Russian Civil Aviation: News

MAK video reconstruction of Polish president’s Tu-154 crash

Recently came across this article:

http://www.ruaviation.com/docs/3/2010/11/1/7/

About the Tu-214.

Rather than post it all the link is above, but a small part of the story interested me quite a lot...

The Tu- 214D (engineering reference) with additional fuel tanks can cover over 11,000 km or stay in the air for some 14 hours. Introduction of the NK- 93 geared fan engines promises reduction in specific fuel burn from 18.3 (for the PS-90A powered baseline version) down to 15 gram per km*passenger.

So the NK-93 engines are going to be used... and presumably since they were designed some time ago they are probably all Russian... unlike the PS-90A which seems to have some American components in it.

Thanks for the link Garry , I have been trying to follow NK-93 geared turbofan engine for some time and I believe that project has either been cancelled or freezed.its not actively being pursued.

Well the article I posted is very recent and mentions it is in testing and its performance is clearly superior to any available alternative.

It just comes down to getting the thing into production now I would guess... this engine could make the Tu-214 a different aircraft.

Here is a nice interview from Alexey Fedorov on MS-21 program.

Target for MS-21: 1200 sales

Hello, Good job Austin here is my contribution - Tu-204SM booklet.
http://www.tupolev.ru/images/pictures/news/2011/204CM.pdf

Andy_Wiz wrote:Hello, Good job Austin here is my contribution - Tu-204SM booklet.
http://www.tupolev.ru/images/pictures/news/2011/204CM.pdf

WoW ,thats awesome the redesigned cockpit looks great , this looks like a completely new aircraft.

Can we have a english version of the pdf ?

First commercial Superjet delivery to Armavia air carrier

Photo Essay Superjet

Russian airlines for fleet renewal should be a year to 100 new aircraft, the country produced only about 15 - Levitin

MOSCOW, January 19. (ARMS-TASS). Russian airlines to upgrade its fleet to a year to one hundred new planes, the country produced only about 15. On Tuesday said Transport Minister Igor Levitin, the radio station Ekho Moskvy.

According to him, the domestic aviation industry is now prepared to make airliners with a capacity from 51 to 299 passengers. Levitin said that it is, above all, "Superdzhe-100, AN-148 and Tu-204SM. "The rest - up to 50 seats and over 300, these are a niche that today the Russian aviation industry itself does not take" - the minister said. He stressed that in this connection to such a category of aircraft from 2010 lifted import duties.

Answering a question, how much Russia needs to aircraft annually, Transport Minister said that "not less than one hundred, and made in recent years, about 15".

MOSCOW, January 19. (ARMS-TASS). Program production of Tu-204SM will maintain and continue, said a source in the aviation industry.

Today, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov held a meeting on the status of the project Tu-204SM.

The source noted that the adopted "a positive decision, the program will be saved." Were instructed relevant departments to organize the financing and production program.

The first customer of the Tu-204SM should become the Russian airline "Red Wings" (can buy 44 aircraft), already has experience operating Tu-204-100.

The first flight of Tu-204SM held December 29, 2010 The plane will be built at Ulyanovsk factory Aviastar-SP.

Tu-204SM equipped with PS-90A2. Universal cockpit designed for two crew members instead of three, as it was in previous aircraft Tu-204.

Earlier, Director General of the leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co. "Alexander Rubtsov said that the government is ready to support the project only in terms of reduction cost aircraft. It is, in particular, about the price of 1 billion 70 million rubles. At the moment the cost of the aircraft is about 1.5 billion rubles. Work is underway with the suppliers of components at discounted rates. "If there is no discount, then the government will not support the project", - emphasized Rubtsov.

If only the Russian AF would find a need for these aircraft to replace obsolete types and make orders.

Once the thing is in proper production in significant numbers then the price will come down and production capacity will be created to get these aircraft into full production.

Ilyushin Finance and Red Wings negotiate on 44 Tu-204SM
Russian Aviaton

Ilyushin Finance Co. (IFC) says it is going to complete negotiations with Red Wings on 44 Tu-204SM aircraft in February so as to sign a firm order in March 2011.

Russia’s largest aircraft lessor, Ilyushin Finance has previously placed Tu-204-100 aircraft with Cubana, Air Koryo and Red Wings, Tu-204-300s with Vladivostok Avia and Air Koryo. Besides, IFC leases three Tu-214s (Tu-204-200s) to Transaero.

Red Wings already operates a fleet of Tu-204-100 and Tu-204-100V jetliners, to which it added one more airframe in 2010. It is the only operator of the Tu-204-100V version, the most recent mutation of the baseline Tu-204-100 model in production at Aviastar-SP. The plant has several “white-tale” Tu-204-100C/120C freighters. These have been on offer for more than a year after intended customer Volga-Dnepr had rejected them.

Ilyushin Finance says the recent decision by Sergei Ivanov to support the Tu-204SM project is instrumental. It gives the airlines more assurance and allows the lessor to negotiate with the carriers on further deliveries of Russian-made narrow body jetliners.

Interjet lays out reasons for selecting Superjet 100

Interjet chief executive José Luis Garza says the Superjet 100 was selected because it scored highly on a number of criteria that the carrier had set out in its regional jet wishlist. These criteria included a strong operational performance in high altitude locations because, as Garza explains, Mexico City is at an altitude of 7,900ft (2,400m).

Garza highly rates the quality of the aircraft: "On a typical regional jet you have to degrade the quality, but with this [Superjet 100] we believe the quality standard is very close to an Airbus A320."

Interjet will start taking delivery of its Superjets in the second half of 2012 and deliveries are scheduled to run until 2014. The carrier has signed a firm agreement for 15 of the jets plus five options.

Mexican airline praises Superjet 100 for its quality, price

"In our opinion, this plane meets all most stringent requirements of an airline," Jose Luis Garza said in an interview with RIA Novosti on Friday.

The Superjet 100 aims for lower operating costs than its Embraer and Bombardier competitors for the price of about $32 million.

Garza praised high performance characteristics of the plane, especially considering hot climate and high elevation in Mexico.

"The Sukhoi Superjet 100 can successfully compete on the global aircraft market and has good chances to penetrate the Latin American market," he added.

GarryB wrote:Well the article I posted is very recent and mentions it is in testing and its performance is clearly superior to any available alternative.

It just comes down to getting the thing into production now I would guess... this engine could make the Tu-214 a different aircraft.

The article is just a rehash of AirFleet Tu-214 article I had posted some time back.

The NK-93 engine development by all accounts have been frozen and probably canceled though it was a promising design but has been under development for more then a decade.

The only new civil engine underdevelopment is the PD-14 and in the recent AW&ST article i posted on PD-14 there is a 18T variant called PD-18 that would go for a geared turbofan type technology.

I just wished they had pursued NK-93 program probably funding constrain would have done it.

Airfleet newest issue on website has good info on An-158 program

Airfleet 5 2010

UAC wide body airliner programme (earlier and more conservative than that mentioned in recent Fedorov interview) - 'ShF BSMS'
Buklet_SF_001.pdf

Buklet_SF_002.pdf

Myasishchev long range transport aircraft project -

http://forumimage.ru/uploads/20110116/129518939074009653.jpg

http://forumimage.ru/uploads/20110116/129518939074009653.jpg

Andy_Wiz wrote:UAC wide body airliner programme (earlier and more conservative than that mentioned in recent Fedorov interview) - 'ShF BSMS'
Buklet_SF_001.pdf

Fedrov recently said in the interview that for wide body aircraft they are working on two concept lifting fuselage and flying wing, the wide body aircraft will probably get developed by 2020 time frame.

I think what ever they develop by that time frame show exceed A350 , B787 and its variant in most technical parameter and should cost lesser then the two , make its own niche in wide body market.

Much like the MS-21 exceed B737-NG and Airbus A320 in most parameter and yes cheaper ,thats the only way they can remain competitive.

I personally like the flying wings concept ,here is the Boeing,Lockheed concept for future airliner.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20028638-71.html

I have updated Tu-204SM information on wiki based on latest information, Check the Tu-204SM and Specification part.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-204#Tu-204SM

The NK-93 engine development by all accounts have been frozen and probably canceled though it was a promising design but has been under development for more then a decade.

I have read that the engine was tested and testing of the engine was complete and the only problem was that the aircraft it was designed for was cancelled and every other aircraft that might use it is not in production.

What they need is for an aircraft that could use this engine to get into production so they have a reason to actually make them.

The situation is ridiculous... they want to buy Ukrainian transports yet they are ignoring an engine created in their country that is world leading even now... 15 years later.

Well if the wanted an aircraft for NK-93 there was already the IL-76 available on which it was getting tested , perhaps its also possible NK-93 did not meet its design goal ?

Russia buying Ukrainian aircraft is not as bad since 70 % of those components for Antonov is sourced from Russia.Essentially its a joint effort , Ukraine lacks the industry to completly build the aircraft , Antanov design bureau designs the aircraft and builds the engine.

The ukraine is too flaky and unpredictable.

They could turn on Russia at the next election and be a real pain in the a$$ like it has in the fairly recent past.

Russia really doesn't need that sort of crap.

Russia should look after its own first because its enemies will never give it credit for anything positive it does to foster good ties.

Let Antonov fail... and Russia can buy it up cheap and transfer it to Russia, or it could just let it die and let Ilyusion and Tupolev and Beriev fill the void... it is not like they can't build good planes too.

Well if the wanted an aircraft for NK-93 there was already the IL-76 available on which it was getting tested , perhaps its also possible NK-93 did not meet its design goal ?

They have been talking about re-engining the Il-76 for years and nothing has happened because the PS-90s cost something like 6 million dollars each. Bad enough for the price of one engine but when you need 4 engines per aircraft plus spare engines and parts you start to think maybe the higher fuel burn is not that much of a problem. $24 million dollars per aircraft for new engines to save a few thousand litres of kerosene every year... it might be cheaper to burn the extra kerosene.

I have read of a more modest upgrade of the D-30 engines that modestly improves performance with no increase in thrust but a 10% reduction in fuel burn and the engines cost about $800,000 each.

If you can buy a car for 2 million dollars that will save you $10,000 a year in fuel you need to think maybe having the latest state of the art car is no so useful after all.

It is like the Mig-29SMT upgrade that would have reduced operational costs by 40%... applied in the 1990s and the Mig-29s in storage would have been in much better condition now but 20 years of neglect and they are pretty worthless now.

What they should have done was gifted them to Serbia so they could have had 100 Mig-29s instead of a dozen. At least someone would have gotten good use out of them. Now they are useless to everyone.

I have added Tu-204SM pictures and revised some data on SM , I think there is enough data in opensource for Tu-204SM , any suggestions welcome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-204#Tu-204SM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-204#Specifications_.28_Tu-204SM_.29

The Tu-204SM is broadly comparable to Boeing 737-900 and Airbus A-321-200, well if they manage to get more sales beyond 44 for Redwings it would be great , this is a very competitive aircraft in all paramaters and costs lower.

By 2016 when the MS-21 takes over the Tu-204 series it will be a much better aircraft and as Fedrov mentioned it would be better then then the reengined A-320NEO and 737 variants and will cost lower then both ,that is innovation with competitiveness

A320 NEO hasnt' even been produced yet and it already has a couple hundred orders. With the 15% fuel economy and Leap-X engine, how is Tu-204 supposed to compete with a plane it is still trying to catch up with older Airbus models? Airbus is king of commercial aircraft closely followed by Boeing. Then Embrear comes in 3rd with smaller aircraft. There isn't much room for Russia especially if they won't buy their own aircraft.

Tu-204SM certainly cannot compete with re-engine A-320-NEO , the NEO competes with MS-21. Tu-204SM competes with A-321-200 and Boeing 737-900.

Well if Russia has to compete it has to start somewhere and gradually move up the stack , Airbus certainly and Boeing are dominant player in single aisle market and with such established player its all the more difficult for newer player to come in and win.