來聊聊臺灣ADF先進戰機和織女星計畫背後的製造商：漢翔航空 #台海風雲

As the only large-scale aircraft manufacturing company in the Republic of China, the head of Taiwan's aerospace industry, Hanxiang Airlines is really the light of Taiwan. President Tsai Ing-wen has continued to strengthen the national flag and achieved great success this year, thus creating Taiwan's largest aviation industry company, Hanxiang Airlines, and gaining more and more international recognition. According to the latest information, with the completion of the F-16V upgrade of the F-141 aircraft, Yongying Airlines has entered the peak of mass production. Last year, Hanxiang Airlines operated a total of 39.1 billion yuan, with a growth rate of more than 30%, creating a new high in history. It also attracted one of the world's largest sovereign fund, the Norway Sovereign Fund, which holds 1.4% of Hanxiang Airlines' shares and is Hanxiang's fourth largest shareholder. This is a very rare choice for Norway to invest in the military-industrial sector, which is not common. Especially last year, Hanxiang Airlines handed over the T-5 Yongying high-profile aircraft on December 8, and on December 12, led by Chairman Hu Kaihong, it first performed perfectly at the Qingquang Base in low-altitude. It then flew the 1124-1127 four Yongying aircraft to the Taitung Air Base in Hanxiang. Hanxiang Airlines has overcome the global epidemic, which has led to unstable supply chain delivery, and completed the contract target of handing over 17 aircraft a year. It is almost impossible to break the rumor that it will complete five flights in the next month, and this year it will hand over 18 more. From foreign-made aircraft to foreign-made aircraft, and then to international-made aircraft, it is really impressive. I really want to applaud Hanxiang Airlines. Former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defense, Deputy Commander of the Air Force, and Director-General of the Ministry of National Defense, Chairman Hu Kaihong, in order to ensure the supply chain, they even flew to foreign countries in turns to blow up, until last November 20, they finally blew up all the key components. Looking back, Hanxiang Airlines, which has been developed by the Taiwan Military Aircraft Development Center, was reformed into a private company in August 2014. On August 25, it was officially listed, and has been authorized to assemble F-51 fighter jets and US-cooperated design and manufacture IDF fighter jets. Later, it cooperated with the American Lockheed Martin to modify the F-16V Block 20 fighter jet, as well as the self-developed, modified by IDF fighter jets, Yongying Advanced Coach. And now Hanxiang Airlines is putting the future development center on Taiwan's next generation of advanced ADF fighter jets. These experiences are piled up, one step at a time, and make Hanxiang Airlines a strong and independent company in Taiwan's ADF industry. Hanxiang Airlines' products are also very complete. I remember last September, Taipei held the International ADF and National Defense Industrial Exhibition. Hanxiang Airlines became one of the protagonists of the exhibition. The area is limited to the National Defense Museum. Hanxiang Airlines exhibited five categories this time. Let's look at the two major products closely related to military production. The first category is ADF, which shows products related to Yongying Advanced Coach. Like the Yongying Advanced Coach model, it represents Hanxiang's R&D, manufacturing, F-124 engines and self-made components. It shows Hanxiang's precision manufacturing, which provides a one-stop service for manufacturing mechanisms and special processes. The second category is self-maintenance. Hanxiang Airlines' F-16 maintenance center is the best back-up for Taiwan Air Force F-16s. In fact, it's harder to upgrade an F-16 than a new one. Some components need to be disassembled to be updated, while others need to be kept as they are. A F-16 has about 200,000 parts. Therefore, these processes need to be planned thoroughly. Each aircraft needs to be changed by zero. It's not like new parts and assembly work. Everything follows a fixed SOP and a just-right mode. It's easy to disassemble, but difficult to assemble. According to Hanxiang's statistics, nearly 1,000 people participated in the whole F-16 project. Participants need to communicate with the technical staff of the company. In terms of production load, Hanxiang's back-up is very large. It can hold 32 F-16s at the same time. There are usually two shifts of work on the line. It's almost all year round. Hanxiang is known as a national defense company. Although Hanxiang is a private company, it is still a key role in Taiwan's international affairs. With the completion of most of the models, the biggest task of Hanxiang Airlines is to build the next-generation advanced fighter, ADF, under the guidance of China Academy of Engineering. There are 141 F-16Vs in the Republic of China, 54 F-2129s, which constitute the main force of the Taiwan Air Force. It has been in service for 30 years. This four-generation light aircraft, which was superior at the time, is now significantly behind. If F-35s are not sold in the future, there will be a huge shortage of F-35s. This requires ADFs. So Taiwan has been promoting the next-generation aircraft development plan Its production and manufacturing will be handed over to Hanxiang Airlines. It is expected that the prototype aircraft will be launched this year. So what kind of capabilities and characteristics should ADFs have? To sum up, ADFs should have the following characteristics. 1. ADF aims at the next-generation aircraft. ADFs are developed and designed by China Academy of Engineering. Hanxiang Airlines is responsible for manufacturing. It can be said that ADFs are the later models. Because ADFs are light aircrafts, the F-124 engine itself has a thrust limit. There is basically no room for improvement. Taiwan aims to build a fifth-generation aircraft. Since ADFs aim at the fifth-generation aircraft, their performance should at least have the following characteristics. 1. Includes built-in fuselage and anti-shuttle coatings to achieve the anti-shuttle appearance of reducing radar reflection. 2. If supported by US technology, it is not ruled out that it is equipped with a powerful engine with a large amount of nozzle. 3. AESA, which is longer and more accurate than traditional mechanical radars, takes the initiative to electronically scan anti-shuttle array radars. 4. More powerful aviation performance such as integrated shared data data chain. Otherwise, it cannot be considered a real fifth-generation aircraft. 2. Design Since the basic positioning is a fifth-generation aircraft, many people will be curious about the appearance. Does it look like the F-35? From the appearance point of view, the appearance of the ADF is estimated to be 90% similar to the Korean KF-21. If you put the two prototype models together, it will be difficult to distinguish each other. It will also be more like the F-35's F-A-18EF, which is a super-big aircraft. But General Manager Ma Wanjun said, The appearance is already done. In order to reduce the area of ​​the radar reflection, the five-generation aircrafts of each country have the same intention. Appearance is not the core feature. He also gave an example. The reason why Ferrari is called Ferrari is not because of its cool appearance, but because of its system components, such as the engine, suspension system, gearbox, etc. Even if you put these things in a Pock, it is still Ferrari. Therefore, the focus of the five-generation aircrafts of the country should be to develop a system of five-generation aircrafts. Whether it is self-made or technology support from Europe and the United States, he believes that Taiwanese engineers must have the ability to read the same textbooks as those abroad. It's just lack of experience. What we know so far is that ADF's design and manufacturing work is very smooth. The structure has passed the wind tunnel test, and has begun to enter the design and various weapon equipment engine part and configuration adjustment stage. 3. The most critical engine part. The engine is the heart of the aircraft, always at the core of the aircraft. ADF is scheduled to complete engine development in 2024. As we all know, there are very few engines that Taiwan can buy. Since it is a five-generation aircraft, the thrust of the engine must be large enough, preferably up to 10 tons of thrust. And South Korea has already taken a step forward in five-generation aircraft. Its self-made most advanced KF-21 fighter is an object that Taiwan can learn from. Of course, Taiwan also has a backup plan. This is based on the F-124 engine, which is a medium-sized fighter engine that is made by parallel research and development. In fact, Taiwan started in 2017 the Zhinvixing military engine plan. The ultimate goal is to develop the next generation of aircraft that requires 20,000 tons of large thrust engine. Up to now, it has invested more than 100 billion yuan. Entering the second stage, it is expected that by around 2027, the next generation of aircraft will be able to come out. The current President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the retired general of Taiwan, Zhang Zhongcheng, said in the Legislative Yuan in May last year that the Zhinvixing plan has established 12 key technologies such as heat shielding. The current goal is a medium-sized fighter engine. If you want to make a large-sized fighter engine, you have to do it in stages and advance in this direction. If it can really be like what Zhang Zhongcheng said, it will be a major breakthrough in Taiwan's defense industry. Why? As we all know, the thrust of the engine is directly related to the engine's maneuverability, and the TFE1042-70 engine used by the previous generation of IDF Jingguo and later Yongying High-Speed Aircraft was developed in cooperation with the U.S. Gantt Company. The U.S. calls it the F-125 engine. The F-125 is actually the later version of the F-124 engine. Taiwan and the U.S. each have half of it. Taiwan is responsible for the cold-shell part that does not require use of fire. The parts of the core compression section of the engine must withstand extremely high temperature, extremely high pressure, and extremely high centrifugal force. Taiwan's heat-shell technology is not passable, so this part is made by the U.S. In other words, it's American goods. There is no way. The U.S. heat-shell uses a life span of 4,500 hours, while China's only 3,000 hours. Its cost is higher than that of the U.S. and will seriously affect the life span of China's aircraft. Therefore, Taiwan has no choice but to choose American goods. Of course, the production task of this new generation engine will undoubtedly fall on Hanxiang. General Manager of Hanxiang, Ma Wanjun, believes that if Taiwan wants to independently develop an engine, it must overcome two problems. One is to design the engine independently, and the other is to master the cutting-edge technology of the hot-shell. The G-Star project is currently locked in a medium-sized engine, and the large engine required by ADF still needs to continue to work hard. We look forward to the breakthrough of the G-Star project. As for whether Taiwan's development of ADF is to promote the US-made F-35 stealth fighter? Although the US-made F-35 has been noisy for many years, this depends on many comprehensive factors. It is not that Taiwan has a state-of-the-art advanced fighter that can be as simple as the US-made F-35. To put it bluntly, if the internal affairs of Taiwan cannot quickly clear the fifth platoon, the Americans will be anxious and not dare to move. Afraid of really selling, maybe one day the picture will be on the table of the Chinese Communist Party's general meal. Okay, that's it for today's New Cold War is the Taiwan Strait Storm. What do you think of today's topic? Please leave a comment. This is Lin Yuanshan. See you next time.