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Aviation History
1992
1992 - 0030.PDF
The Harbin Y-IIB has Teledyne/Continenlal TSlO-55 piston engines aircraft manufacturer, employs 20,000 peo ple, but supports a total of 50,000 in the village of Yenliang, 75km north-east of Xi'an. The company runs a 300-bed hospi tal, kindergartens, three primary schools, two middle schools, a technical school, a college, cafeterias and shops. Yi Zhi Bin, XAC's executive vice- president and chief engineer, says: "The company is not only a factory, it's also a small community. The president of the company is responsible for our employees from their birth...until they die. He is responsible for everything — for school, for work, and retirement." THE DIFFERENCE This philosophy also prevents factories from laying off employees when there is insufficient work, or from sacking people who are not productive. Harbin's Guo explains this cultural difference: "If there is no work for the workers, we should find another kind of work for them. If the head of the production department finds a worker is not working properly, he should help him and train him to do better. He cannot dismiss him." Guo adds: "This is the difference between us and foreign countries. In foreign coun tries, if a worker works badly, you don't pay him any money, but in this country, no. Chinese leaders have to be responsible for all things for the workers and labourers. This is the socialist advantage." Advantage or not, it imposes a substantial financial and management burden on these companies, forcing them to diversify into other product areas to keep the workforce busy, and to maintain the revenue stream. It also explains the heavy investment in new equipment and quality-control procedures in an effort to attract foreign subcontracts — the prime source of technology transfer, and hard currency. XAC has probably been the most success ful at this, although CATIC usually decides where the work will be placed. Up to 75% of XAC's business is related to aviation and, of this, between 17% and 20% comes from foreign subcontracts, amounting to $12 million in 1991. The company has become a major supplier to Boeing, building the vertical fin and forward access doors for the 737, and wing trailing-edge ribs for the 747. If Boeing wins the TrunkLiner contract, Xi'an will almost certainly take final assem bly of the 737-300 (or the 757, if that proposal is adopted — see Flight Interna tional, 11-17 December, 1991). XAC's Yi says that the company will also take part if McDonnell Douglas wins the contract. He says: "After the decision is made, certainly our company will be a major factory for producing the trunk aircraft." Other work includes the centre wing-box for Aerospatiale's share of the ATR42, which has just started, plus various doors for the aircraft, under contract to Alenia. XAC also makes access doors for the Airbus A310, the water tank, flaps, float pylons and cockpit door for the Canadair CL-215, and the horizontal stabiliser for the Canadair Challenger. Contracts under discussion in clude MD-82 fuselage frames, more Airbus wing components for British Aerospace, and the horizontal stabiliser for the Canadair Regional Jet. XAC has invested heavily in new equip ment and processes to obtain this work, spending $7 million in 1990 on two new machines alone, a hydraulic press for form ing sheet-metal components, and a numeri cally controlled five-axis precision milling machine from Cincinatti Milacron. The budget for 1991 was 50 million Yuan ($9.3 million), Yi says. COMPUTERISED CONTROL In 1989, XAC built a 4,000m2 centre for its numerically controlled machines, and plans to extend this by another 10,000m2. The company has also added a composites capability, and now has four autoclaves, including a new 3.5 x 10m unit which it uses for metal bonding on the 737 fin leading-edge and for some fuselage panels. One by-product of the relationship with Boeing has been engineering assistance with modifications to the Y-7, which is XACs most important product. The 50-seat turbo prop is China's designated regional airliner, and XAC has so far delivered 72 aircraft, of which 60 are in airline service. The rest are in various military roles. Although XAC has already upgraded the original Y-7 — which was developed from the Soviet Antonov An-24 — adding winglets to the -100 model and western avionics to the -100C, it is planning two new versions, the Y-7-200A and B. Both represent a significant overhaul of the original design, and XAC sent 40 engineers to work with Boeing in Seattle on a revised wing configuration. The result was a 30% increase in maxi mum-lift coefficient, which improves low- The Y-7 has now been upgraded considerably, following work with Boeing and Pratt & Whitney
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