Russian Civil Aviation: News #5

ТРДД для легкого транспортного самолета

По результатам расчетной оценки на основе газогенератора СМ-100
может быть разработан ТРДД для легкого транспортного самолета типа
модификации Ил-112В с ТРДД.

Translated:
Turbofan engine for light transport aircraft

Based on the results of a calculation based on the SM-100 gas generator a turbofan engine could be developed for a light transport aircraft such as modifications of Il-112V with turbofan engine.

Оценка возможности создания ТРДД для применения в составе высотного беспилотного ЛА проводилась в соответствии с обращением
ФГБУ НИЦ «Институт им. Н.Е. Жуковского».
Проведенные расчеты показали, что разработка двигателя этого класса возможна на базе газогенератора ТРДД СМ-100. При этом
необходимо отметить - по диаметрам, осевым размерам и весу КВД СМ-100 меньше КВД ТРДД АИ-222-25 и АИ-22 (которые планировалось
использовать для создания ТРДД регионального самолета и высотного БЛА), что позволит разработать двигатель с меньшей сухой массой

Automatic translation

Assessment of the possibility of creating a turbofan engine for use in high-altitude unmanned aircraft was carried out in accordance with the request
Federal State Budgetary Institution Research Center "Institute named after. N. E. Zhukovsky."
 The calculations showed that the development of the engine of this class is possible on the basis of the SM-100 turbofan gas generator. Wherein It should be noted - according to the diameters, axial dimensions and weight of the HPC SM-100 less than the high pressure of the AI-222-25 and AI-22 turbofan engines (which were planned
to be used to create turbofan engines for regional and high-altitude aircraftUAV), which will allow the development of an engine with a lower dry weight

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Tu-214. Investing in new production makes perfect sense.

In particular it shows the SM-100 for the Yak-130M and the a high bypass derivative with the same SM-100 core but new cold section with 5 tons of thrust (49.2 KN (KiloNewton) proposed for the Tu-324 and for the il-112V.

Based on the results of a calculation based on the SM-100 gas generator a turbofan engine could be developed for a light transport aircraft such as modifications of Il-112V with turbofan engine.

Comparison table of regional aircraft turbofan engines

GarryB wrote:That engine table is not very flattering... the SM-100 is smaller and lighter than the other engines listed but its fuel economy and power are rather poor.

The proposed TRDD engine from Salyut looks better, similar size and weight but better fuel efficiency and more power...

The LMS-401 aircraft will be named after the second largest lake in Belarus
02/25/2024, 14:53

In July 2023, an interdepartmental program for cooperation in the field of aircraft manufacturing between Belarus and Russia was adopted. The parties signed an agreement that opens up new prospects for the joint development of the aviation industry, and Minsk took the first step into the number of countries with their own aircraft industry.

As part of this program, it is planned to develop and launch into mass production a new aircraft, which is called the Osvey. The development will be carried out jointly by specialists from Belarusian and Russian design bureaus, the production of components and aircraft systems will be carried out both in Russia and in Belarus, and the final assembly will be organized at one of the enterprises in Belarus,toldon the air of the Belarus-1 TV channel, the head of the industrial planning department of the State Military-Industrial Committee (GVPK) Dmitry Stefanovich
“We are starting joint development. The project is called "Osvey". A new aircraft, developed from scratch. Development will be carried out at GVPK enterprises and enterprises of the Russian Federation, after which production will be organized. The necessary equipment is being purchased and the corresponding workshops are being built. Production will take place both in the Russian Federation and in the Republic of Belarus. The full production cycle will be organized at enterprises of the Republic of Belarus,” said D. Stefanovich.

The agreement that the Belarusian official is talking about was signed on July 9, 2023 in Yekaterinburg during the visit of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Roman Golovchenko to the Innoprom-2023 exhibition. At the same time, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Pyotr Parkhomchik announced that the aircraft would be called LMS-401. Now, according to Dmitry Stefanovich, the full name of the aircraft has become known: LMS-401 “Osvey”.

According to the already established tradition of giving new light passenger aircraft the names of large lakes: TVRS-44 “Ladoga” and LMS-901 “Baikal”, the new project was named after Lake Osvey or Lake Osvey. The reservoir is located in the Verkhnedvinsk district of the Vitebsk region near the border with the Pskov region and Latvia. Osvey is the second largest lake in Belarus.

The first 19-seat LMS-401 Osvey turboprop aircraft should be produced in 2026, and by 2030 it is planned to build from 85 to 100 aircraft. OJSC 558th Aviation Repair Plant (Baranovichi) and JSC Ural Civil Aviation Plant (Ekaterinburg) will be involved in the development. The 558th Aircraft Plant will carry out the final assembly of the aircraft, for this it is necessary to build 20 thousand square meters of additional production space in Baranovichi. The 407th Minsk Civil Aviation Plant will also be involved in the production of components.

The plane will have a fixed landing gear. The main priority is given to limiting the cost of a flight hour and reducing the cost of the aircraft. The power plant is a VK-800 turboprop engine, and the on-board equipment is a complex developed by KRET in 2019.

The first Russian-Belarusian aircraft LMS-401 are planned to be released in two years
01/29/2024, 17:49

The first Russian-Belarusian 19-seat turboprop aircraft LMS-401 should be produced in 2026, and by 2030 - from 85 to 100 aircraft. About itreportedDeputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Pyotr Parkhomchik in an interview with the Belarus 1 TV channel following a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Russia and Belarus in St. Petersburg.

Pyotr Parkhomchik noted the active work of the two countries in the aircraft industry. He recalled that in 2023, during the visit of the Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko to Yekaterinburg at the Innoprom-2023 exhibition, an agreement was signed between the Belarusian JSC 558th Aviation Repair Plant and the Russian JSC Ural Civil Aviation Plant. 19-seater aircraft. At the same time, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that the aircraft was named LMS-401.

“Today we are developing and creating this aircraft together, conducting development work. The first two aircraft should be produced by 2026. It is very important that we already have a firm order today - the minimum number of aircraft that we will have to produce before 2030. This is 85-100 pieces. If we successfully complete our tasks, there may be more of them,” said Pyotr Parkhomchik in St. Petersburg.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, at the 558th Aviation Repair Plant in Baranovichi, where serial production of the LMS-401 aircraft will be carried out, it is necessary to build 20 thousand square meters of additional production space for machining and an additional building in which assembly will be carried out, and also purchase about 100 pieces of sophisticated equipment. In addition to the Baranovichi aircraft repair plant, the 407th Minsk Civil Aviation Plant will be involved in the creation of the aircraft.

Considering the given characteristics of the new machine, we are talking about replacing the Czech L-410, which was first produced only at the Let Kunovice aircraft plant in Czechoslovakia, and in 2018 the production of these machines was mastered at UZGA in Yekaterinburg. At the HeliRussia-2023 exhibition, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Oleg Bocharov reported that the aircraft will have a fixed landing gear. The main priority is limiting the cost of a flight hour and production costs. According to him, the power plant of the new aircraft will use the VK-800 engine, and the on-board equipment will be a complex developed by KRET in 2019.

At the Innoprom-2023 exhibition, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government - Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said that certification of the LMS-401 aircraft is scheduled for 2027, and its commercial operation should begin in 2028.

The closest analogue of the joint Russian-Belarusian project can be called the An-28 light passenger aircraft, which is equipped with two 960-horsepower TVD-10B turboprop engines, developed by the Omsk Engine Design Bureau (OMKB OJSC, a branch of UEC-Saturn). The An-28 was produced in Poland. On January 24, 2024, the Federal Air Transport Agency issued the State Research Institute of Civil Aviation an additional type certificate No. FATA-STC030339, which increases the assigned life of the AV-24AN propeller of the An-28 aircraft from 6,000 to 9,000 hours. Currently in Russia, the aircraft is in the fleet of two airlines: Siberian Light Aviation (SiLA) and the Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise.

"Obsolete" by western money grubbing standards. Use of composite materials is an aesthetic choice and not an absolute measure of functionality. As for engines and avionics they are obviously replaceable.

MS-21 is certainly more modern than the Tu-214 and offers better economics.

But, the Tu-214 is already flying passengers while MS-21 is still not.
Russia needs a shitload of this class of aircraft to replace the existing (ageing) fleet that manly consists of Boing-737 and Airbus 320.
Even by 2030, MS-21 production will not be enough to replace all the above as they get retired and/or disposed off. I do not believe the over-optimistic production per year forecasts.
Tu-214 production is needed to fill the gap.
Furthermore, there will be demand from friendly countries: Cuba, N. Korea, Iran, Syria, Belarus etc.
In addition the Russian Government fleet will not buy 2 pilot airplanes like the MS-21. They will choose the Tu-214 instead.

Rostec reported a possible delay in the start of commercial operation of the MS-21 aircraft
02/29/2024

There will be no deliveries of MC-21 aircraft to airlines until the end of 2024; the start of commercial flights should not be expected before 2025, this was stated by the General Director of the Rostec State Corporation Sergei Chemezov on the sidelines of the annual address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly.

Deliveries of MS-21 passenger aircraft are postponed to 2025, “maybe even to 2026”, he answers to the journalists at Interfax.

The head of Rostec explained the reason for the delay by the fact that the tests of the aircraft have not yet been completed. The head of the company expressed concern for the safety of all passengers, emphasizing the need to complete testing before the start of mass production.

“Our tests have not yet been completed. As soon as we complete the tests, we will report the results immediately. We are still worried about the safety of all of us - we will fly on these planes. We would like to [complete the tests - AR] as quickly as possible, but now I can’t say... We’re waiting,” Chemezov said.

Comprehensive program development of the aviation industry until 2030 stipulates that in 2024 the first six MS-21 aircraft should be transferred to Aeroflot.

Currently, production aircraft of the MC-21-310rus version are being assembled at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant. Several aircraft are awaiting deliveries of Russian components. There are also two prototype aircraft undergoing modification in Irkutsk. It was expected that aircraft 73055 would take off after replacing imported components back in November 2023; 73057, in accordance with initial plans, should take off in the second half of April this year.

According to information coming from IAZ, the aircraft are not yet ready to resume flights in a Russified form, the reason is a delay in the supply schedules of aircraft components by Russian enterprises.

https://aviation21.ru/v-rostexe-soobshhili-o-vozmozhnoj-zaderzhke-nachala-kommercheskoj-ekspluatacii-samolyota-ms-21/

Russian planes are difficult to lift
Delivery dates for all new civilian vehicles have been pushed back by a couple of years.
03/01/2024

The program worth hundreds of billions of rubles for the supply of domestic aircraft is being postponed by two years. We are talking about all civilian projects - MS-21, SJ-100, Tu-214, Il-114 and Baikal. The aviation industry does not have time to test aircraft within the deadlines set for 2022, and their characteristics do not correspond to those originally planned. Thus, the flagship MS-21 became almost 6 tons heavier, which is why its flight range and altitude were significantly reduced. The Ministry of Industry and Trade expects that supply plans will be made up in the future. A number of Kommersant sources consider these expectations to be impossible to meet in the conditions of the Northern Military District. Some of them expect a fleet shortage and assume that carriers will have to look for aircraft in friendly countries.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Rostec state corporation have officially announced the postponement of the delivery of all Russian passenger aircraft being developed to replace the Western fleet - SJ-100, MS-21, Tu-214 and Il-114-300. Deliveries were supposed to begin in 2024, but have now been pushed back to 2025-2026. In addition, according to Kommersant, the certification of the Baikal aircraft of the Ural Civil Aviation Plant has been postponed to 2024, the start of deliveries to 2025.

The characteristics of all these aircraft, for various reasons, do not correspond to those initially declared, which is why they do not have time to undergo certification.

Thus, for the flagship of the Russian fleet MC-21-310, the key problem was a heavier airframe.

Based on the manufacturer’s data, the weight of the empty import-substituted aircraft compared to the previous version (MS-21-300 with an airframe using foreign components and Western engines) increased by 5.75 tons. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, this was due to the use of domestic composite and new aircraft systems.

As a result, the flight range with a maximum commercial load of 20.3 tons will be reduced, according to Kommersant, to less than 2.8 thousand km, and according to some sources - less than 2 thousand km. At the same time, the maximum flight altitude that the aircraft can now master is 7 km. Without reducing the weight of the aircraft itself and its systems, according to Kommersant’s interlocutor in the aviation industry, achieving the planned performance characteristics will be unattainable. “It’s impossible to increase engine thrust by 20%”, he says.

Rostec, commenting on the problems with the “weight characteristics” of the MC-21, said that “the final appearance of the completely import-substituted aircraft will be formed in the second half of this year.” “The phased implementation of the program for lifting restrictions during flight tests will allow us to bring the aircraft to parameters that meet the highest requirements of airlines. This also applies to the possibility of ensuring good operating economics within the widely accepted range of Russian airlines of 3 thousand km and a capacity of about 150–170 passengers”, the state corporation said.

The main problem of the SJ-100 was the PD-8 engine, which has not yet confirmed its characteristics in tests.

“At the end of December 2023, during tests, the need for additional work on the PD-8 engine was identified. The task is to ensure its reliability in all modes and guarantee safe operation”, a representative of UEC, the engine developer, told Kommersant.

According to the comprehensive strategy for the development of the aviation industry until 2030, approved in 2022, the domestic aviation industry should receive 1,036 passenger aircraft. Of these, the Aeroflot group should receive 339 aircraft over seven years. It was assumed that deliveries of the MC-21 would begin in 2024 (six units), in 2025 - 12, in 2026 - 22. The first SJ-100 were supposed to arrive in 2023, and from 2024 it was planned to deliver 20 aircraft each. The first three Tu-214s were also expected to be received in 2023, seven more in 2024, ten in 2025. Delivery of ten IL-114s was expected by 2025 (for the transfer, see Kommersant of September 19, 2023).

Rostec explained that the original time frame for the program of import-substituted civil aircraft, adopted until 2022, was targeted at 2026. Then they were shifted to the left. In 2026, the corporation plans to transfer 30 new SJ-100 aircraft to companies. The first new Tu-214, according to the UAC, was delivered in a special version to the state customer in 2023, and another vehicle is planned to be delivered in 2024.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade clarified that a backlog of aircraft has already been formed: “In particular, 16 Superjets and 12 MS-21 are in varying degrees of readiness and will be equipped with Russian systems as they become available.” The department expects that this will allow, after completion of the tests, to ensure “a follow-up schedule for the production and delivery of aircraft in order to generally implement the replenishment of the fleet with 600 aircraft by 2030.”

A question of priorities
When assessing the realism of the production forecast until 2030, two key problems should be taken into account, says Oleg Panteleev, executive director of the AviaPort agency: the availability of trained personnel and a machine park, as well as financing. Today, the capabilities of Russian industry are prioritized for the tasks of the state defense order. The expert proceeds from the fact that the end of the SVO will be a powerful incentive for the production of civil aircraft: “Capacity and, most importantly, specialists will be freed up.”

Previous deadlines were based on calculations by aircraft manufacturers, who, in turn, were based on promises from second- and third-tier suppliers. But, as practice shows, even first-tier suppliers do not always have contracted components for their own systems, notes Oleg Panteleev.

The deadlines named in 2022 were set based on the expectation that the certification of equipment would proceed smoothly, but the international practice of all aircraft manufacturing programs without exception shows that not a single project is completed without “failures and delays.”

The basic scenario of the aviation strategy until 2030 provides for a reduction in the fleet of foreign passenger aircraft by half, to 300 units, excluding local aircraft. At the end of January, the Russian Union of Travel Industry said that from 2027 on domestic routes there may be a shortage of carrying capacity, “since the Russian aviation industry does not have time to introduce new aircraft.” According to Kommersant's sources in the industry, this could lead to the fact that private carriers - primarily S7, where they encountered problems in servicing the Airbus neo fleet (see Kommersant of October 11, 2023), and Ural Airlines — will be forced to look for aircraft on the secondary market of friendly countries. The second hypothesis concerns allowing foreign carriers to fly between Russian cities and work more actively with Russian companies under codeshare agreements. Thirdly, they believe, in the event of a critical shortage of capacity, the Ministry of Transport may limit the admission of Russian carriers to foreign destinations, concentrating the fleet within the country. The Ministry of Transport and airlines did not comment.

In 2023, the Ministry of Transport announced the readiness of Russian airlines to support the bulk of the fleet of foreign aircraft at least until 2030. Therefore, the plans of the aviation industry and the capabilities of airlines are now “overlapping,” says Oleg Panteleev. But if previously there was about five years between the start of large-scale deliveries of domestic aircraft and the retirement of a significant part of the fleet, now, the expert states, the time reserve is not so great.

https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/6536154

Lancelot wrote:
...The Tu-214s for the Aeroflot order are going to be built at a new construction building at Kazan. And it will need import substitution of several systems as well....

Kommerzant wrote:Based on the manufacturer’s data, the weight of the empty import-substituted aircraft compared to the previous version (MS-21-300 with an airframe using foreign components and Western engines) increased by 5.75 tons. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, this was due to the use of domestic composite and new aircraft systems.

You can compare Russian carbon fibre from Umatex with Japanese carbon fiber from Toray. For example T800 fiber. The Toray T800S fiber has 5,880 MPa tensile strength with 294 GPa tensile modulus while the Umatex UMT290 fiber has 4,400 MPa tensile strength with 290 GPa tensile modulus.

(Such) composite consists of two parts: a matrix and a reinforcement. In CFRP the reinforcement is carbon fiber, which provides its strength. The matrix is usually a thermosetting plastic, such as polyester resin, to bind the reinforcements together. Because CFRPs consist of two distinct elements, the material properties depend on these two elements.

Reinforcement gives CFRPs their strength and rigidity, measured by stress and elastic modulus respectively. Unlike isotropic materials like steel and aluminum, CFRPs have directional strength properties.

What is Resin?
The resin fixes the carbon fibers in a geometric arrangement, conducts force to the fibers, and stabilizes the fibers while pressure builds. The embedded fibers strengthen and stiffen the composite and absorb forces throughout the length of the fibers. The chemical bond created in the resin matrix produces strength superior to most metals and other fiber-reinforced composites, giving you the ability to fabricate dynamic, energy-returning structures in passive devices.
Composite element is made from 2 basic materials: fabrics (carbon fiber, aramide, glass) and resins. Although fabrics mainly offer product rigidity, a resin also plays a part, as it mostly affects resistance to temperature, permeability of fabrics and other characteristics of the finished product.