Rodion_Romanovic Thu Feb 21, 2019 12:13 pm
Tsavo Lion wrote:
Nobody needs Russian planes [except Aeroflot]. But they spend billions
https://lenta.ru/articles/2018/04/03/ss100/
(...) using google translate
[i]Plans to create for 85 billion rubles a cut-down version of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 with 75 seats and a range of up to two thousand kilometers, suggesting a reduction in the share of imported components and partial unification with the Irkut MC-21, are unlikely to significantly improve the situation. If in the future the plane receives the Russian PD-7 engine, further Russification will inevitably lead to an increase in its cost and an increase in the problems arising with it, since creating a truly worthy alternative to foreign components will require not only money, but also a lot of time. The latter will make the Sukhoi Superjet 100 completely outdated and uncompetitive./i
A lot of bulls**t.
There are problems, but are being solved.
Many of these problems are due to lack of investment in the civil aeronautical industry in the 90s and the early 2000 and in the lack of support for local produced good aircrafts like the widebody Il-96 and middle of the market Tu-204. This also caused a deterioration in the capability of the whole supply chain, that anyway in soviet time had a considerable part also in the ukraine.
In addition the only Russian modern engine available was the 16 to 17.5 tons thrust PS-90 (derated to 14.5 tons for the il-76).
The larger 23.6 tons thrust D18T (similar to the Rolls-Royce RB211) and the smaller D-436 (good for regional jets) where manufactured in Zaporozhe, that after 1992 ended up in a foreign country.
The SaM146 is much better and modern than the 30 years old Ukrainian D436 and anyway half of its component are designed and produced in Russia.
Anyway the amount of foreign parts is being reduced (we already discussed to the death about it), new modern components, not inferior to the western ones are being developed and tested and a russianized version of the superjet will be ready in a couple of years.
It is possible that they were a bit naive when they started working with so many foreign companies, but at the time they did not have state of the art components for the whole aircraft. They could have only done a russian version of the An-148, that is one generation older and uses older technology and for which they were using foreign (ukrainian) outdated engines.