Californian gets 50 months in prison for Chinese 'technology spy' work A sting operation by the US Department of Homeland Security has netted one California woman a 50-month sojourn in prison after she was found guilty of trying to break the US Arms Export Control Act. The court heard that between March 2011 and June 2013, Wenxia Man, 45, of San Diego, worked with a Chinese national – who she …
This sounds like a plot from a pulp fiction spy story from decades ago and seems typical of a Federal government sting ("Your tax dollars at work"). It would be more credible if the technology involved was a bit more mundane.
Take the drone drawings, for example. Various Chinese companies make copies of the Predators, they sell them as models. The Chinese also make a full size version of this planes which they sell at a cut price to countries that want Predators for their own use. (I don't know how good their sensor packages are but hopefully they're nowhere near as good.)
As for jet engines.....we all know how these work. The secret sauce isn't the 'schematics', its the materials technology and details of the design of key components. If she had a file containing contour and test information about a compressor blade....then that's the real deal. But a drawing? Its a joke.....at my (i.e. taxpayer) expense.
Yes yes, what in-sight. We all know how they work. Like there is no difference between the engine in your car and the engine in a formula 1 series car. Right? This is what you're saying.
Just as formula 1 teams closely guard the engineering secrets to creating more horsepower and torque with lighter materials to last at high RPM; there are large differences between a typical commercial jet engine, and that of a jet fighter.
..and thinking any jet mechanic understands how everything works is silly. They don't engineer or tweak the parts, they inspect, repair, replace and test. Most military jet engine schools last less than 10 weeks; this includes basic and specific engine courses.
Anything outside their basic skills is typically handled by contracted engineers for the respective company who created the engine.
All that data could be gathered from Aviation Machinist's Mate fresh off one of the carriers making port. The fact that they are paid less than minimum wage and have been cooped up on a big gray hulk for months on end make them an easy target for bribery / honey pot. Offer a couple thousand dollars or sex for a couple of photos of the blades or broken pieces of the engine and come out way ahead of anyone attempting to steal them from the companies making them. I personally know a couple aviation mechanics with extensive collections of engine fragments in their homes.
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