India's MiG-29K engines: RD-33MK

Creation of RD-33MK Engines for Indian Carrier-Based MiG-29K Fighters on Schedule

Creation of RD-33MK engines for the Indian carrier-based MiG-29K fighters is on schedule, the deputy general director of external commercial activity of OAO Moscow V.V. Chernyshev Machine Building Enterprise, Anatoliy Noskov, and the enterprise’s chief engineer, Aleksandr Paykin, announced to an ARMS-TASS correspondent at the Farnborough-2004 salon.

According to the, “production preparations are on schedule, and the period agreed to in the contract, undoubtedly, will be maintained.

According to the conditions of the Russo-Indian contract, which was concluded in January of this year, delivery of the first batch of MiG-29K is intended 36 months from the day of the contract’s signing. The engines for these airplanes are supposed to be delivered 6 months before their transfer to the customer.

The enterprise is working actively also on the operational development of the RD-1700 engine, which is intended for training airplanes, in particular, the MiG-AT. Flight tests of the engine are planned for 2005. Right now French “Larzac” engines are installed on the experimental MiG-AT which is creating definite problems for its adoption into the inventory of Russia’s air force. At the V.V. Chernyshev MMP they share the point of view of the military and think that the Russian training airplane should have a domestic engine.

The V.V. Chernyshev MMP together with FGUP V.Ya. Klimov Plant has technological and design margins for the creation of an engine for a fifth generation airplane. According to A. Paykin and A. Noskov, the V.V. Chernyshev MMP is ready to cooperate with the Russian Airplane Building Corporation MiG on the creation of engines for a lightweight fifth generation multirole fighter.

OAO V.V. Chernyshev MMP also is working on the operational development of the TV7-117 engine, which was developed by FGUP V.Ya. Klimov plant and is being assembled by OAO V.V. Chernyshev MMP for the Il-114 passenger airplane. At the present time, its use has been started on Il-114 airplanes of the Vyborg airline. The use of these engines on Il-112 and MiG-110 airplanes is planned in the future.

Its helicopter variant is being developed based on this engine which it is planned to use on Ka-50, Ka-52, Ka-32 and Mi-38 helicopters.

Source: 21.07.04, ARMS-TASS