey does not end. The Spey engine, the Chinese model is named Turbofan 9, is designated for trial production at Xi'an Hongqi Aviation Engine Factory. Xi'an Aero Engine Factory began trial production in 1976. Previously, Xi'an produced the turbojet 8, which was a copy of the Soviet Union's РД-3М and was used for the H-6. After more than three years of hard work, in the second half of 1979, four engines were installed in two batches. In November of the same year, the Chinese and British teams jointly completed a 150-hour long-term test run assessment in China. From February to May 1980, high-altitude simulation tests, starting tests at minus 40 degrees Celsius, and cyclic fatigue strength tests of five major components were completed in the UK. The results all met the technical requirements. Representatives from China and the UK signed a document confirming the successful assessment of the Chinese-made turbofan 9 engine. The preliminary development of the Turbofan 9 engine was successful, giving China a turbofan engine with moderate thrust, filling the gap, and effectively improving the level and ability of self-development; through trial production, new materials and new processes at the level of the 1970s were introduced , new technologies, the machining process has improved by more than one level of precision than before. The factory has mastered 12 world-advanced technologies such as metal spray painting and vacuum heat treatment and 46 domestic advanced process technologies. At the same time, the technical level of domestic metallurgy, materials, chemical industry, machinery and other industries has also been improved accordingly, thus greatly shortening the gap between the entire engine manufacturing technology and the world level. Moreover, the introduction of Spey engines has also made a good start for the aviation industry to welcome the reform and opening up in the new era, introduce advanced technology, carry out technical cooperation and exchanges, and improve the technical level of engines and supporting products.
It should be pointed out that without the turbofan 9, Feibao's future would be uncertain. However, due to various reasons, the development of WS9 has been hesitant. In the early 1990s, with the development of Feibao, the comprehensive localization of turbofan 9 was also put on the agenda. In November 1995, some domestically produced turbofan 9 passed the 150-hour test run. At this time, turbofan 9 The localization rate has reached 70%, but some parts still cannot be produced. In the second half of 1999, the comprehensive localization of turbofan 9 engines was launched. Xi'an Aviation Engine Factory successively overcame a series of difficulties such as the no-margin precision forging (precision casting) process and the digital electronic control system. Xi'an Airlines Group Company only took 20 days. The assembly of the engine was completed within a short period of time. After two successful cold runs, the engine was successfully ignited once at the end of 2000. The 150-hour process test that started immediately ended successfully in 2001. The test test results showed that all performance and technical indicators met the requirements. , Turbofan 9 was renamed Qinling engine. On the morning of June 1, 2002, the Qinling engine, which embodies the countless efforts and sweat of the West Airline aviation personnel, successfully made its first flight. In July 2003, the engine passed technical appraisal. Since then, China has begun to have nationally produced high-thrust turbofan engines. The Qinling engine finally received production approval between 2007 and 2009. Since then, Feibao's mass production has been on a smooth road.
It should be pointed out that due to the sluggish localization of Spey engines, Feibao’s mass production around 2000 used up all dozens of original Spey engines in stock and imported them from the UK. A batch of sealed second-hand Spey engines was obtained to ensure the continuation of Feibao's mass production. In the second decade of this century, Feibao's mass production finally achieved low prices and sufficient quantities.
As for the acquisition of blade precision forging technology, all blades in China used to be precision cast. Due to the different processes in the UK, China has also introduced a full set of blade precision forging production lines. However, trial production has been started. The problem of low yield cannot be solved, but the British side said: they only transfer technology and data, not minds and experience.
Once, the person in charge of the precision forging line of Hongqi Factory visited Israel. By chance, he discovered that in the precision forging production of the other party, the forging hammer paused every time during forging.
The Hongqi precision forging people who discovered this secret have now broken through all the secrets of precision forging. The breakthrough of precision forging blades has opened up a great situation for the localization of Sibei. Of course, this is just a small story among countless stories of Sibei’s localization.
The prototype of the Spey engine was adapted from a civilian engine, so it also inherited the low fuel consumption characteristics of civilian engines. John Bull's pragmatic spirit is vividly reflected in the Spey engine; reliability and high surge margin are the biggest characteristics of Spey. Spey is just like an old scalper, diligent and hardworking. Spey is the first engine to adopt ternary flow technology. This theory was proposed by Professor Wu Zhonghua, a famous Chinese aero-engine expert, while studying abroad.
After Qinling began stable production, Xihang people began its improvement work. Since the vortex temperature in Qinling belongs to the second generation, it is necessary to make certain improvements. The existing technology and materials have fully met this requirement. In addition, the number of compressor stages in Qinling is too much compared to the third-generation engine, and there are many stages that can be reduced. From this perspective, weight reduction and increased thrust are new ideas for the second-generation Qinling version. It is reported that the second-generation Qinling version The estimated thrust has exceeded 10 tons, the thrust ratio has also increased from 5.05 to more than 6, the weight has also been reduced from nearly 1.9 tons to about 1.7 tons, and the temperature in front of the vortex has also increased from 1400K to nearly 1600K. This is already the standard for the third generation engine. Although Just a threshold standard.
What China obtained from the Spey was not just the aeroengine itself. With the deepening of research and mass production of the Spey, China also developed a gas turbine version of the Spey. At the same time, the Spey gas turbine version The power turbine has also been transplanted to various types of domestic gas turbines with great success; and based on the first seven stages of Spey's high-pressure compressor, China has also improved it for the high-pressure compressor of the Turbojet 14 (domestic Kunlun turbojet engine).
It has been more than a century since Sibei’s idea was proposed, and Sibei’s story in China is still continuing. Qinling has brought a powerful aero-engine factory to China, and also provided China Aviation Development Co., Ltd. People's eyes have been opened. It should be said that the 100 million pounds spent that year was indeed worth the money, or even worth the money. However, I hope that the introduction in the future can be transformed into success as soon as possible. Don't let a good thing be wasted. The green bananas will be red. If you have cherries, don’t wait in vain year after year. (Blade/Wind Control)