On March 10, 2021, PJSC United Aircraft Corporation (part of the Rostec State Corporation) announced that it had handed over the first upgraded Tu-160M missile carrier with new NK-32 02 series engines for preliminary tests. The aircraft will continue to perform the test program at the flight testing and finishing base of PJSC Tupolev in Zhukovsky, near Moscow.
The first prototype of the upgraded Tu-160M strategic bomber (serial number 4-05, tail number "14", name "Igor Sikorsky", registration number RF-94103), which arrived from Kazan at the flight test and development base of PJSC "Tupolev" in Zhukovsky, 10.03.2021 (c) of PJSC " United Aircraft Corporation"
The plane flew from the Kazan Aviation Plant named after S. P. Gorbunov, a branch of PJSC Tupolev. The missile carrier was piloted by the crew under the leadership of the Honored Test Pilot of the Russian Federation Henri Naskidyants, the flight was carried out in normal mode, the systems and equipment worked without comments.
"The new Tu-160M missile carrier is equipped with new NK-32-02 engines and upgraded on-board equipment, which has improved the characteristics of the base vehicle. The aircraft successfully passed the factory tests. Today, the new missile carrier was transferred to the flight test base of PJSC Tupolev to prepare for the next stage of flights - preliminary tests," the Rostec aviation cluster reported.
The Tu-160M is a modernized strategic missile carrier equipped with four new NK-32-02 engines manufactured by the United Engine Corporation (part of the Rostec State Corporation). The first prototype Tu-160M was created as part of a large-scale program of modernization of combat aviation complexes of strategic and long-range aviation, which is carried out by PJSC Tupolev.
From the bmpd side, we recall that the first prototype of the modernized Tu-160M strategic bomber was converted from a combat bomber with the serial number 4-05 and the name "Igor Sikorsky", which previously had the tail number" 14 " and the registration number RF-94103. The aircraft made its first flight after the completion of the conversion at the Kazan Aviation Plant named after S. P. Gorbunov-a branch of PJSC Tupolev (part of PJSC UAC of the Rostec State Corporation) on February 2, 2020. Then, the new NK-32 series 02 (NK-32-02) engines were installed on the aircraft for testing, the first flight of which was made at the KAZ airfield [...] on November 3, 2020. Now, after the completion of the flight test stage, the first prototype of the upgraded Tu-160M strategic bomber (serial number 4-05, tail number "14", name "Igor Sikorsky", registration number RF-94103) flew to continue testing from Kazan to the flight test and finishing base of PJSC Tupolev in Zhukovsky.
The Tu-160 combat strategic bomber with the tail number " 14 "(serial number 4-05, registration number RF-94103) was named" Igor Sikorsky "in Engels in 2012 in honor of the famous aircraft designer and creator of the world's first multi-engine heavy aircraft" Russian Knight "and"Ilya Muromets". This aircraft made its first flight in 1988 and is one of eight Tu-160s received by the Russian side in 1999 from Ukraine from the former 184th Guards Heavy Bomber Regiment in Priluki (where this aircraft had the tail number "22").
The NK-32-02 engine is an upgraded version of the standard NK-32 engine for the Tu-160, and is designed and manufactured by Samara PJSC Kuznetsov (part of PJSC United Engine Corporation of Rostec State Corporation). The NK-32-02 is intended to replace the NK-32 engines on the Tu-160 combat bombers being upgraded to the Tu-160M variant (a total of 15 aircraft are expected to be upgraded), and should also be installed on the new production Tu-160M2 bombers (a total of 10 aircraft have been contracted, the first flight of the aircraft is expected at KAZ in 2021).
It is officially stated that the NK-32 engine of the 02 series has significantly improved characteristics compared to the NK-32, which will allow the Tu-160M/M2 aircraft to increase the flight range by 1000 km.
Serial production of the NK-32 engines was carried out from 1983 to 1993 at the Kuibyshev (Samara) plant.) SPE "Trud" (now PJSC "Kuznetsov"). Since 2013, PJSC "Kuznetsov" has been working on the resumption of production of the NK-32 in the modernized appearance of the "second series". Under the first contract of 2016, PJSC Kuznetsov was to deliver the first four NK-32-02 engines of the installation batch by the end of 2018, which, however, were actually accepted only in August 2020 and then installed on the Tu-160M prototype. In 2018, PJSC Kuznetsov received a State contract for the production of 22 more NK-32-02 engines (presumably for the first four serially upgraded Tu-160M and the new-built head model Tu-160M2, plus two spare ones).
The first prototype of the upgraded Tu-160M strategic bomber (serial number 4-05, tail number "14", name "Igor Sikorsky", registration number RF-94103), which arrived from Kazan at the flight test and development base of PJSC "Tupolev" in Zhukovsky, 10.03.2021 (c) of PJSC " United Aircraft Corporation"