There have been a couple of news items published in the past couple of weeks or so which relate to engine developments and proposals:
Russia Plans To Finalize Tests of Modernized Engine for Su-27, Su-30 Planes
The official tests of the AL-31FM-1 air engine upgraded by the Moscow-based Salyut engineering company are going to end in July, the company’s Director General Yury Yeliseyev told Interfax-Military News Agency Wednesday.
“No later than the end of July the final tests of the engine to propel Su-27 and Su-30 aircraft will be completed, with the Air Force acceptance certificate issued accordingly,” Yeliseyev said.
According to him, Salyut has enough own funding to finalize the tests.
“We believe that the in-service engines for the Russian Air Force will be subject to repairs with simultaneous upgrade provided into AL-31FM-1 versions. The expected rate is about 100 engines a year,” he added.
“As for foreign clients, preliminary negotiations have been held, and many of them showed interest in both modernizing in-service engines and acquiring brand-new ones,” he said.
According to him, the next-generation engine now under development may well use the technologies developed by Salyut in the course of the modernization, including the all-aspect nozzle with variable thrust vectoring, the control system, the three-stage low-pressure compressor and the new flame tube.
“These solutions are sure to be introduced in the next generation engine,” he said.
The modernization of the Al-31F engine for Sukhoi fighters is organized in three stages. Within the framework of the fifth-generation engine development process, Salyut is going to build three modifications of the engine, namely M1, M2 and M3. The M1 version will have thrust, more powerful than that of the predecessor by a tonne, and also the time between overhauls of 750 hours. The M2 version will feature a three-stage low-pressure compressor instead of the four-stage one, and have even greater thrust and service life. The thrust of the M3 is going to be raised by 29% as compared to the baseline configuration. Moreover, it will be the nearest modification to the fifth-generation engine.
Source: Interfax-AVN (21st June, 2006)
Sukhoi To Start Exporting Fighter Jets With New Engine In 2009
Sukhoi Aviation Holding will start exporting fighter jets with a new engine, 117C, in 2009, a holding official told Itar-Tass on Friday.
“Sukhoi has not only chosen an engine for the new export brand of Su-35, but also decided to co-invest in the project. It will fund 40% of the engine research and development costs,” he said.
“A contract on funding research and development of the 117C engine was signed at a Moscow meeting of Sukhoi chief Mikhail Pogosyan, Saturn Scientific and Production Center head Yuri Lastochkin, and head of the Ufa Machine Building Center Alexander Artyukhov. The project will be complete by 2008,” he said.
The project is testing technologies, which will be used in the development of a fifth-generation engine for Russian warplanes, the source said.
117C is a profound modernization of AL-31F. It has a thrust of 14.5 tonnes,
which is 2 tonnes larger than the basic engine.
Source: Itar-Tass (9th June, 2006)
Steve Rush
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