The military-industrial scientific research system of the academic master.

Few people would have thought beforehand that during the preparations for the Singapore Air Show, the most eye-catching model was neither the Rafale nor the Super Hornet, nor the two Chinese passenger aircraft.

Instead, they flew more than a dozen sorties in three days, transporting many exhibitor models from all over the world to several An-124s at the Changi Exhibition Site.

In particular, when a medium-sized helicopter was pulled out of the cargo bay of the An-124, the reporters on the scene used almost half of the day's film on this scene.

This is not over yet.

The Americans, who felt that this was not going to work anymore, also pulled out a C5, removed the wings of the Black Hawk helicopter that could have flown from the Subic base next door, stuffed it in, and airlifted it to Singapore...

This is completely an act of vindictiveness.

Volga-Dnepr's An-124 charges the cargo owner for each flight, while the C5 costs pure money.

Of course, the US military, which has a lot of money at this time, doesn't care about this little funding.

At this time, it was less than 10 years since the end of the Cold War, and giant transport aircraft such as the An-124 and C5, the dominant ones in the East and the West, rarely met the public directly.

In addition, information dissemination is not developed enough, and there are not many people even seen in photos.

Definitely a top performer who can attract media attention.

Especially in the past few days, these two models, which are similar in size and purpose, just took turns to land here, but there was no head-on encounter between the needle and the wheat.

This made many media who wanted to take photos of the two in the same frame eager to try on the opening day.

As a result, both the United States and Russia stated that they had only arranged cargo routes according to normal plans before, and had no plans to participate in the exhibition of these two models.

As soon as the news came out, the French finally breathed a sigh of relief.

They have high hopes for this air show.

Due to the backstabbing behavior of the French during the Gulf War (the Iraqi army’s automated command system was imported from France, but failed to function at all during the war), the reputation of French weapons and equipment has plummeted around the world, especially in the Middle East. .

In addition, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the CIS countries engaged in indiscriminate dumping at unreasonable low prices, resulting in France's arms sales situation in recent years not being very optimistic.

It takes time to restore reputation, so they urgently need to expand beyond traditional markets.

Although Southeast Asia and South Asia have been hit by the financial turmoil, at least a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, and it is better than Latin America and sub-Saharan African countries...

"If I had known this, I shouldn't have chartered a plane for transportation from the beginning..."

Guillaume Le Maire, the leader of the French delegation and also the vice president of the French Aerospace Industry Association, finally breathed a sigh of relief when he looked at the journalists around him who looked regretful.

The first few An-124s that came over were actually mostly transporting things to French companies.

It's fine for passenger planes, but it's a bit difficult for fighter jets or helicopters to fly from France to Singapore on their own, not to mention that the Rafale is still a prototype.

So to save trouble, they simply hired Volga-Dnepr Airlines, which had a broken freight rate.

As a result, the latter quickly discovered that this was an excellent opportunity to advertise for themselves, so they sent a lot of Russians' own exhibition equipment.

Afterwards, the situation got a little out of control.

Fortunately, the limelight of the opening ceremony was not stolen.

The first four days of the Singapore Airshow, including the opening day, are professional days, open only to trade attendees.

If the attention in the past few days has been drawn to the United States and Russia, the subsequent public open days will not make much sense at all.

Who are the serious people who pay to buy fighter jets?

……

As the salute sounded at the opening ceremony, the Singapore Air Force A4S attack aircraft and the French Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jets began a joint flight performance, which finally drew the attention of the media and delegation members from various countries back to the air show itself.

After confirming that everything was back on track, Le Maire moved his body and began to wander around the exhibition area of ​​more than 70,000 square meters.

While scouting your competitors, also see if there are any possible deals.

According to his experience, buying equipment in these third world countries is very random.

If the level and authority of the delegation sent over are high enough, they may spend money on a whim.

Although it is generally difficult to get any big orders, grasshoppers are still meat no matter how small they are.

Both retail and wholesale are businesses, not shabby.

Perhaps because of the area of ​​the exhibition area and the location of the exhibition being far away from the mainland, their two biggest rivals, the United States and Russia, did not bring much eye-catching equipment.

The multifunctional fighter Su-30, which was previously regarded as a huge threat, did not show up. Only a few Su-27s from the Warrior Demonstration Team came, and they would leave immediately after the performance.

As an "air show", the weapons and equipment exhibited by Russia are mainly anti-aircraft missile systems. The latest S300PMU2 is placed opposite the Mirage 2000 booth.

Although there seems to be some intention to cause trouble, it does not constitute direct competition with France.

The Americans are still the same. Although the F18F is making its first public appearance, it is a carrier-based aircraft after all.

Except for a few countries, almost no one will purchase a carrier-based aircraft for use on land...

After going around half a circle, Flamel nodded with satisfaction and put his hands in his pockets, as if he had no opponent.

Enjoying how lonely it was to be invincible, he slowly walked towards the last area in front of him——

China exhibition area.

At this time, Le Maire's mentality was very relaxed.

It was his own suggestion to arrange Huaxia to become one of the three major exhibition groups through behind-the-scenes operations.

The main reason is to squeeze the participation scale of other major competitors such as Britain and Russia.

Judging from the actual results, this strategy is quite successful.

Although China has shown some potential for rapid development in the past two years, the starting point is too low. Even if they are given an exhibition area of ​​1.5 square meters, they can only display some uncompetitive things.

"The cockpit model of the third-generation fighter FC10..."

"Door manufactured for Airbus A320..."

"The horizontal stabilizer manufactured for the Airbus A320..."

Flamel watched the scenery along the way, nodding secretly for his wisdom in driving away tigers and devouring wolves.

Although this is the Chinese exhibition area, many exhibitors are participating as suppliers, and the most important supplier is Airbus.

It is no exaggeration to say that the few tens of meters just entering the venue can even be regarded as an extension of the French exhibition area.

After wandering for a short distance, a twin-engine propeller regional airliner made Le Maire's expression change slightly.

MA60 passenger aircraft.

It has proven to be a strong competitor for the ATR42/72 aircraft.

And since China has signed mutual recognition of airworthiness for regional aircraft with the EU and the United States, there is no way to set up obstacles in terms of procedures.

"The market for propeller regional aircraft is not big, and ATR is not coming this time, so it's okay, okay..."

Flamel consoled himself in this way.

He didn't take a closer look at the 808-seat regional airliner called C next to it.

Most insiders know that this is actually a Tupolev aircraft with a different paint job.

What's more, there is no manufacturer of large regional aircraft of this level in Europe (not even the UK).

This should be a problem for Brazilians or Canadians to worry about.

Moving on, Flamel's mood improved again.

"FBC1 is a fighter-bomber similar to Tornado. Its function is too single and it poses no threat in the field of arms sales..."

"F7MG... is the Chinese F7, which is an improved version of the Soviet-made MiG-21... it is too backward and poses no threat..."

"F7F...is another...improved version of MiG-21?"

He looked up at the fighter jet with its chin inlet in front of him and felt that the world was a little crazy.

Of course, it does not pose a threat to Mirage 2000.

Not to mention Gust.

"FTC2000..."

Flamel frowned and looked over and over several times at the display board in front of him and at the aircraft behind the display board.

I recalled the MiG-21 in my impression.

At this time, he really wanted to capture a Chinese colleague and torture him for questioning——

"Can you also call this an improved version of the MiG-21?"