The first stage of tests of the new power plant with the upgraded engines of increased thrust for the heavy Su-27 and Su-30MK fighters has ended at the Gromov Flight Research Institute (LII), the general director of FGUP Moscow Salyut Machine Building Enterprise, Yuriy Eliseev, reported to Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.
“A report on the first stage of tests of the upgraded power plant with the AL-31F-M1 engines of increased thrust developed by MMPP Salyut has been received by us,” Yuriy Eliseev said. “The results of these tests, which were performed at the LII, are positive, all of the declared tactical and technical characteristics have been confirmed.”
In the report, which consist of several hundred pages, it says in particular: “The results of the comparative assessment flight research of the service characteristics of the power plant and the flying and technical characteristics of the Su-27 airplane, side ((BORT)) number 3711, with two modified AL-31F-M1 engines have confirmed the estimated indicators,” Yu. Eliseev reported.
“At an altitude of 11,000 meters, while speeding up the fighter from 300 to 1,200 km/hour (supersonic speed), we gain 26 seconds in comparison with an airplane equipped with the standard AL-31F engines. For a fighter interceptor, this is a very important characteristic, which allows winning in aerial combat,” the Salyut general director declared.
He explained that right now further tests of these engines are on-going and Salyut “is ready to perform all of the remaining work at such a rate in order to complete it in the second quarter of 2003.”
The modified engine has 800 kg higher thrust in comparison with the serial, and since the power plant of the Su-27 and Su-30 airplanes has two engines, the fighter will gain more than 1.5 tonnes in thrust with the new motors.
The serial AL-31F Su-27 and Su-30 fighter engines have 12.5 tonnes of thrust. The thrust has reached 13.3 tonnes in the modified AL-31F-M1 engines that were tested at LII.
MMPP Salyut is a leading specialized Russian enterprise in the development, production and accompanying service of gas-turbine engines (GTD). There is a design bureau at the association for future developments which designs aviation, industrial and transportation power plants with GTD.
Source: 18.09.02, Interfax-AVN
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September 25, 2002 at 4:56 pm