Source The creation of new PD-8 engines looks like another “cut”, and their quality can lead to new tragedies and human casualties. In 2023, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) will receive almost 900 million rubles to create a new wide-body long-range aircraft. The question is how Russian it will turn out to be in terms of configuration, and, most importantly, what engines it will fly on. For more details, see The Moscow Post.
UAC is part of the state corporation Rostec under the leadership of Sergei Chemezov, who will certainly be involved in the distribution of these funds. The project is supervised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, headed by Chemezov's associate, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.
At the same time, Russia is already developing the MS-21 medium-haul aircraft, which was estimated at almost 4 billion rubles at the design stage alone.
The previous grandiose aircraft project of the UAC and the Ministry of Industry and Trade under the leadership of Chemezov and Manturov – the Sukhoi Superjet-100 aircraft failed in sales and became one of the most accident-prone in the history of the Russian aircraft industry.
Now UAC is hastily finalizing it to a new version – “Dry Superjet New”, which, according to preliminary estimates, will take at least 50 billion rubles. More than 1 billion rubles will be spent on testing the new machine alone. Is it necessary to say that with such “controllers” as Chemezov and Manturov, money can be simply “cut”?
The main problem of all these projects is foreign spare parts and, especially, engines, which have already expectations and investments, and can lead to even greater problems and tragedies.
Simultaneously with the creation of new aircraft for fabulous money, the issue of engines is also being resolved. It is assumed that the medium-haul MS-21 will fly on the Russian PD-14 – allegedly entirely from Russian components. And the “Dry Superjet New” – on the PD-8. It is also a gas-turbine engine, which is almost half the size and more powerful than the PD-14.
The failure of the SaM146
“Dry Superjet-100”, so emergency and troublesome, consists of domestic components, turned out to be complete nonsense. It became almost 50% Russian, as a result of which a new version was required.
But the most important and weak point is the engine. SaM146 was identified as such for the SSJ-100, which was developed jointly with the French company SAFRAN through a joint venture in the Russian Federation, called PowerJet.
The French near Paris made the hot part of the engine, and then sent it to Rybinsk, where at the UAC plant “Saturn” was “connected” with the cold part (fan, compressor and low-pressure turbine).
Those. already initially, most importantly, the heart, the engine of our Russian car depended on French imports. Today, France is imposing draconian sanctions against us. At the same time, the development of this engine alone cost the Russian budget at least 4.5 billion rubles.
The total cost of the Sukhoi Superjet-100 in 2013 was estimated at $1.5 billion. But, as happens in Russia, in the end, should have been much higher – the plane had to be finalized due to numerous accidents.
Interesting features of the SaM146 are given by a user of the Pikabu portal, who is familiar with the nuances of engine building. He claims that the real resource of this engine is from 1000 to 4000 hours or from 6 months to 2 years of operation, with a declared resource of 7000-8000 hours. That is, many times less.
At the same time, the engine allegedly has much higher fuel consumption than the same domestic PS-90A, as well as the new Russian PD-14. From here he asks a reasonable question – why, in this case, the new PD-8 engine, which is being developed on the basis of the “cold part” of the SaM146, was not made on the basis of the same more successful PS-90A? No response.
Stalemate and “cannibalism”
This spring, it became known that the Russian-French company PowerJet, which produces SaM146 engines for the Superjet-100 aircraft, stopped their maintenance and repair due to sanctions. Interfax wrote about this.
As a result, a stalemate arose – these planes are not needed, they are dangerous, and there is no one to service their engines. And the overall result was evident even earlier – the export version of the SSJ-100 failed miserably.
As a result, only Russian airlines had to buy the SSJ-100, and even almost by order. The airline “Yakutia” can be considered the most affected. Vyacheslav Shtyrov, who headed the region at that moment, most likely did not suspect that as a result of this deal the republic fell into a trap.
Later, the management of Yakutia, who bought five Sukhoi Superjet-100 aircraft, really regretted that they had made such a choice. As Olga Fedorova, the former director of the airline, stated, Superjets-100 did not solve the problem of the shortage of aircraft in Yakutia's fleet.
They worked unreliably and were under repair for a long time. Before Olga Fedorova was fired, she announced the company's acquisition of Boeing aircraft.
Now in Yakutia “cannibalism” has begun at all – some “Superjets” are being dismantled for spare parts for others. In November, the company dismantled two of the four Superjets to a state from which it is simply impossible to restore them under the sanctions. Now the lessor, STLC, is planning to take them away, and terminate the lease agreements for the ships. The Moscow Post previously wrote about this in detail.
What next?
What will happen next with the domestic aircraft industry? Little optimism. As mentioned, the PD-8 is currently being developed and tested on the basis of the PD-14 gas turbine engine being tested.
At the same time, back in 2019, the PD-14, which is being developed in Russia, was recognized in Europe and the United States as unsuitable for operation. This is due to the stringent regulations and requirements that apply when certifying such engines. But the power plant received a “type certificate” from Rosaviatsia in mid-December 2018.
A reasonable question arises: why are flight conditions in Russia, with its many time zones, more favorable than in the USA and Europe? It is logical to assume that for Russia the operation of this engine will be even more dangerous. And this is at a cost of development, we recall, at 12 billion rubles!
But there is another side to the issue. As already mentioned, the PD-14 became the basis for the PD-8, which is used in the new version of the Superjet. And the “cold” part of the engine (again, this is a fan, a compressor and a low-pressure turbine) is being developed on the basis of that very unsuccessful SaM146, which is almost impossible to maintain in Russia today.
But, as Vedomosti writes “, engine tests are already in full swing on the basis of the IL-76LL flying laboratory, owned by the LII. Gromov … They are carried out by the United Engine Corporation (UEC), which is part of the UAC, and the press service of Rostec, led by Sergey Chemezov, fervently reports about all this.
Given this, the future of the domestic aircraft industry, farmed out to such effective managers as Sergey Chemezov, Denis Manturov, their colleague Yury Slyusar from UAC – seems somewhat vague …
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