Chapter 128: The Excited Marconi Company

The book will go premium on the first of the month. I'm so excited! I hope everyone can come and support me with a first-day subscription. A few monthly tickets would be even better. Thank you all for your support! There will be extra chapters on the release day. 0.0

Marconi Company had great confidence in the promising land of the Republic. This was evident during the first negotiations for the J-7IIA, where the terms offered even allowed the Republic to introduce a production line.

After experiencing the disappointment of the J-7IIA's subsequent cancellation, the development of the J-7M brought a dramatic turn of events. These ups and downs allowed Marconi to regain its confidence.

Marconi believed that once the new J-7M was successfully developed, more follow-up orders would definitely come. Just as they expected, even while the J-7M was in its final certification stage, new orders arrived. Although these were not orders for the J-7M itself, it did not matter, as long as they involved purchasing Marconi's subsystems.

Since most of the equipment's production lines were in the Republic, Marconi now only had to collect technology licensing fees based on the number of products manufactured. Furthermore, there was now a need to purchase other products. This was all easy money.

Overjoyed, Marconi sent a high-level delegation to negotiate, led by the company's vice president, George.

Negotiations between the two sides began in earnest the very next day. As for visiting Base 0011, it was skipped entirely. Marconi had visited Factory 0132 back in 1980 and had a clear understanding of the Republic's aviation industry. With time being short, they went straight to business.

After a brief, tedious chat about the weather and some pleasant vision of a bright future, they finally got through the pleasantries and began discussing the actual projects.

"George, what I want to point out is that the avionics equipment you are currently providing us still has issues. The ranging radar triggers false alarms during flight tests, and we have gathered sufficient evidence from our trials to prove this is an issue with your equipment. There are also problems like double images on the Head-Up Display."

Chief Designer Tu Jida was an incredibly smart man. To maintain their respective advantages, neither side wanted to be the first to open up about the new project. Thus, addressing the equipment issues of the J-7M was the perfect entry point.

Hearing Tu Jida bring up the performance issues of the equipment at this juncture, George, as the representative of the developer, naturally knew what was going on. These were actually minor issues for Marconi, but they had been reluctant to fix them because modifications cost money.

Clearly, despite their great sincerity, the people at Marconi were just like most British companies: lazy and unwilling to spend an extra penny of their own. However, Tu Jida bringing these issues to light at this moment caught Marconi off guard. This could push away the deal they were about to secure, so they absolutely had to resolve this issue immediately.

"Ah, Mr. Tu, there is really no need to discuss these minor issues here. As soon as today's meeting concludes, I will call the head office immediately and request that technical staff be sent over to provide free solutions for these minor problems."

Seeing Marconi's representative panic, Yang Hui suppressed a laugh. This was highly amusing; when it came to money, the British could be quite endearing.

Chief Designer Tu Jida was also secretly pleased. He hadn't expected this unexpected windfall. When they first reported these issues, Marconi had insisted it was an integration issue with the cockpit design that caused electromagnetic interference between different incompatible systems. Now, Marconi had completely reversed its previous attitude, and their sincerity was back at maximum level.

Satisfied, Chief Designer Tu continued to play the intermediary. "Very well. Since your side is showing such sincerity, I believe our J-7M will be finalized very soon. Now, let's talk about the procurement of subsystem equipment for the new trainer aircraft."

George was delighted. This was more like it. They were the avionics system contractors, and what they needed to discuss was the avionics system for the new aircraft, not the minor flaws of the J-7M.

Following Tu Jida's lead, George began to introduce the exportable equipment they had brought for this trip. "Mr. Tu, you put it very well. Let's discuss the new trainer. Based on the requirements your side proposed, we have brought a list of equipment."

As he spoke, he reached out and took a folder from his beautiful, well-endowed secretary standing beside him, pulled out a list, and handed it to Chief Designer Yu.

Taking the document, Chief Designer Yu scanned it quickly. He found that the selection of equipment was indeed very rich, ranging from various radars to sensors. The sharp-eyed Chief Designer Yu even spotted the military-grade RB199 engine on the list, which was almost unbelievable.

In 1983, the British actually dared to offer a triple-spool masterpiece like the RB199. However, after looking at the price tag next to it, Chief Designer Yu immediately lost hope in this engine. The unit price was almost equal to the cost of the entire new aircraft. They simply could not afford to import such a thing.

Looking further down, he saw the life-saving equipment, which was worth considering. The zero-zero ejection seat from Martin-Baker was an excellent piece of hardware with mature technology. It was used in many fighter models, and because it was mass-produced, the development costs were spread thin, making the price quite reasonable.

Nodding, Chief Designer Yu was very satisfied with this ejection seat. After all, this aircraft was meant for export. Without high-quality life-saving equipment, it wouldn't fly with international buyers; at least, in the eyes of those eccentric foreign clients, it wouldn't align with modern standards.

As for the domestic military, Chief Designer Yu did not believe they would purchase expensive foreign ejection seats.

After carefully examining the few pieces of equipment they needed, he had a rough idea. He passed the document to the others. When it finally reached Yang Hui, Yang Hui only took a selective glance at it.

Having finished reading, Chief Designer Yu prepared to propose the items they needed. They had already decided on the general requirements beforehand.

"We have looked it over, and the products your side offers are indeed excellent. However, our new aircraft is constrained by budget, so we can only choose what we need most."

The Marconi representatives were not at all surprised by Chief Designer Yu's words. Funding was indeed a major hurdle. The Republic was short on funds, but in truth, so were European defense enterprises.

Otherwise, how could they have put the RB199 on the shelf? One had to know that this engine had only recently been finalized, and its performance was incredibly formidable. Its unique triple-spool structure was unprecedented among military engines.

Showing no surprise, the Marconi representatives expressed their understanding. In fact, by putting the RB199 on the list, the British likely intended to show off their technological prowess, aiming to suppress the confidence of the local engineers. The British themselves understood the reality of the RB199.

George nodded in agreement. "Then let's discuss the equipment you need. Some of these items are not manufactured by Marconi, but we can procure them together as a complete package at a reasonable price."

Package deals were the most lucrative projects. Once a company secured the procurement of a complete suite of systems, they essentially acted as a middleman, and making money became incredibly easy.

The cockpit avionics were planned to be outsourced to Factory 0132, so when it came to negotiating the avionics, Tu Jida would take the lead. For now, they needed to finalize the other two major components.

"We need to purchase a batch of Martin-Baker Mk 10 ejection seats. We believe your side can facilitate this. Most importantly, we need a radar."

Martin-Baker's zero-zero ejection seats were highly renowned in the Western world, almost representing the pinnacle of Western ejection seat technology. Of course, when discussing ejection seats, one could not overlook the Soviet K-36 series. Although this ejection seat did not appear in the spotlight as often as Martin-Baker's, its outstanding performance easily placed it at the top of the world.

The K-36's reputation was not built on hype, but earned through real-world performance at airshows. It was well known that Soviet pilots were daring and aggressive, often performing jaw-dropping maneuvers at major Western airshows. High-risk maneuvers naturally came with a high accident rate, yet despite this, ninety percent of the Soviet pilots survived their crashes. This was entirely thanks to the protective shield of the K-36.

If this was not enough to prove the K-36's prowess, there was another example: when the Americans were selecting an ejection seat for the F-22, they included an advanced variant of the K-36 on their shortlist. For the Americans to include their rival's equipment in a life-or-death selection process was the ultimate validation of the K-36.

That said, no matter how formidable the K-36 was, its fame was not yet widespread. Furthermore, relations with the Soviet Union were at their most tense. Trying to import Soviet ejection seats at this time was nothing short of a pipedream.

Weighing all factors, purchasing Martin-Baker seats was far more practical. Since these were for export aircraft, if any issues arose, Martin-Baker would bear the brunt of the blame.