Russian Civil Aviation: News #5

Superjet will become Yakovlev
05/17/2024, 07:59

The United Aircraft Corporation will abandon the Superjet (SJ-100) name for its regional aircraft and associate it with the Yakovlev brand. About this in an interview with RBCstatedhead of Rostec Sergei Chemezov.

“Yes, we will refuse,” Chemezov answered the journalist’s question whether there are plans to move away from the English-language name. – We have it all under the Design Bureau named after. Yakovlev and, I think, that’s how it will be – “Yakovlev,” he explained.

Work on creating a Russian regional aircraft began at Sukhoi Civil Aircraft in the early 2000s in collaboration with Boeing. At the beginning of March 2003, in Seattle, the leaders of Sukhoi and Boeing entered into long-term agreements, under which the concern's specialists committed themselves to provide consulting assistance and provide their intellectual property for the design, production, certification, marketing, sales, after-sales service of aircraft of the family and program management.

The aircraft received its first name Russian Regional Jet on April 13, 2001 from Boeing executive director Phil Condit. This name accompanied the project for six years, until in 2006, at the insistence of the French and Italian participants, the RRJ was renamed SSJ100, and in July 2007, Sukhoi presented the official name Sukhoi Superjet 100 at the Farnborough Air Show.

In February 2020, as part of the creation of the civil aviation division, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft JSC became part of Irkut, lost the status of a separate legal entity and received the name “Regional Aircraft” - a branch of PJSC NPK Irkut. In mid-summer 2023, UAC rebranded and the UAC Civil Division, represented by the Irkut company, was named PJSC Yakovlev.

The aircraft's certification name is Russian Regional Jet (RRJ), marketing name is Sukhoi Superjet (SSJ100), ICAO designation is SU95. Since July 2023, the imported version of the aircraft has been called SJ-100.

Moscow. June 6. INTERFAX.RU - Aeroflot is discussing with PJSC United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) the transformation of an agreement for the supply of 339 domestic aircraft, company CEO Sergei Aleksandrovsky said in an interview with Russia 24 as part of SPIEF-2024.

In accordance with the current agreement, by 2030 the Aeroflot group must receive 210 MS-21, 89 SSJ-NEW (import-substituted version of the Superjet 100) and 40 Tu-214 aircraft under leasing terms.

“We are now discussing the transformation of this agreement and the complete transfer of the entire fleet to MS-21, both to the basic version and to the short version that will be developed (...) We are talking about transforming all 339 aircraft into MS-21.” , - said Aleksandrovsky.

Alexander Dolotovsky - about aircraft with an oval fuselage section
06/13/2024

Studying the efficiency of long-haul aircraft with an oval-section fuselage is one of the tasks that specialists from the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute are working on, where aerodynamic designs of long-haul aircraft designed to transport 220-250 passengers over a range of 8000-9000 km are also being developed and compared. In our country, the idea of an aircraft with an oval fuselage is not new; the most famous of all projects can be called the EMZ aircraft. Myasishcheva. The conceptual model of the M-60 aircraft, created jointly with TsAGI, has been demonstrated more than once at the MAKS air show and foreign air shows.

General Designer of UAC for Civil Aviation, Deputy Director for Development of the Yakovlev PJSC branch - Regional Aircraft Alexander DolotovskytoldTG channel “Notes from Aircraft Manufacturers” about TsAGI’s research in the field of designing promising long-range aircraft with an oval fuselage.

“This topic has a long history; back in the 90s, Myasishchev Design Bureau studied similar layouts; there was also an idea to make a wide fuselage based on the Tu-214. In theory, the idea is attractive. The practical goal of such research is to reduce the area of the fuselage washed surface per passenger. But here we are faced with the fact that the fuselage of any aircraft is, in fact, a gas cylinder, and cylinders are always round in cross-section for a reason - this shape takes pressure loads well, and they are easy to count,” says Alexander Dolotovsky.

According to him, any fuselage that is not circular in cross-section must still be some combination of circular sections. He cites the A380 as an example, noting that it is a kind of “tribubble” with an oval fuselage in the form of a “figure eight” of two circles.

“When this “eight” is positioned horizontally, the strength requirements do not allow for optimal use of the resulting space - you will either have to place the floor exactly in the middle, or install some columns or beams to strengthen the frames, which will eat up space and add weight. In addition, with this arrangement, the fuselage itself becomes a load-bearing surface, which generates inductive resistance in addition to frictional resistance and interference with the wing and tail,” comments the UAC general designer.

Retreat. A solution to a similar problem was proposed in the mid-2010s for the Fregat Ecojet aircraft by TsAGI scientists and designers of the Rosaviaconsortium FIG OJSC. The choice of the geometry of the cross-section of the aircraft fuselage made it possible, due to the optimal distribution of material between the frames, skin, stringers and floor beams, to minimize structural deformations along the fuselage from pressurization. The proposed solution ensured their compliance with regulatory requirements for aerodynamics, while the weight of the airframe structure remained within accepted limits.

In addition, such a cross-section configuration made it possible to use in the power circuit not only cargo floor beams, which do not interfere with the placement of cargo containers and systems, but also an upper transverse beam located above the ceiling of the passenger compartment. The abandonment of vertical power struts and the transition to a structural-power scheme, which uses the floor of the passenger cabin, the floor of the cargo compartment and a ceiling beam to absorb internal pressure, ensured the required weight perfection of the aircraft.

To date, the Frigate Ecojet aircraft project has been closed and no work is being carried out on it.


“The double-deck version with a vertical oval looks more interesting - in this case there will be no problems with aerodynamics, and in terms of the weight of the structure per passenger, it potentially outperforms the horizontal “eight” and a conventional cylindrical section. But the winnings, frankly speaking, are small; we did the calculations at one time and realized that the game was not worth the candle. A gain of less than 5 percent cannot be considered as a reason to start a new program,” noted Alexander Dolotovsky.

He believes that modern aviation has already reached the limit of perfection, taking into account the technologies that are available to developers. The low-wing layout with an engine under the wing is the result of almost 100 years of evolution in aircraft development, and the next qualitative leap in development will be associated with new energy sources and new propulsors. Now it makes sense to pay attention to the issues of flight control automation.

“There is an ICAO global navigation plan, which, by the way, today lags behind the main milestones by more than 10 years around the world. And this is a serious reserve for optimizing costs, because losses from non-optimal routes today amount to approximately 15 percent, which is a lot and this is something that is worth working on, for example, introducing 4D navigation at airports,” Dolotovsky said.

At the same time, he recalled that ensuring the achieved level of aerodynamics is a real “high-tech” that requires an excellent connection of specialists from different areas of the design bureau’s work: aerodynamicists, general types, strength engineers, frame framers, technologies, as well as a connection between the design bureau’s work and production.

“Building a simple flying plane is no longer a challenge. The real challenge is to build a mass-produced aircraft with performance at the level of the best analogues. Our operators have little interest in how much innovation we have introduced into our design. They are interested in the cost of a flight hour and the complexity of maintaining the aircraft in operation. And this is the most important challenge for me. After all, client recognition is the best reward for a creator,” emphasized Alexander Dolotovsky.

flamming_python wrote:They need to return to the Fregat Ekojet project

18 Jun, 2024 16:11

Russia withdraws from MH17 resolution process

The ICAO proceedings have been a farce of Western making, Moscow has said.

Moscow is not interested in participating in a “performance” before a Western-dominated International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) panel about the 2014 downing of a Malaysian passenger jet in Donbass, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.

Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down in Ukrainian airspace. Kiev immediately blamed Donetsk People’s Republic forces and Russia for the incident.

In March 2022, the Netherlands and Australia opened an investigation against Russia at the ICAO Council. However, the council first claimed judiciary powers it did not have, then tried to admit as evidence the two investigations into the MH17 disaster that explicitly excluded Russia – by the Dutch Security Council (NSB) and the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) – while welcoming Ukraine and other adversely interested parties, according to Moscow.

“The ICAO Council is not the right place to look for the truth. It makes no sense for us to remain a part of the ‘performance’ started in it,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Russia had initially agreed to take part in the proceedings “because we believed that the ICAO platform could be used for professional dialogue about the plane crash,” the ministry said.

Russia has proposed “a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the crash of flight MH17, as required by UN Security Council Resolution 2166 and the ICAO Dispute Resolution Rules,” but the council refused, the foreign ministry said.

“Ruled by the countries of the collective West and their satellites, the ICAO Council also refused to take into account the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of January 31, 2024,” which rejected Ukraine’s claims against Russia in the MH17 case, the ministry noted.

The council consists of 36 members, who vote according to instructions from their governments. Australia and 12 others had already publicly blamed Russia for MH17 before any investigation began, the ministry said. When Russia asked them to abstain from voting in the matter, they refused.

This pattern of behavior “runs counter to the minimum requirements for the objectivity of the proceedings,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “Under such circumstances, it is impossible to talk about an unbiased establishment of facts, much less a fair decision.”

The “extensive and convincing evidence,” both factual and legal, that Russia was not involved in the MH17 incident has been made available to 193 ICAO members, the ministry noted.

Tsavo Lion wrote:https://simpleflying.com/mc-21-6-tons-heavier/

The Tu-214 may be needed to pick up the slack.

https://simpleflying.com/lessors-reach-settlement-with-aeroflot-over-stuck-aircraft/

Tsavo Lion wrote:https://simpleflying.com/mc-21-6-tons-heavier/

Tsavo Lion wrote:Even if it's 500kg-1T over the desired weight, the performance will be worse than ideal. The tyrrany of geography is a constant in Russia.

Tsavo Lion wrote:Even if it's 500kg-1T over the desired weight, the performance will be worse than ideal. The tyrrany of geography is a constant in Russia.

AFAIK, in general, most newly designed transport aircraft anywhere have weight issues, so the MC-21 is no exception; statisticaly it would be a miracle if it didn't.