Professor Parkinson received the latest demands from Yang Yunhe upon arriving at his office from his secretary, news that did not please him. Yang Yunhe wanted technical data for the auxiliary superconducting acceleration parts.
"Is he insane? Asking us for technical support!" Professor Parkinson’s face turned ashen upon hearing this request. Recently, the Jiangnan Group’s subsidiary, Jiangnan Large Aviation Technology Development Company, had officially unveiled their first product, the Jiangnan 2013.
The product caused a global sensation upon its release, as it was only the fourth company in the world capable of producing large civilian commercial regional jetliners.
The previous three were Boeing from the United States, Airbus from Europe, and Ilyushin from Russia. Apart from these, no other country or company in the world possessed the capability to produce such aircraft.
While many manufacturers appeared in the market, the reality was that Ilyushin aircraft were rarely purchased by anyone other than their own country and a few sanctioned nations by the West. The real competition in the market was primarily between Boeing and Airbus.
Though these two companies were fiercely competitive, they had also reached a certain tacit understanding. Together, they had driven up the prices of large passenger aircraft to levels unaffordable for even smaller countries.
Taking the most common Boeing 747 as an example, the procurement price was 170 million US dollars. This was for the bare aircraft, excluding interior furnishings, entertainment systems, and the like. A fully equipped one would easily start at 200 million US dollars.
Airbus aircraft of similar specifications were priced similarly. While both companies appeared to be in fierce competition in the global aviation market, their rivalry mostly involved minor price concessions.
Furthermore, as the situation developed, both Boeing and Airbus realized that the global aviation market's demand for aircraft was fixed. Regardless of the intensity of competition, airlines needed to purchase a certain number of planes.
Excessively fierce competition that drove down the unit price of their aircraft would only lead to losses for themselves.
Therefore, Airbus and Boeing later reached a tacit agreement, each dividing the market into their default spheres. If a commercial order fell within another's default market, the latter would generally refrain from intense competition or price undercutting, thus maintaining high prices.
Consequently, the global aviation market had long been yearning for a third competitor. Now, with the emergence of the Jiangnan 2013, this third competitor had finally appeared.
However, the fact that this airline was backed by the Jiangnan Group seemed rather abrupt. The Jiangnan Group was already a leading global conglomerate, its owner the world’s richest man, and his sister-in-law the second richest. Yet, the Jiangnan Group's primary business was in the electronics sector. When did it suddenly venture into the aviation industry?
In any case, the appearance of the Jiangnan 2013 gave an impression of unreliability. It wasn't until Jiangnan Aviation held its first official press conference, announcing that their aircraft had obtained flight permits in China and twelve other countries, officially going on sale and accepting orders, that the market had to acknowledge that the Jiangnan Group had indeed entered the aviation sector and, upon its debut, delivered a significant surprise to all airlines worldwide.
When half of the Jiangnan 2013's specifications were released, the global reaction was relatively muted.
This was because the specifications were quite ordinary, even somewhat low. The only highlight was the maximum passenger capacity of 412 people, slightly higher than the current mainstream Boeing 747.
However, other data points were not as impressive. Whether it was cruising altitude or cruising speed, the figures lagged behind the Boeing 747, which had been on sale for decades.
It could only be said that this aircraft had barely met the threshold for large aircraft, with a long way to go to catch up with its industry predecessors.
Despite this, many companies intended to procure a batch of Jiangnan 2013s.
The vast majority were Chinese companies, as a series of interest exchanges and operations had seen state-owned enterprises become the major shareholders behind Jiangnan Aviation. It was only natural for state-owned enterprises to purchase aircraft produced by state-owned enterprises.
However, a portion of the determined buyers were foreign airlines, though they only intended to purchase one or two aircraft. This was a way to warn Boeing and Airbus that they were not without other contenders in the market.
This notion changed completely in the latter half of the press conference when Jiangnan Aviation announced the fuel consumption of the Jiangnan 2013. Under equivalent conditions, it was only 78.32% of that of the Boeing 747.
The announcement of this figure caused an uproar at the venue. All guests stood up in shock, looking incredulously at the presenter of the press conference.
This reaction was, of course, within Jiangnan Aviation's expectations. The presenter then began to explain in detail why their aircraft could achieve such astonishing fuel efficiency and introduced the seemingly more exaggerated and far-fetched anti-gravity engine technology.
This news instantly transformed a matter of shock within the aviation industry into global astonishment.
Anti-gravity engine technology! It sounded intensely like science fiction. Was this truly technology that present-day humans could possess? Were they not reading a science fiction novel?
In any case, Jiangnan Aviation had a successful debut. Within a month of the press conference, they had received orders for 280 aircraft, selling out their production for the next three years. They had to announce a halt to new orders to avoid delivery failures.
Following this press conference, Professor Parkinson faced intense scrutiny within Goldman Sachs Group. The gravity engine technology actually belonged to Goldman Sachs, but Professor Parkinson had directly handed it over to the Jiangnan Group, which was essentially aiding an opponent.
Professor Parkinson worked diligently to appease the departments within the group.
However, a few days later, he received another frustrating piece of news. A patriotic young man, having accidentally learned that the anti-gravity engine technology was developed by their own research institute and somehow ended up in the hands of the Chinese, concluded that the Chinese had stolen their technology. He directly disclosed this information to the media, causing quite a stir globally and scaring Yang Yunhe into wanting to flee back to the United States.
Professor Parkinson had to urgently mobilize all his resources to have the informant declared mentally unsound and confined to a psychiatric hospital. Subsequently, the director of the research institute, who had supposedly discovered the anti-gravity engine technology, came forward to clarify to the media that they had never researched such technology and that it was merely the delusion of the mentally ill person.
The director of the institute then immediately resigned on the spot. Almost everyone believed the director had resigned due to moral responsibility, but only a select few knew that the director's resignation was due to unbearable humiliation.
The truth was that this technology had indeed been discovered by their research institute, and even developed under his leadership. However, they were forced by the Goldman Sachs Group to deny it, or else their entire families would be implicated. How could the director endure this?
So, he eventually came forward to refute the claims, but he could no longer work in the research institute and directly resigned. He also received a hefty hush money payment of 2 million US dollars from Goldman Sachs.
This incident left Professor Parkinson feeling incredibly frustrated. If Yang Yunhe hadn't just produced the Black Gold technology, Professor Parkinson would have abandoned the matter entirely, as he had been hoping Yang Yunhe would acquire more such technologies.
At the same time, Professor Parkinson secretly vowed never to provide Yang Yunhe with any more technology to avoid such mind-breaking situations from recurring.
But now, Yang Yunhe was asking him for technology again. How could Professor Parkinson not be angry?
"Sir, according to the intelligence, Yang Yunhe is responsible for the entire high-energy particle collider project under Huang He. That's why he has access to information related to Black Gold. As the project progresses, he needs more related materials from Black Gold to manufacture the high-energy particle collider and thus obtain more related technologies to provide to us!"
"However, his progress on the high-energy particle collider project has hit a bottleneck. Without auxiliary superconducting acceleration technology, the entire project will be delayed, and he will fall out of favor with Huang He. Huang He might then replace him."
"Moreover, according to our intelligence, this time the Jiangnan Group is collaborating with China's Institute of High Energy Physics on the high-energy particle collider. To gain full control of the collider project, the Institute of High Energy Physics has had several clashes and conflicts with the Jiangnan Group."
"If Yang Yunhe is removed, the Institute of High Energy Physics is likely to take over. At that point, Yang Yunhe will truly have no further access to Black Gold-related technical intelligence," the secretary stated.
"This fellow..." Professor Parkinson was exasperated. He realized he was being threatened by Yang Yunhe again and seemed to have no choice but to agree to his demands.
Of course, Professor Parkinson also felt a sense of unease. He frowned and said, "How does it seem to me that this Yang Yunhe is negotiating a business deal with us, wanting to exchange technical data for the Black Gold with technical data for the high-energy particle collider? Is he still our pawn? Hasn't he been won over by the Jiangnan Group?"
"Sir, I believe this concern is unnecessary!" the secretary replied after some thought. "While the technical data for the high-energy particle collider is valuable, it brings almost no profit to a company. On the contrary, Black Gold is the true technical lifeline of the Jiangnan Group. If Black Gold technology falls into our hands, more than half of the Jiangnan Group's market will be lost. This is something the Jiangnan Group can never accept."
"Therefore, I believe the Jiangnan Group would never trade technical data for the high-energy particle collider for Black Gold technical data!"
"That makes sense!" Professor Parkinson nodded. He himself was well aware of this point and believed the matter to be true. However, Yang Yunhe's constant demands for various technologies made him feel utterly terrible.
But in the end, Professor Parkinson could only provide the relevant technical data to Yang Yunhe again, while hoping that the latter would produce more Black Gold technical data, thus somewhat compensating for his wounded heart.