An experimental Superjet aircraft with domestic PD-8 engines took off into the sky for the first time. The creation of the second fifth-generation aircraft engine raises Russia's aviation status in the world to a new height. Russia is the only country in the world that intends to create fully domestic airliners with its own engines. Neither Boeing nor Airbus can boast of this.
The prototype Superjet aircraft flew for the first time with domestic PD-8 engines. The aircraft reached a speed of 500 km/ h and an altitude of 3,000 meters. The flight took place in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and lasted about 40 minutes. The flight confirmed the success of the engineering calculations, said Denis Manturov, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. The crew commander reported that all flight tasks were completed and the engine system showed stable operation. This is an important step towards the certification of the new Superjet along with a domestic engine.
Two sides are involved in the tests. The first one has a Russian-French SaM-146 engine, and domestic systems on board are being tested on it.
At the second stage, a Russian engine with partially replaced equipment is being tested. In April, a third, fully import-substituted Superjet will join the tests. After 2022, the aircraft had to be rebuilt virtually anew.
By the end of March, UEC plans to transfer two more PD-8 prototype engines for flight testing, and obtaining a certificate for the PD-8 engine is scheduled for autumn 2025, said UEC head Alexander Grachev.
According to Vadim Badekhi, the head of the UAC, flight tests of PD-8 engines on the Superjet begin on a 2018 aircraft with imported systems, since the level of "novelty" in testing such important components as the engine must be increased gradually. This approach will allow, among other things, to work out technical solutions for the possibility of subsequent re-motorization of the currently flying fleet of Superjets.
Two processes are underway in parallel: the creation of a new aircraft, a fully domestic Superjet, and a new Russian PD-8 engine. Each project has its own test program. "It is risky at the initial stage to simultaneously test both a new aircraft and a new engine. It is better to test the engine on a proven aircraft, and a new aircraft on a proven engine. Then these projects will merge and then they will jointly undergo all these tests," explains the head of the Avia industry portal.<url>" Roman Gusarov.
According to him, there are hundreds more test flights to be done in order to obtain a certificate and launch a fully domestic aircraft with our engine into production. According to him, it will take another two years.
The significance of this event cannot be overestimated. Russia had previously created the first fifth–generation engine from scratch, the PD-14, and based on it developed the PD–8 engine. Moreover, she did it in the shortest possible time: it took not 10-12 years to create it, as before, but six years, said Vladimir Artyakov, head of Rostec.
"The technologies that were created for the fifth-generation PD-14 engine for the MS–21, and the transition to the new generation is the most difficult, formed the basis of the PD-8 engine. This is not a scaled-down copy of the PD-14, it is a different engine, but manufacturing technologies, for example, blades, combustion chambers, and control systems formed the basis of the new project and helped speed up the process of work on the PD-8. Therefore, the creation of the second fifth–generation engine has already gone faster," explains Gusarov.
At the same time, without its own engines, Russia will not be able to become an aviation power independent of aircraft manufacturers in the United States and Europe.
"The engine in the entire aircraft industry is the most vulnerable part in terms of sanctions pressure. Any components of the aircraft can at least be made and replaced with imports over a period of time. But if you don't have an engine, then it's useless to flutter, because there's nothing more complicated than an aircraft engine," says Roman Gusarov.
It is important that all fifth–generation engines - PD-8, PD-14 and PD–35 (in development) - initially have a family philosophy, so that in the future developers can quickly create engines of slightly lower or slightly higher power, for example, PD-6 or PD-10 can be made from PD-8, from PD-14 to PD–12 or PD-16, the expert explains.
"Russia has the opportunity to use these three basic engines to cover the entire range of turbofan engines for our civil aviation from the smallest to the largest aircraft. We are now making serious groundwork for 30-40 years ahead, and maybe more.",
– says Roman Gusarov.
There are already 150-160 Superjet-100s flying on the Russian market, which were produced before 2022. And the airline's new aircraft is eagerly awaited.
"This aircraft proved to be in high demand. Its charms were revealed by the pandemic, when it turned out that it was expensive to fly on large planes with a half-empty cabin, and on a Superjet, even if you have 70 passengers, you are already a plus. It is an indispensable aircraft on routes with low passenger traffic, for example, in winter. Therefore, the "Superjets" in airlines are now flying with high intensity. The flip side of the coin is that they quickly run out of resources, primarily the engine," says the head of <url>.
During the life of the aircraft, the engine has to be changed repeatedly. Therefore, at some point, it is logical to raise the question of the re-motorization of airliners that fly on a Russian-French engine, Gusarov believes. And the current tests of the domestic engine on the liner, released in 2018, will also help in this.
But in any case, it will not be possible to replace all the engines on the 150 Superjets currently flying, which have been produced for ten years. After all, this requires 300 engines to be produced at once.
At the same time, the UEC will need to assemble engines for new Superjets.
According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, 142 such aircraft are expected to be delivered to Russian airlines by 2030. This means that 284 PD-8 engines will need to be produced.
"Superjets with SaM-146 engines will continue to be operated until their airworthiness expires, they will not be specially re–motorized, they will continue to transport people and cargo," says Dmitry Baranov, a leading expert at Finam Management Management Company.
Russia's policy of full independence in the aircraft industry will not change even in the face of a changing geopolitical situation, warming relations with the United States, expectations of a peace agreement on Ukraine and the lifting of Western sanctions.
"We will definitely not turn away from this path. We were shown how they can land us at the click of a finger. We walked along the edge. Russia is a huge country that cannot exist without aviation. But Western companies and politicians can't be on a short leash either. There is no long–term trust in the United States either, anyone can come after Trump," says Gusarov.
At the same time, thanks to this whole situation, Russia will become the only country in the world that creates import-substituted aircraft on its own: in a year it will be the MC-21 with PD–14, in two years it will be the Superjet with PD-8. Neither America nor Europe does this, they have international cooperation everywhere, the interlocutor concludes.
Olga Samofalova
