Chapter 161: 160, D332 Swept-wing Problem Modification, Engineer Lease Agreement
“Can you solve this problem?” Emile Devatine stood up in surprise; he spoke in English.
The major flaw of d.332 was like a fishbone in his throat, yet he had been unable to find a solution.
As he said himself, the wing of d.332 had been modified many times, and none of the modifications had ideal results—some greatly reduced speed, others worsened stability.
In this era, without computer and wind tunnel, every wing modification had to be verified through flight, which was both dangerous and time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly.
Dewoitine Company simply could not afford the expenses of extensive modification tests; continuing that way might even lead to company bankruptcy.
Therefore, when Fang Wen offered to help solve it, Emile Devatine’s mood was indescribably excited.
And also incredulous.
Fang Wen understood the other’s feelings.
And roughly understood the situation Emile Devatine was facing.
But he would not spend precious time on Dewoitine’s lengthy airplane modifications.
He must directly point out the problem he discovered and gain benefits from it.
Fang Wen thought for a moment and replied:
“Emile Devatine, if I solve this problem, your d.332 will have a chance to compete with Boeing 247 for the global passenger air transport market, which will absolutely take your undertaking to its peak, but for me, there is no benefit at all.”
“What do you want?” Emile Devatine’s heart raced, waiting for the other to name his price.
“Shares in Dewoitine, or design a brand-new airplane for me.”
Fang Wen suddenly stopped; telling Emile Devatine all his knowledge of future airplanes was not a good idea—what if the other used the design ideas to make an airplane and applied it to a situation he did not want to see?
He immediately changed his words.
“No, no need for you to design an airplane. I have only two demands; you can choose one: either shares in Dewoitine Company, or in the next five years, send five professional airplane engineers from your aircraft manufacturing plant to work long-term for me each year.”
Emile Devatine was stunned; which of these two demands should he choose?
Shares in Dewoitine Company hurt him the most, as it involved ownership of important models like the d.332 three-engine passenger aircraft, D.27 gull-wing fighter jet, D500, and the D510 under research and development.
Relatively speaking, sending five airplane engineers on behalf of the company to stay long-term at the other’s aircraft manufacturing plant was more acceptable.
After brief mental consideration, Emile Devatine made his decision.
“I choose the second one.”
Fang Wen smiled and extended his hand, shaking hands with Emile Devatine to reach a cooperation intention, and added:
“Contract; we must use a contract to protect both parties’ rights and interests.”
The contract signed with Dewoitine Company was in the name of Taishan Airlines.
In these times, the legal effect of international contracts only applied in Europe and America countries; Fang Wen signing this contract was also just betting on the other’s reputation.
Anyway, he would only point out the problem, with no substantial investment, so he was not afraid of being stiffed.
The French contract, in duplicate, stipulated both parties’ rights, responsibilities, and obligations.
Fang Wen was to provide constructive suggestions for the wing modification of d.332,
Dewoitine Company would, five months after successful modification, send five qualified airplane engineers from Dewoitine Company to the area designated by Asian Taishan Airlines; all expenses and salary for the five engineers in Asia would be borne by Taishan Airlines.
At the same time, the contract also stipulated.
Once the modification succeeded, Fang Wen would fly the modified new d.332 across the Atlantic Ocean to New York.
And in the future, purchase five modified d.332 passenger aircraft at three-quarters of the original price.
This contract had both constraints and sweeteners.
The purchase of five airplanes, as well as the elimination of airplane hidden dangers, were very tempting to Dewoitine Company.
Thus, on the day the contract was signed, Emile Devatine could not wait to discuss with Fang Wen.
In the hangar, only Fang Wen and Emile Devatine.
Emile Devatine asked eagerly:
“What is your suggestion for the d.332 wing modification?”
Looking at the d.332 wing, Fang Wen organized his words.
“You designed the d.332 wing as a forward-swept wing to improve stability in long-distance flight, right?”
Emile Devatine nodded: “The engine efficiency of d.332 is not high. From the initial design, I wanted to manufacture an economical and practical long-range passenger aircraft—not high speed, but with sustained and stable flight. The forward-swept wing design can provide better low-speed flight performance because it can generate a higher lift coefficient.”
Fang Wen nodded; the forward-swept wing did have this advantage, but not only that—with mechanical perception state, he had two other judgments: at higher speeds, forward-swept wing airplanes might even be more maneuverable.
Of course, that referred to future supersonic airplanes; for current piston engine airplanes, forward-swept wing airplanes had major drawbacks.
He replied: “Have you considered that because the wing sweeps forward, it is more susceptible to air resistance, leading to wing twisting or deformation? Therefore, forward-swept wing airplanes need more complex structures and materials to ensure wing stability.”
Emile Devatine strongly agreed, “I considered these, so I added fixing devices inside the wing, but obviously the effect was not good. Are you suggesting I change the forward-swept wing to a backward-swept wing?”
Fang Wen nodded; changing forward-swept wing to backward-swept wing, then increasing wing area, was indeed the most reliable approach.
But the difficulty lay in recalculating the aircraft wing and designing a matching wing structure.
That required repeated modifications, revisions, and flight tests.
Things seemed to return to the starting point, becoming the situation Emile Devatine did not want to face.
Just as he felt this time it was hopeless again, Fang Wen took out a charcoal pencil, walked under the aircraft wing, and began drawing with his hand raised.
Drawing alone was not enough; he also brought cardboard to fill in the wing.
This was a way to manufacture a wing model on site, in response to Emile Devatine.
Emile Devatine was very surprised but did not interrupt; he even called engineers to come help.
With the engineers’ assistance, in one afternoon, the d.332 prototype’s wing was changed from forward-swept to backward-swept.
（Forward-swept wing and backward-swept wing）
This was an optimized design made according to Fang Wen’s mechanical perception; he felt this wing structure was most suitable for d.332.
Not only him, Emile Devatine, as a genius airplane designer, felt a sudden enlightenment upon seeing Fang Wen’s wing model.
“This is it, this curve, this aerodynamic moment ratio.”
To confirm his judgment, he personally took measurements of various data from the wing model, drew them into blueprints, and performed calculations.
After calculations, though modification and testing had not started, Emile Devatine had a feeling that this design could pass in one go.
For this, a wing modification began under his leadership.
Five days.
According to Fang Wen’s wing model, replicated one-to-one, assembling, welding, and forming existing materials.
The wing’s forward sweep angle changed from acute to obtuse.
Width increased, wing area expanded.
Wings in these times were not as compact and precise as in the future; they were mainly large to generate more lift.
After changing forward-swept wing to backward-swept wing, Fang Wen conducted test flight testing.
He entered the airplane, and the test pilot nervously followed,
“Fang, are you sure this wing modification won’t have problems? I have a two-year-old child and a 70-year-old mother.”
“I’m sure there are no problems.” Fang Wen replied, but seeing the test pilot’s tightly clenched fists, he could understand—after all, for an experienced test pilot, boarding an airplane that had only taken five days for wing modification was certainly very frightening.
“Then go down and tell them; I’ll fly alone.” He replied.
“Okay.” The test pilot unhesitatingly turned and jumped off the airplane, running to report to Emile Devatine.
At the same time, Fang Wen sat in the pilot seat and started the airplane.
There was only him in the airplane; activating mechanical perception was very natural.
First, he controlled the airplane for ground acceleration, then tried brief nose-up to simulate takeoff.
Throughout these processes, the wing showed no problems.
Fang Wen was basically confident.
He controlled the airplane to accelerate, raised the nose, and flew into the high altitude.
In the high air, he performed basic operations like altitude change, circling, etc.
The previously discovered wing problems were completely gone; after changing forward-swept wing to backward-swept wing, speed had even improved, from 300 kilometers per hour to 320 kilometers per hour.
And lift, with the increased wing area, was about the same as before modification.
It could be said that this modification was just right—more would cause airplane speed to drop, less would make airplane stability very poor.
Fang Wen could not help feeling a bit smug.
He was now equivalent to a humanoid computer plus wind tunnel facility, producing data that future large airplanes needed extensive simulations to obtain, through mechanical perception.
Doesn’t this mean that in the future, as his abilities improved, he could also design more advanced airplanes?
He dispelled the fantasy and continued test flight testing until fuel was one-third consumed before landing on the ground.
After the airplane stopped, Emile Devatine eagerly ran over and loudly asked through the cockpit glass.
“Is it okay? Give me the answer.”
Fang Wen smiled and stood up, coming out of the airplane.
“I feel it’s very good; no major problems discovered.”
“Really? Can you fly once more? I want to experience it with you.” Emile Devatine requested.
“How about flying to Paris? I happen to need to go there to pick up a friend.” Fang Wen replied.
“Sure.” Emile Devatine happily agreed; at this moment, he had a mysterious trust in this magical Eastern pilot.
Immediately, Dewoitine Company applied to Paris Airport for airplane landing permission.
Then the airplane carrying one passenger took off again, flying from Southwestern France to northern Paris.
Emile Devatine was experiencing it on the long-range passenger aircraft he had designed and manufactured.
He also discovered various changes after this modification; the effects brought by these changes meant his d.332 had hope for mass sales.
More than two hours later, the airplane arrived in Paris and requested landing via radio device.
The airplane landed on the airport runway and, under guidance from airport staff, drove into the adjacent parking area.
Fang Wen said: “Emile Devatine, can you wait for me in the airplane? I’ll go find my friend.”
“I’ll wait for you in the airplane.” Emile Devatine was still carefully inspecting the airplane and temporarily had no interest in other things.
Thus, Fang Wen said nothing more, directly exited the airplane, and headed outside the airport.
At the telephone booth outside the airport, Fang Wen dialed the hotel’s telephone.
In these times, dialing a phone only corresponded to an area, connecting to an operator, who asked in French.
“Hello, where do you need to be connected?”
Fang Wen replied in not very fluent French: “Kimberley Hotel front desk.”
The operator transferred; after a while, another woman’s voice came on the line, still in French.
This time Fang Wen communicated in English: “I’m a guest in room 405; please contact my companion in 403 to come down and take the call.”
The other switched to English: “Okay, sir; you need to wait.”
During the wait, the telephone machine’s mechanical meter was turning; Fang Wen had to add coins.
After a while, someone finally came down.
It was Lin Shuiwang: “General Manager, are you back?”
“Yes. Have you arranged their study matters?”
“Arranged.”
“Has Indiana contacted you?”
“He’s right next to me. I’ll let him take the phone.”
“Hello, Fang Wen, it’s Indiana. William has agreed, and I’ve taken leave. How about your side?”
“I’ve sorted things out here too. You and Lin Shuiwang come to the airport.”
The call ended; Fang Wen waited outside the airport.
Half an hour later, Lin Shuiwang and Indiana with a luggage backpack appeared; Fang Wen brought the two into the airport.
The airplane took off again, flying back to Toulouse in southwestern France.
Regarding the transatlantic flight, it had not started yet; Dewoitine Company personnel had contacted media in advance for publicity and hype.
Fang Wen, Lin Shuiwang, and Indiana were going to another place in southern France to retrieve the hidden True Cross.
The specific location, William had already told Indiana.
To transport the True Cross back, Fang Wen also borrowed a 2-ton repair small truck from Dewoitine Company.
（A generation Opel truck, 2 tons）
This thing had only two seats; squeezing could fit three people, but it was too stuffy.
Indiana volunteered to lie in the rear carriage, which relieved Fang Wen and Lin Shuiwang.
Truth be told, many Europe and America people had a certain smell; although Indiana sprayed perfume, he still had it, and in the unventilated cab, it was a bit much for two Easterners with normal sense of smell.
The Opel truck departed from Toulouse, with Indiana holding the map guiding from the back.
“William said the cross is hidden in the basement of a local resident’s residential building in Lacaune.”
Fang Wen could not help asking: “Where is Lacaune? Which way are we going?”
