At present, the domestic aircraft industry is in a “suspended" state: on the one hand, it exists, and on the other, we have not seen a single modern aircraft of purely domestic development in recent years. And “Super Jet” does not count, since in it from the Russian - exclusively “screwdriver assembly”. The hope for the resurrection of the aviation industry is the PD-14 engine, the characteristics (comparison with analogues) of which allow us to call it one of the best in recent years.
The developers hope that the creation of a new engine will most favorably affect the state of the entire domestic aviation industry, and will also contribute to the creation of many new jobs.
New project
Why was the new PD-14 engine created? The characteristics (comparison with foreign models) of modern Russian engines were such that the development of something radically new was urgently needed. The designers were guided by the idea of ​​creating a power plant, which will allow in the future to develop and build their own aircraft with a capacity of 130 to 180 seats. The only passenger car of a similar class and all Russian origin is the Tu-214. Its production in small batches continues today.
But these aircraft are urgently in short supply, we need equipment to update the entire fleet of our country. But to do this without completely new engines is decidedly impossible. In terms of technical characteristics and capabilities, they should in no way be inferior to their counterparts from leading world manufacturers.
In general, in connection with recent Ukrainian events and the complete breakdown of relations in the industrial sphere of the two countries, the PD-14 engine (characteristics, comparison in this article) is also of great importance in terms of the complete revival of the development and manufacture of gas turbine engines in our country. In addition, during its creation it is planned to solve several important tasks at once:
- Complete restructuring of the civilian aircraft industry by redistributing roles and involving new players in this project.
- Finally, it is planned to divide the areas of responsibility and re-create the division of labor in the field of aviation products, which was completely destroyed at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
- Also, the creators of the project are counting on the creation of new polymer and composite materials, which are urgently needed by the modern aerospace industry.
How it all began?
The idea that the country urgently needs a new aircraft engine was born in the bowels of Aviadvigatel OJSC, when the beginning of the 2000s was in the yard. The time then was extremely difficult, and therefore few people believed in the reality of this project.
But the organization’s specialists at that time carefully and purposefully studied world experience in the production of engines, and also analyzed the domestic transportation market, trying to predict which type of motor in civilian aircraft industry would be in high demand. What exactly should the PD-14 engine stand out from? Characteristics (comparison and comparison) of him with foreign samples simply had to reveal his noticeable superiority.
Why? Everything is simple. In those days, the products of foreign aircraft manufacturers were “pushed” into our markets by extremely aggressive methods. Alas, to some extent some leaders contributed to this. Today, in connection with the sanctions, this issue is no longer so relevant. Moreover, the state itself “suddenly” became interested in the possibility of producing domestic engines. So the company Aviadvigatel OJSC then quickly became the focus of attention of both domestic and foreign media.
The main objectives of the project
The main task at that time was to ensure an acceptable cost at which this product would actually begin to intensively purchase. It was then that the idea of ​​creating a unified and universal gas generator was born. If it succeeds, then in our country there will be an opportunity to create a huge list of our own industrial equipment, which is good news.
What is a turbofan motor, principles of operation
How to better understand the benefits that a new turbofan engine provides? The principle of operation of all similar engines is similar, and therefore this issue should be considered in more detail, since otherwise the advantages of new technologies are unlikely to be understood.
Turbofan in the specialized literature is called motors with a high degree of bypass. Their distinctive feature is the presence of a large diameter fan, due to which a very large volume of air always passes through the engine. Due to the large dimensions of this part, the external nozzle of the engine often becomes too “monumental”, and therefore it is shortened. In order to avoid dangerous turbulence of air in this case, fixed blades are included in the design, which rotate the air mixture flow in the desired direction.
Accordingly, by the principle of their action, such engines are very similar to rocket engines, but there is practically no mixing of flows in them. The advantage of turbofan engines is that the jet leaving the rockets “into the pipe” in this case spins an additional fan, which is a powerful source of traction. It is he who produces at least 70-80% of all traction. Thus, the PD-14 aircraft engine is extremely economical. The internal circuit of these engines almost completely repeats the design of rocket models, but their last stages "in combination" are a fan drive.
Advantages and disadvantages
Like all its "relatives", the PD-14 aircraft engine has both positive and negative sides. Among its strengths include high efficiency, which allows the widespread use of these power plants even on long-distance routes.
What are his flaws? The most significant - very large dimensions and decent weight. Despite all the efforts of engineers and scientists, turbofan engines create significant resistance to the incoming air flow in flight. It is assumed that this problem will be solved when there are ways to reduce their overall dimensions.
Comparative differences
The new turbofan engine, the principle of which is similar to the "classic" domestic models, is still very different from its predecessors. Of course, the differences "by eye" are noticeable exclusively to engineers. If we compare it with the PS-90A model (IL-96, Tu-214 aircraft, IL-76), then immediately noticeable, we will not be afraid of this word, a qualitative leap in the technological process and capabilities.
The bypass ratio increased exactly twice, the gas temperature in front of the turbine inlet immediately increased by 100 K, the total compression ratio (under various conditions) increased by 20-50%. Compared with the above types of domestic engines, the new PD-14 aircraft engine allows you to save at least 12-16% more fuel.
Mass saving
For the first time in the domestic civil aircraft industry, the engine design uses technology for the production of hollow turbine blades from high-strength titanium alloys.
This gives a mass savings of 30%, the total new aircraft engine PD-14 is facilitated by about 10%. Also, the Perm Engine Company is currently mastering the technology of producing single-crystal turbine rotor blades. It is reported that this approach will increase the working temperature of gases immediately up to 2000 K.
In addition, for the first time, domestic manufacturers are planning to use such an amount of polymer composite materials in the design and manufacture of engines. With this approach, the mass of the engine will not only noticeably decrease, but its strength and resistance to overloads will also increase.
The value of creating a new motor
As we said at the very beginning of the article, it is impossible to create any new aircraft without first developing new engines. With the latter, everything begins to improve gradually: the test of the PD-14 engine in the form of a state audit will start soon ... But which cars will be equipped with them?
It is assumed that specifically for these engines will be created aircraft MS-21 (mainline, 21st century). If this is really realized, then we can talk about a real breakthrough, for the first time since the times of the USSR, something new will really be created in our country. More importantly, the Russian PD-14 engine will allow the creation of a whole line of new aircraft designed for both long-haul flights and domestic routes. Until recently, everyone said that domestic aircraft would have to be equipped with exclusively imported engines. Today it turned out that this, fortunately, is not so.
What cars are going to equip them?
Even today it is obvious that the unified design of the new engine will allow it to be successfully used not only on passenger, but also on transport aircraft. Since its thrust is as much as 14 tons, this model can be installed on the MS-21-200 / 300/400. Surely they will be acceptable to complete the IL-76 and IL-214. There is information about the beginning of the creation of an even more powerful modification with a thrust of 18 tons, that is, PD-18. It is supposed to be used on Tu-214 and Il-96 aircraft. Recall that today all these machines are equipped with the "old man" PS-90A.
The developers also report that a decision has already been made to create a lightweight version of this engine with a thrust of ten tons. It can be assumed that it will be used for the production of the long-suffering Superjets, for which nobody wants to buy engines from France now. Finally, a special helicopter version of this engine will also be created, which will be equipped with the famous transport "cow", which is also the Mi-26 helicopter.
To this day, the Ukrainian engines D-136 have been used in the production of these machines. Even preliminary calculations show that the existing demand for these engines is more than enough to cover all the costs that were received during the development of new technology. In total, it is planned to attract at least 70 billion rubles of investments, with half of them from the federal budget. The last circumstance shows how much the country needs this project.
Why is the old PS90-A bad?
The latest engine for the MS-21, PD-14 is a new generation of turboprop engines. In addition, it is perfectly compatible with relatively old versions of aircraft. So, the well-deserved "veterans" of the IL-76, whose modernization has been intensively carried out since last year, when installing a new engine on them, several tens of thousands of hours can fly off. In addition, it will be possible to increase the flight range from four to five thousand kilometers, without load, the distance will also increase by a thousand kilometers, and fuel consumption will be reduced by about 14%. The latter circumstance is especially important, since thanks to it it will be possible to reduce the cost of transporting a ton of cargo immediately by 10%.
Thus, the old motor, which has correctly served its operating time and was developed in the USSR, still copes with its duties, but it does not meet modern requirements. The main problem is high fuel consumption and increased noise. In principle, this was known for a very long time, but concrete steps to rectify the situation and create a new motor were taken only now. In fairness, it is worth saying that only today all the necessary funds for this work have appeared.
Official Progress Information
Officially, the engine has been under development since 2008, but in fact a talented team of designers began to design it back in 1999.
In 2012, the first full-fledged demo version was assembled. At that time, there was an intensive refinement of the gas generator systems, which delivered the main problems to the designers. To date, all the shortcomings have been successfully eliminated. This Perm engine was first launched in mid-2012. At the same time, the designers found out that the high design indicators are fully consistent with the practical state of affairs, which further strengthened their conviction of the need to urgently establish production of new motors.
Bench tests were originally planned to be completed three years ago, but due to some problems there is evidence that they are still partly continuing to this day. It is expected that serial production will begin this year, and Permyaks must assemble at least two to three dozen new engines over the year. And this is very little, as domestic aviators believe that while maintaining the current rate of flights by 2019, aircraft engines should be produced at a titanic pace - 200 units in 12 months. I would like to hope that domestic industry will be able to “pull” this project.
But what about the MS-21?
For the first time, information about the start of work on the production of a new aircraft began to arrive at the beginning of last year. At the moment, it is known for sure that the first fuselage of the new domestic airliner, which is better known in its environment under the "unofficial" name Yak-242, is already being assembled at the Irkutsk Aircraft Building Plant.
A wing of unique composite materials is assembled in Ulyanovsk. Most likely, it has already arrived in Irkutsk. Domestic media, having their representatives at this enterprise, firmly promised that the first board could take off in the summer of this year. It is reported that the manufacturer already has a whole 175 firm contracts for the construction and supply of MS-21. Many large organizations acted as customers, including even Sberbank, which implements leasing of new aircraft.
There is also information that an additional 100 other aircraft of this type can be ordered, and not only domestic but also foreign translators will act as customers. This message is really unique, since the last time someone showed interest in our passenger aircraft only during the Soviet era.
The importance of the MS-21 project is that it is the first and so far the only domestic aircraft created independently and without using the old developments of the Union era, in which foreign components are not used. The first aircraft of this brand will enter the flight routes only after the final completion of all types of flight and bench tests, which continue to this day.
conclusions
Thus, a new promising engine is a real breakthrough for the entire domestic industry and, in particular, civil aircraft construction. As for the need for these engines, it is colossal. For a very long time, domestic carriers have said that they are not too eager to buy decommissioned imported aircraft, the resource of which is almost exhausted. But at that time, domestic industry could not offer them anything suitable.
Today there is both an engine and an airplane. Since sanctions have been introduced against our state, there is no opportunity to buy something abroad, and the exchange rate soared to heaven does not add attractiveness to this decision. So the domestic project has great prospects. I would like to hope that the industry will not fail and will be able to provide manufacturers with all the necessary components.