Prospects for the Russian aviation engine industry. Production of aircraft engines in Russia or non-Jewish production

Experimental samples of gas turbine engines (GTE) first appeared on the eve of World War II. The developments came to life in the early fifties: gas turbine engines were actively used in military and civil aircraft construction. At the third stage of introduction into industry, small gas turbine engines, represented by microturbine power plants, began to be widely used in all areas of industry.

General information about gas turbine engines

The operating principle is common to all gas turbine engines and consists in transforming the energy of compressed heated air into mechanical work of the gas turbine shaft. The air entering the guide vane and compressor is compressed and in this form enters the combustion chamber, where fuel is injected and the working mixture is ignited. Gases resulting from combustion pass through the turbine under high pressure and rotate its blades. Part of the rotational energy is spent on rotating the compressor shaft, but most of the energy of the compressed gas is converted into useful mechanical work of rotating the turbine shaft. Among all engines internal combustion(ICE), gas turbine units have the greatest power: up to 6 kW/kg.

Gas turbine engines operate on most types of dispersed fuel, which makes them stand out from other internal combustion engines.

Problems of developing small TGDs

As the size of the gas turbine engine decreases, the efficiency and specific power decrease compared to conventional turbojet engines. Wherein specific value fuel consumption also increases; the aerodynamic characteristics of the flow sections of the turbine and compressor deteriorate, and the efficiency of these elements decreases. In the combustion chamber, as a result of a decrease in air flow, the combustion efficiency of the fuel assembly decreases.

A decrease in the efficiency of gas turbine engine components with a decrease in its dimensions leads to a decrease in the efficiency of the entire unit. Therefore, when modernizing the model, designers pay special attention to increasing the efficiency of individual elements, up to 1%.

For comparison: when the compressor efficiency increases from 85% to 86%, the turbine efficiency increases from 80% to 81%, and the overall engine efficiency increases by 1.7%. This suggests that for a fixed fuel consumption, the specific power will increase by the same amount.

Aviation gas turbine engine "Klimov GTD-350" for the Mi-2 helicopter

The development of the GTD-350 first began in 1959 at OKB-117 under the leadership of designer S.P. Izotov. Initially, the task was to develop a small engine for the MI-2 helicopter.

At the design stage, experimental installations were used, and the node-by-unit finishing method was used. In the process of research, methods for calculating small-sized bladed devices were created, and constructive measures were taken to dampen high-speed rotors. The first samples of a working model of the engine appeared in 1961. Air tests of the Mi-2 helicopter with GTD-350 were first carried out on September 22, 1961. According to the test results, two helicopter engines were torn apart, re-equipping the transmission.

The engine passed state certification in 1963. Serial production opened in the Polish city of Rzeszow in 1964 under the leadership of Soviet specialists and continued until 1990.

Ma l The second domestically produced gas turbine engine GTD-350 has the following performance characteristics:

— weight: 139 kg;
— dimensions: 1385 x 626 x 760 mm;
— rated power on the free turbine shaft: 400 hp (295 kW);
— free turbine rotation speed: 24000;
— operating temperature range -60…+60 ºC;
— specific fuel consumption 0.5 kg/kW hour;
— fuel — kerosene;
— cruising power: 265 hp;
— takeoff power: 400 hp.

For flight safety reasons, the Mi-2 helicopter is equipped with 2 engines. The twin installation allows the aircraft to safely complete the flight in the event of failure of one of the power plants.

GTD - 350 per this moment is morally obsolete; modern small aircraft require more powerful, reliable and cheaper gas turbine engines. At the present time, a new and promising domestic engine is the MD-120, produced by the Salyut corporation. Engine weight - 35 kg, engine thrust 120 kgf.

General scheme

The design of the GTD-350 is somewhat unusual due to the location of the combustion chamber not immediately behind the compressor, as in standard models, but behind the turbine. In this case, the turbine is attached to the compressor. This unusual arrangement of components reduces the length of the engine power shafts, therefore reducing the weight of the unit and allowing for high rotor speeds and efficiency.

During engine operation, air enters through the VNA, passes through the axial compressor stages, the centrifugal stage and reaches the air collecting scroll. From there, through two pipes, air is supplied to the rear of the engine to the combustion chamber, where it reverses the direction of flow and enters the turbine wheels. The main components of the GTD-350 are: compressor, combustion chamber, turbine, gas collector and gearbox. Engine systems are presented: lubrication, control and anti-icing.

The unit is divided into independent units, which makes it possible to produce individual spare parts and ensure their quick repair. The engine is constantly being improved and today its modification and production is carried out by Klimov OJSC. The initial resource of the GTD-350 was only 200 hours, but during the modification process it was gradually increased to 1000 hours. The picture shows the general mechanical connection of all components and assemblies.

Small gas turbine engines: areas of application

Microturbines are used in industry and everyday life as autonomous sources of electricity.
— The power of microturbines is 30-1000 kW;
— volume does not exceed 4 cubic meters.

Among the advantages of small gas turbine engines are:
— wide range of loads;
— low vibration and noise level;
- work for various types fuel;
- small dimensions;
— low level of exhaust emissions.

Negative points:
— complexity of the electronic circuit (in the standard version, the power circuit is made with double energy conversion);
— a power turbine with a speed maintenance mechanism significantly increases the cost and complicates the production of the entire unit.

Today, turbogenerators have not become as widespread in Russia and the post-Soviet space as in the USA and Europe due to the high cost of production. However, according to calculations, a single autonomous gas turbine unit with a power of 100 kW and an efficiency of 30% can be used to supply energy to standard 80 apartments with gas stoves.

A short video of the use of a turboshaft engine for an electric generator.

By installing absorption refrigerators, a microturbine can be used as an air conditioning system and for simultaneous cooling of a significant number of rooms.

Automotive industry

Small gas turbine engines demonstrated satisfactory results during road tests, however, the cost of the vehicle increases many times due to the complexity of the design elements. Gas turbine engine with a power of 100-1200 hp. have characteristics similar to gasoline engines, but mass production of such cars is not expected in the near future. To solve these problems, it is necessary to improve and reduce the cost of all components of the engine.

Things are different in the defense industry. The military does not pay attention to cost; performance is more important to them. The military needed a powerful, compact, trouble-free power plant for tanks. And in the mid-60s of the 20th century, Sergei Izotov, the creator of the power plant for MI-2 - GTD-350, was involved in this problem. Izotov Design Bureau began development and eventually created the GTD-1000 for the T-80 tank. Perhaps this is the only positive experience of using gas turbine engines for ground transport. The disadvantages of using an engine on a tank are its gluttony and pickiness about the cleanliness of the air passing through the working path. Below is a short video of the tank GTD-1000 in operation.

Small aviation

Today, the high cost and low reliability of piston engines with a power of 50-150 kW do not allow Russian small aviation to confidently spread its wings. Engines such as Rotax are not certified in Russia, and Lycoming engines used in agricultural aviation are obviously overpriced. In addition, they run on gasoline, which is not produced in our country, which further increases the cost of operation.

It is small aviation, like no other industry, that needs small gas turbine engine projects. By developing the infrastructure for the production of small turbines, we can confidently talk about the revival of agricultural aviation. Abroad, a sufficient number of companies are engaged in the production of small gas turbine engines. Scope of application: private aircraft and drones. Among the models for light aircraft are the Czech engines TJ100A, TP100 and TP180, and the American TPR80.

In Russia, since the times of the USSR, small and medium-sized gas turbine engines have been developed mainly for helicopters and light aircraft. Their resource ranged from 4 to 8 thousand hours,

Today, for the needs of the MI-2 helicopter, small gas turbine engines of the Klimov plant continue to be produced, such as: GTD-350, RD-33, TVZ-117VMA, TV-2-117A, VK-2500PS-03 and TV-7-117V.

OJSC Ufa Engine-Building Production Association is the largest developer and manufacturer of aircraft engines in Russia. More than 20 thousand people work here. UMPO is part of the United Engine Corporation.

The main activities of the enterprise are the development, production, service and repair of turbojet aircraft engines, the production and repair of helicopter components, and the production of equipment for the oil and gas industry. (52 photos)

UMPO serially produces AL-41F-1S turbojet engines for Su-35S aircraft, AL-31F and AL-31FP engines for the Su-27 and Su-30 families, individual components for Ka and Mi helicopters, AL-gas turbine drives 31ST for gas pumping stations of OJSC Gazprom.

Under the leadership of the association, a promising engine is being developed for the fifth-generation fighter PAK FA (advanced aviation complex for front-line aviation, T-50). UMPO participates in cooperation for the production of the PD-14 engine for the newest Russian passenger aircraft MS-21, in the program for the production of VK-2500 helicopter engines, and in the reconfiguration of the production of RD-type engines for MiG aircraft.

1. Welding in the habitable chamber "Atmosphere-24". The most interesting stage of engine production is argon arc welding of the most critical components in the habitable chamber, ensuring complete tightness and accuracy of the weld. Especially for UMPO, the Leningrad Institute “Prometheus” in 1981 created one of the largest welding sections in Russia, consisting of two “Atmosphere-24” installations.

2. By sanitary standards a worker can spend no more than 4.5 hours a day in a cell. In the morning there is a check of suits, medical control, and only after that you can start welding.

Welders go to Atmosphere-24 in light space suits. They pass through the first doors of the airlock into the chamber, hoses with air are attached to them, the doors are closed and argon is supplied inside the chamber. After it displaces the air, the welders open the second door, enter the chamber and begin to work.

3. Welding of titanium structures begins in a non-oxidizing environment of pure argon.

4. The controlled composition of impurities in argon makes it possible to obtain high-quality seams and increase the fatigue strength of welded structures, and provides the possibility of welding in the most inaccessible places through the use of welding torches without the use of a protective nozzle.

5. In full gear, a welder really looks like an astronaut. To obtain permission to work in a habitable chamber, workers undergo a training course; first, they train in full equipment in the air. Usually two weeks is enough to understand whether a person is suitable for such work or not - not everyone can withstand the load.

6. Always in touch with the welders - a specialist monitoring what is happening from the control panel. Operator controls welding current, monitors the gas analysis system and the general condition of the camera and the employee.

7. No other method of manual welding gives such a result as welding in a habitable chamber. The quality of the seam speaks for itself.

8. Electron beam welding. Electron beam welding in a vacuum is a fully automated process. At UMPO it is carried out using Ebokam installations. Two or three seams are welded at the same time, and with a minimal level of deformation and change in the geometry of the part.

9. One specialist works simultaneously on several electron beam welding installations.

10. Parts of the combustion chamber, rotary nozzle and nozzle blade blocks require the application of heat-protective coatings using the plasma method. For these purposes, the TSZP-MF-P-1000 robotic complex is used.

11. Tool production. UMPO includes 5 tool shops with a total workforce of about 2,500 people. They are manufacturing technological equipment. Here they create machine tools, dies for hot and cold processing of metals, cutting tools, measuring tools, and molds for casting non-ferrous and ferrous alloys.

12. The production of molds for blade casting is carried out on CNC machines.

13. Now it takes only two to three months to create molds, but previously this process took six months or longer.

14. An automated measuring instrument detects the smallest deviations from the norm. Parts of a modern engine and tools must be manufactured with extremely precise adherence to all dimensions.

15. Vacuum carburization. Process automation always involves reducing costs and improving the quality of work performed. This also applies to vacuum carburizing. For carburization—saturating the surface of parts with carbon and increasing their strength—Ipsen vacuum furnaces are used.

One worker is enough to service the furnace. The parts undergo chemical-thermal treatment for several hours, after which they become perfectly durable. UMPO specialists have created their own program that allows cementing to be carried out with increased accuracy.

16. Foundry. Production in a foundry begins with the production of models. Models for parts of different sizes and configurations are pressed from a special mass, followed by manual finishing.

17. Predominantly women work in the area where lost wax models are made.

18. Cladding model blocks and obtaining ceramic molds is an important part of the foundry process.

19. Before pouring, ceramic molds are calcined in ovens.

21. This is what a ceramic mold filled with an alloy looks like.

22. “Worth its weight in gold” is about a blade with a monocrystalline structure. The technology for producing such a blade is complex, but this part, expensive in all respects, lasts much longer. Each blade is “grown” using a special nickel-tungsten alloy seed.

23. Processing area for a hollow wide-chord fan blade. For the production of hollow wide-chord fan blades of the PD-14 engine - the propulsion unit of the promising civil aircraft MS-21 - a special section has been created, where cutting and machining of blanks from titanium plates, final machining of the lock and blade airfoil profile, including its mechanical grinding and polishing are carried out .

24. Final processing of the end of the blade blade.

25. The complex for the production of turbine and compressor rotors (KPRTC) is the localization of existing capacities for the creation of the main components of a jet drive.

26. Turbine rotor assembly- a labor-intensive process that requires special qualifications of performers. High precision processing of the shaft-disc-toe connection is a guarantee of long-term and reliable engine operation.

27. The multi-stage rotor is assembled into a single unit.

28. Rotor balancing is carried out by representatives of a unique profession, which can be fully mastered only within the factory walls.

29. Production of pipelines and tubes. In order for all engine components to function smoothly—the compressor pumped, the turbine rotated, the nozzle closed or opened—you need to give them commands. The “blood vessels” of the aircraft’s heart are considered to be pipelines—it is through them that a wide variety of information is transmitted. UMPO has a workshop that specializes in the manufacture of these “vessels” - pipelines and tubes of various sizes.

30. The mini-factory for the production of pipes requires handmade jewelry - some parts are real hand-made works of art.

31. Many pipe bending operations are performed by the Bend Master 42 MRV numerical control machine. It bends titanium and stainless steel tubes. First, the geometry of the pipe is determined using non-contact technology using a standard. The obtained data is sent to a machine that performs preliminary bending, or in factory language - bending. Afterwards, adjustments are made and the final bending of the tube is made.

32. This is what the tubes look like already as part of a finished engine - they weave around it like a spider’s web, and each performs its task.

33. Final assembly. In the assembly shop, individual parts and assemblies become a whole engine. Mechanical assembly mechanics of the highest qualifications work here.

34. Large modules assembled in different areas of the workshop are joined by assemblers into a single whole.

35. The final stage of assembly is the installation of gearboxes with fuel control units, communications and electrical equipment. A mandatory check is carried out for alignment (to eliminate possible vibration) and alignment, since all parts are supplied from different workshops.

36. After the presentation tests, the engine is returned to the assembly shop for disassembly, washing and defect detection. First, the product is disassembled and washed with gasoline. Then - external inspection, measurements, special control methods. Some parts and assembly units are sent for the same inspection to manufacturing shops. Then the engine is reassembled for acceptance testing.

37. An assembler assembles a large module.

38. MSR mechanics assemble the greatest creation of engineering of the 20th century - a turbojet engine - manually, strictly checking the technology.

39. The Technical Control Department is responsible for the impeccable quality of all products. Inspectors work in all areas, including the assembly shop.

40. In a separate area, the rotary jet nozzle (RPS) is assembled - an important design element that distinguishes the AL-31FP engine from its predecessor AL-31F.

41. The operating life of the PRS is 500 hours, and the life of the engine is 1000, so the nozzles need to be made twice as many.

42. The operation of the nozzle and its individual parts is checked on a special mini-stand.

43. An engine equipped with a PRS provides the aircraft with greater maneuverability. The nozzle itself looks quite impressive.

44. In the assembly shop there is an area where reference samples of engines that have been and are being manufactured for the last 20-25 years are displayed.

45. Engine testing. Testing an aircraft engine is the final and very important stage in the technological chain. In a specialized workshop, presentation and acceptance tests are carried out on stands equipped with modern automated process control systems.

46. ​​During engine testing, an automated information-measuring system is used, consisting of three computers combined into one local network. Testers monitor engine and test system parameters solely based on computer readings. Test results are processed in real time. All information about the tests performed is stored in a computer database.

47. The assembled engine is tested according to technology. The process can take several days, after which the engine is disassembled, washed, and defective. All information about the tests performed is processed and issued in the form of protocols, graphs, tables, both electronically and on paper.

48. External view of the testing workshop: once the roar of testing woke up the entire neighborhood, now not a single sound penetrates outside.

49. Workshop No. 40 is the place from where all UMPO products are sent to the customer. But not only that, final acceptance of products, assemblies, incoming inspection, preservation, and packaging are carried out here.

The AL-31F engine is sent for packaging.

50. The engine awaits careful wrapping in layers wrapping paper and polyethylene, but that's not all.

51. Engines are placed in special containers designed for them, which are marked depending on the type of product. After packaging comes the accompanying package technical documentation: passports, forms, etc.

52. Engine in action!

Photos and text

From the received e-mail (copy of the original):

“Dear Vitaly! Could you tell me a little more

about model turbojet engines, what exactly are they and what are they eaten with?”

Let's start with gastronomy, turbines don't eat anything, they are admired! Or, to paraphrase Gogol to modern style: “Well, what aircraft modeller doesn’t dream of building a jet fighter?!”

Many people dream, but do not dare. A lot of new things, even more incomprehensible things, a lot of questions. You often read in various forums how representatives of reputable LIIs and research institutes smartly instill fear and try to prove how difficult it all is! Difficult? Yes, maybe, but not impossible! And proof of this is hundreds of homemade and thousands of industrial models of microturbines for modeling! You just need to approach this issue philosophically: everything ingenious is simple. That’s why this article was written, in the hope of reducing fears, lifting the veil of uncertainty and giving you more optimism!

What is a turbojet engine?

A turbojet engine (TRE) or gas turbine drive is based on the work of gas expansion. In the mid-thirties, one smart English engineer came up with the idea of ​​creating an aircraft engine without a propeller. At that time, this was simply a sign of madness, but all modern turbojet engines still operate on this principle.

At one end of the rotating shaft there is a compressor that pumps and compresses air. Released from the compressor stator, the air expands, and then, entering the combustion chamber, it is heated there by the burning fuel and expands even more. Since this air has nowhere else to go, it strives to leave the enclosed space with great speed, squeezing through the impeller of the turbine located at the other end of the shaft and causing it to rotate. Since the energy of this heated air stream is much greater than that required by the compressor for its operation, its remainder is released in the engine nozzle in the form of a powerful impulse directed backwards. And the more air heats up in the combustion chamber, the faster it tends to leave it, accelerating the turbine even more, and therefore the compressor located at the other end of the shaft.

All turbochargers for gasoline and diesel engines, both two and four strokes, are based on the same principle. The exhaust gases accelerate the turbine impeller, rotating the shaft, at the other end of which there is a compressor impeller that supplies the engine with fresh air.

The operating principle couldn't be simpler. But if only it were that simple!

The turbojet engine can be clearly divided into three parts.

• A. Compressor stage
• B. The combustion chamber
• IN. Turbine stage

The power of a turbine largely depends on the reliability and performance of its compressor. There are basically three types of compressors:

• A. Axial or linear
• B. Radial or centrifugal
• IN. Diagonal

A. Multi-stage linear compressors got widespread only in modern aircraft and industrial turbines. The fact is that it is possible to achieve acceptable results with a linear compressor only if you install several compression stages in series, one after the other, and this greatly complicates the design. In addition, a number of requirements for the design of the diffuser and the walls of the air channel must be met in order to avoid flow disruption and surge. There were attempts to create model turbines based on this principle, but due to the complexity of manufacturing, everything remained at the stage of experiments and trials.

B. Radial or centrifugal compressors. In them, the air is accelerated by an impeller and, under the influence of centrifugal forces, is compressed - compressed in the rectifier system-stator. It was with them that the development of the first operating turbojet engines began.

Simplicity of design, less susceptibility to air flow disruptions and relatively high output of just one stage were advantages that previously pushed engineers to begin their development with this type of compressor. Currently, this is the main type of compressor in microturbines, but more on that later.

B. Diagonal, or a mixed type of compressor, usually single-stage, similar in operating principle to radial, but found quite rarely, usually in turbocharging devices for piston internal combustion engines.

Development of turbojet engines in aircraft modeling

There is a lot of debate among aircraft modellers about which turbine was the first in aircraft modeling. For me, the first aircraft model turbine is the American TJD-76. The first time I saw this device was in 1973, when two half-drunk midshipmen were trying to connect a gas cylinder to a round contraption, approximately 150 mm in diameter and 400 mm long, tied with ordinary binding wire to a radio-controlled boat, a target setter for the Marine Corps. To the question: “What is this?” they replied: “It’s a mini mom! American... motherfucker, it won’t start...”

Much later I learned that it was a Mini Mamba, weighing 6.5 kg and with a thrust of approximately 240 N at 96,000 rpm. It was developed back in the 50s as an auxiliary engine for light gliders and military drones. The peculiarity of this turbine is that it used a diagonal compressor. But it never found wide application in aircraft modeling.

The first “people's” flying engine was developed by the forefather of all microturbines, Kurt Schreckling, in Germany. Having started working more than twenty years ago on the creation of a simple, technologically advanced and cheap to produce turbojet engine, he created several samples that were constantly improved. Repeating, supplementing and improving its developments, small-scale manufacturers have formed the modern look and design of the model turbojet engine.

But let's return to Kurt Schreckling's turbine. Outstanding design with carbon fiber reinforced wooden compressor impeller. An annular combustion chamber with an evaporative injection system, where fuel was supplied through a coil approximately 1 m long. Homemade turbine wheel from 2.5 mm sheet metal! With a length of only 260 mm and a diameter of 110 mm, the engine weighed 700 grams and produced a thrust of 30 Newton! It is still the quietest turbojet engine in the world. Because the speed of gas leaving the engine nozzle was only 200 m/s.

Based on this engine, several versions of kits for self-assembly were created. The most famous was the FD-3 of the Austrian company Schneider-Sanchez.

Just 10 years ago, an aircraft modeller faced a serious choice - impeller or turbine?

The traction and acceleration characteristics of the first aircraft model turbines left much to be desired, but had an incomparable advantage over the impeller - they did not lose thrust as the model’s speed increased. And the sound of such a drive was already a real “turbine”, which was immediately greatly appreciated by the copyists, and most of all by the public, who were certainly present at all flights. The first Shreckling turbines easily lifted 5-6 kg of the model's weight into the air. The start was the most critical moment, but in the air all other models faded into the background!

An aircraft model with a microturbine could then be compared to a car constantly moving in fourth gear: it was difficult to accelerate, but then such a model had no equal either among impellers or propellers.

It must be said that the theory and developments of Kurt Schreckling contributed to the fact that the development of industrial designs, after the publication of his books, took the path of simplifying the design and technology of engines. Which, in general, led to the fact that this type of engine became available to a large circle of aircraft modellers with an average wallet size and family budget!

The first samples of serial aircraft model turbines were the JPX-T240 from the French company Vibraye and the Japanese J-450 Sophia Precision. They were very similar in both design and appearance, having a centrifugal compressor stage, an annular combustion chamber and a radial turbine stage. The French JPX-T240 ran on gas and had a built-in gas supply regulator. It developed thrust up to 50 N, at 120,000 rpm, and the weight of the device was 1700 g. Subsequent samples, T250 and T260, had a thrust of up to 60 N. The Japanese Sophia, unlike the French, ran on liquid fuel. At the end of its combustion chamber there was a ring with spray nozzles; this was the first industrial turbine that found a place in my models.

These turbines were very reliable and easy to operate. The only drawback was their overclocking characteristics. The fact is that the radial compressor and radial turbine are relatively heavy, that is, they have a larger mass and, therefore, a larger moment of inertia in comparison with axial impellers. Therefore, they accelerated from low throttle to full throttle slowly, about 3-4 seconds. The model reacted to the gas even longer, and this had to be taken into account when flying.

The pleasure was not cheap, Sofia alone cost 6,600 in 1995 German marks or 5,800 “evergreen presidents”. And you had to have very good arguments to prove to your wife that a turbine for a model is much more important than a new kitchen, and that an old family car can last a couple more years, but you can’t wait with a turbine.

A further development of these turbines is the R-15 turbine, sold by Thunder Tiger.

Its difference is that the turbine impeller is now axial instead of radial. But the thrust remained within 60 N, since the entire structure, the compressor stage and the combustion chamber, remained at the level of the day before yesterday. Although at its price it is a real alternative to many other models.

In 1991, two Dutchmen, Benny van de Goor and Han Jenniskens, founded the AMT company and in 1994 produced the first 70N class turbine - Pegasus. The turbine had a radial compressor stage with a Garret turbocharger impeller, 76 mm in diameter, as well as a very well designed annular combustion chamber and an axial turbine stage.

After two years of careful study of Kurt Schreckling's work and numerous experiments, they achieved optimal engine performance, established by trial the size and shape of the combustion chamber, and the optimal design of the turbine wheel. At the end of 1994, at one of the friendly meetings, after the flights, in the evening in a tent over a glass of beer, Benny winked slyly in conversation and confidentially reported that the next production model of the Pegasus Mk-3 “blows” already 10 kg, has a maximum speed of 105,000 and a degree compression 3.5 with an air flow rate of 0.28 kg/s and a gas exit speed of 360 m/s. The weight of the engine with all units was 2300 g, the turbine was 120 mm in diameter and 270 mm in length. At the time, these figures seemed fantastic.

Essentially, all today's models copy and repeat, to one degree or another, the units incorporated in this turbine.

In 1995, Thomas Kamps’ book “Modellstrahltriebwerk” (Model Jet Engine) was published, with calculations (mostly borrowed in abbreviated form from the books of K. Schreckling) and detailed drawings of a turbine for self-production. From that moment on, the monopoly of manufacturing companies on the manufacturing technology of model turbojet engines ended completely. Although many small manufacturers simply mindlessly copy Kamps turbine units.

Thomas Kamps, through experiments and trials, starting with the Schreckling turbine, created a microturbine in which he combined all the achievements in this field at that time and, willingly or unwillingly, introduced a standard for these engines. His turbine, better known as KJ-66 (KampsJetengine-66mm). 66 mm – diameter of the compressor impeller. Today you can see various names of turbines, which almost always indicate either the size of the compressor impeller 66, 76, 88, 90, etc., or the thrust - 70, 80, 90, 100, 120, 160 N.

I read somewhere very good interpretation the value of one Newton: 1 Newton is a 100 gram chocolate bar plus packaging for it. In practice, the figure in Newtons is often rounded to 100 grams and the engine thrust is conventionally determined in kilograms.

Design of a model turbojet engine

1. Compressor impeller (radial)
2. Compressor rectifier system (stator)
3. The combustion chamber
4. Turbine rectifier system
5. Turbine wheel (axial)
6. Bearings
7. shaft tunnel
8. Nozzle
9. Nozzle cone
10. Compressor front cover (diffuser)

Where to begin?

Naturally, the modeler immediately has questions: Where to begin? Where to get? What is the price?

1. You can start with kits. Almost all manufacturers today offer a full range of spare parts and kits for building turbines. The most common are sets repeating KJ-66. The prices of the sets, depending on the configuration and quality of workmanship, range from 450 to 1800 Euros.
2. You can buy a ready-made turbine if you can afford it, and you will manage to convince your spouse of the importance of such a purchase without leading to a divorce. Prices for finished engines start from 1500 Euro for turbines without autostart.
3. You can do it yourself. I won’t say that this is the most ideal method; it is not always the fastest and cheapest, as it might seem at first glance. But for do-it-yourselfers it is the most interesting, provided that there is a workshop, a good turning and milling base and a resistance welding device is also available. The most difficult thing in artisanal manufacturing conditions is the alignment of the shaft with the compressor wheel and turbine.

I started with self-building, but in the early 90s there simply wasn’t such a selection of turbines and kits for their construction as there are today, and it’s more convenient to understand the operation and intricacies of such a unit when making it yourself.

Here are photographs of self-made parts for an aircraft model turbine:

For anyone who wants to become more familiar with the design and theory of the Micro-TRD, I can only recommend the following books, with drawings and calculations:

• Kurt Schreckling. Strahlturbine fur Flugmodelle im Selbstbau. ISDN 3-88180-120-0
• Kurt Schreckling. Modellturbinen im Eigenbau. ISDN 3-88180-131-6
• Kurt Schreckling. Turboprop-Triebwerk. ISDN 3-88180-127-8
• Thomas Kamps Modellstrahltriebwerk ISDN 3-88180-071-9

Today I know of the following companies that produce aircraft model turbines, but there are more and more of them: AMT, Artes Jet, Behotec, Digitech Turbines, Funsonic, FrankTurbinen, Jakadofsky, JetCat, Jet-Central, A. Kittelberger, K. Koch, PST-Jets, RAM, Raketeturbine, Trefz, SimJet, Simon Packham, F.Walluschnig, Wren-Turbines. All their addresses can be found on the Internet.

Practice of use in aircraft modeling

Let's start with the fact that you already have a turbine, the simplest one, how to control it now?

There are several ways to get your gas turbine engine running in a model, but it's best to first build a small test bench like this:

Manual startstart) - the easiest way to control a turbine.

1. Using compressed air, a hair dryer, and an electric starter, the turbine is accelerated to a minimum operating speed of 3000 rpm.
2. Gas is supplied to the combustion chamber, and voltage is supplied to the glow plug, the gas ignites and the turbine reaches a mode within the range of 5000-6000 rpm. Previously, we simply ignited the air-gas mixture at the nozzle and the flame “shot” into the combustion chamber.
3. At operating speeds, the speed controller is turned on, controlling the speed of the fuel pump, which in turn supplies fuel to the combustion chamber - kerosene, diesel fuel or heating oil.
4. When stable operation occurs, the gas supply stops and the turbine runs only on liquid fuel!

Bearings are usually lubricated using fuel to which turbine oil is added, approximately 5%. If the bearing lubrication system is separate (with oil pump), then it is better to turn on the pump power before supplying gas. It is better to turn it off last, but DO NOT FORGET to turn it off! If you think women are the weaker sex, then look at what they become when they see a stream of oil flowing onto the upholstery of the back seat of a family car from the nozzle of the model.

The disadvantage of this simple way management - practically complete absence information about engine operation. To measure temperature and speed, you need separate instruments, at least an electronic thermometer and a tachometer. Purely visually, it is only possible to approximately determine the temperature by the color of the turbine impeller. The alignment, as with all rotating mechanisms, is checked on the surface of the casing with a coin or a fingernail. By placing your fingernail on the surface of the turbine, you can feel even the smallest vibrations.

Engine data sheets always give their maximum speed, for example 120,000 rpm. This is the maximum permissible value during operation, which should not be neglected! After my home-made unit flew apart right on the stand in 1996 and a turbine wheel, tearing the engine casing, pierced through the 15 mm plywood wall of a container standing three meters from the stand, I came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to accelerate without control devices. homemade turbines are dangerous to life! Strength calculations later showed that the shaft rotation speed should have been within 150,000. So it was better to limit the operating speed at full throttle to 110,000 - 115,000 rpm.

Another important point. To the fuel control circuit NECESSARILY The emergency closing valve, controlled via a separate channel, must be turned on! This is done so that in the event of a forced landing, unscheduled carrot landing and other troubles, the fuel supply to the engine is stopped in order to avoid a fire.

Start ccontrol(Semi-automatic start).

So that the troubles described above do not happen on the field, where (God forbid!) there are also spectators around, they use a fairly well-proven Start control. Here, the start control - opening the gas and supplying kerosene, monitoring the engine temperature and speed is carried out by an electronic unit ECU (E lectronic- U nit- C control) . The gas container, for convenience, can already be placed inside the model.

For this purpose, a temperature sensor and a speed sensor, usually optical or magnetic, are connected to the ECU. In addition, the ECU can give indications of fuel consumption, save parameters of the last start, readings of the fuel pump supply voltage, battery voltage, etc. All this can then be viewed on a computer. To program the ECU and retrieve accumulated data, use the Manual Terminal (control terminal).

To date, the two most widely used competing products in this area are Jet-tronics and ProJet. Which one to give preference is up to everyone to decide for themselves, since it’s hard to argue about which is better: a Mercedes or a BMW?

It all works like this:

1. When unwinding the turbine shaft ( compressed air/hair dryer/electric starter) up to operating speeds, the ECU automatically controls the gas supply to the combustion chamber, ignition and kerosene supply.
2. When you move the throttle on your remote control, the turbine first automatically switches to operating mode, followed by monitoring the most important parameters of the entire system, from battery voltage to engine temperature and speed.

Autostart(Automatic start)

For the especially lazy, the startup procedure has been simplified to the limit. The turbine is started from the control panel also through ECU one switch. You no longer need compressed air, a starter, or a hair dryer!

1. You flip the switch on your radio control.
2. The electric starter spins the turbine shaft to operating speed.
3. ECU controls the start, ignition and bringing the turbine to operating mode with subsequent monitoring of all indicators.
4. After turning off the turbine ECU automatically rotates the turbine shaft several more times using an electric starter to reduce engine temperature!

The most latest achievement in the field of automatic starting became Kerostart. Start on kerosene, without pre-warming on gas. By installing a different type of glow plug (larger and more powerful) and minimally changing the fuel supply in the system, we managed to completely eliminate gas! This system works on the principle of a car heater, like on the Zaporozhets. In Europe, so far only one company converts turbines from gas to kerosene starting, regardless of the manufacturer.

As you have already noticed, in my drawings, two more units are included in the diagram, these are the brake control valve and the landing gear retraction control valve. These are not required options, but very useful. The fact is that in “regular” models, when landing, the propeller at low speeds acts as a kind of brake, but in jet models there is no such brake. In addition, the turbine always has residual thrust even at “idle” speed, and the landing speed of jet models can be much higher than that of “propeller” ones. Therefore, the main wheel brakes are very helpful in reducing the model’s run, especially on short areas.

Fuel system

The second strange attribute in the pictures is the fuel tank. Reminds me of a bottle of Coca-Cola, doesn't it? The way it is!

This is the cheapest and most reliable tank, provided that reusable, thick bottles are used, and not wrinkled disposable ones. The second important point is the filter at the end of the suction pipe. Required item! The filter is not used to filter fuel, but to prevent air from entering the fuel system! More than one model has already been lost due to spontaneous shutdown of the turbine in the air! Filters from Stihl brand chainsaws or similar ones made of porous bronze have proven themselves best here. But ordinary felt ones will also work.

Since we are talking about fuel, we can immediately add that turbines have a lot of thirst, and fuel consumption is on average at the level of 150-250 grams per minute. The greatest consumption, of course, occurs at the start, but then the gas lever rarely moves beyond 1/3 of its position forward. From experience we can say that with a moderate flight style, three liters of fuel is enough for 15 minutes. flight time, while there is still reserve in the tanks for a couple of landing approaches.

The fuel itself is usually aviation kerosene, known in the West as Jet A-1.

You can, of course, use diesel fuel or lamp oil, but some turbines, such as those from the JetCat family, do not tolerate it well. Also, turbojet engines do not like poorly refined fuel. The disadvantage of kerosene substitutes is the large formation of soot. Engines have to be disassembled more often for cleaning and inspection. There are cases of turbines operating on methanol, but I know only two such enthusiasts; they produce methanol themselves, so they can afford such luxury. The use of gasoline, in any form, should be categorically abandoned, no matter how attractive the price and availability of this fuel may seem! This is literally playing with fire!

Maintenance and service life

So the next question has arisen by itself - service and resources.

Service in to a greater extent consists of keeping the engine clean, visual inspection and checking for vibration at start-up. Most aircraft modellers equip their turbines with some sort of air filter. An ordinary metal sieve in front of the suction diffuser. In my opinion, it is an integral part of the turbine.

Engines kept clean and with a proper bearing lubrication system serve trouble-free service for 100 or more operating hours. Although many manufacturers advise sending turbines for control maintenance after 50 working hours, this is more to clear the conscience.

First jet model

Briefly about the first model. It's best if it's a “trainer”! There are many turbine trainers on the market today, most of them delta wing models.

Why delta? Because these are very stable models in themselves, and if the so-called S-shaped profile is used in the wing, then the landing speed and stall speed are minimal. The coach must, so to speak, fly himself. And you should concentrate on the new type of engine and control features.

The coach must have decent dimensions. Since speeds on jet models of 180-200 km/h are a given, your model will very quickly move away over considerable distances. Therefore, the model must be provided with good visual control. It is better if the turbine on the coach is mounted openly and does not sit very high in relation to the wing.

A good example of what kind of trainer SHOULD NOT be is the most common trainer - "Kangaroo". When FiberClassics (today Composite-ARF) ordered this model, the concept was based primarily on the sale of Sofia turbines, and as an important argument for modellers, that by removing the wings from the model, it could be used as a test bench. So, in general, it is, but the manufacturer wanted to show the turbine as if it were on display, so the turbine is mounted on a kind of “podium.” But since the thrust vector turned out to be applied much higher than the CG of the model, the turbine nozzle had to be lifted up. The load-bearing qualities of the fuselage were almost completely eaten up by this, plus the small wingspan, which put a large load on the wing. The customer refused other layout solutions proposed at that time. Only the use of the TsAGI-8 Profile, compressed to 5%, gave more or less acceptable results. Anyone who has already flown a Kangaroo knows that this model is for very experienced pilots.

Taking into account the Kangaroo's shortcomings, a sports trainer for more dynamic flights, "HotSpot", was created. This model features more sophisticated aerodynamics, and Ogonyok flies much better.

A further development of these models was the “BlackShark”. It was designed for calm flights, with a large turning radius. With the possibility of a wide range of aerobatics, and at the same time, with good soaring qualities. If the turbine fails, this model can be landed like a glider, without nerves.

As you can see, the development of trainers has followed the path of increasing size (within reasonable limits) and reducing the load on the wing!

The Austrian balsa and foam set, Super Reaper, can also serve as an excellent trainer. It costs 398 Euro. The model looks very good in the air. Here is my favorite video from the Super Reaper series: http://www.paf-flugmodelle.de/spunki.wmv

But the low-price champion today is Spunkaroo. 249 Euro! Very simple construction made of balsa covered with fiberglass. To control the model in the air, only two servos are enough!

Since we are talking about servos, we must immediately say that standard three-kilogram servos have nothing to do with such models! The loads on their steering wheels are enormous, so the cars must be installed with a force of at least 8 kg!

Summarize

Naturally, everyone has their own priorities, for some it’s price, for others it’s the finished product and saving time.

The most in a fast way To take possession of a turbine is simply to buy it! Prices today for finished turbines of the 8 kg thrust class with electronics start from 1525 Euro. If you consider that such an engine can be put into operation immediately without any problems, then this is not a bad result at all.

Sets, Kits. Depending on the configuration, usually a set of a compressor straightening system, a compressor impeller, an undrilled turbine wheel and a turbine straightening stage costs on average 400-450 Euros. To this we must add that everything else must either be bought or made yourself. Plus electronics. The final price may even be higher than the finished turbine!

What you need to pay attention to when buying a turbine or kits - it’s better if it’s the KJ-66 variety. Such turbines have proven themselves to be very reliable, and their potential for increasing power has not yet been exhausted. So, by often replacing the combustion chamber with a more modern one, or by changing bearings and installing straightening systems of a different type, you can achieve an increase in power from several hundred grams to 2 kg, and acceleration characteristics are often much improved. In addition, this type of turbine is very easy to operate and repair.

Let's summarize what size pocket is needed to build a modern jet model at the lowest European prices:

• Turbine assembled with electronics and small items - 1525 Euro
• Trainer with good flying qualities - 222 Euro
• 2 servos 8/12 kg - 80 Euro
• Receiver 6 channels - 80 Euro

In total, your dream: about 1900 Euros or about 2500 green presidents!

According to statistics, only one flight out of 8 million ends in an accident with loss of life. Even if you boarded a random flight every day, it would take you 21,000 years to die in a plane crash. According to statistics, walking is many times more dangerous than flying. And all this is largely due to the amazing reliability of modern aircraft engines.

On October 30, 2015, testing of the newest Russian aircraft engine PD-14 began on the Il-76LL flying laboratory. This is an event of exceptional importance. 10 interesting facts about turbojet engines in general and the PD-14 in particular will help you appreciate its significance.

A miracle of technology

But a turbojet engine is an extremely complex device. Its turbine operates in the most difficult conditions. Its most important element is the spatula, with which kinetic energy gas flow is converted into mechanical rotational energy. One blade, and there are about 70 of them in each stage of an aircraft turbine, develops a power equal to the power of a Formula 1 car engine, and at a rotation speed of about 12 thousand revolutions per minute, a centrifugal force equal to 18 tons acts on it, which is equal to load on the suspension of a double-decker London bus.

But that's not all. The temperature of the gas with which the blade comes into contact is almost half the temperature on the surface of the Sun. This value is 200 °C higher than the melting point of the metal from which the blade is made. Imagine this problem: you need to prevent an ice cube from melting in an oven heated to 200 °C. Designers manage to solve the problem of cooling the blade using internal air channels and special coatings. It is not surprising that one spatula costs eight times more than silver. To create just this small part that fits in the palm of your hand, it is necessary to develop more than a dozen complex technologies. And each of these technologies is protected as the most important state secret.

TRD technologies are more important than atomic secrets

In addition to domestic companies, only US companies (Pratt & Whitney, General Electric, Honeywell), England (Rolls-Royce) and France (Snecma) possess technologies for the full cycle of creating modern turbojet engines. That is, there are fewer countries producing modern aviation turbojet engines than countries that have nuclear weapons or launch satellites into space. China's decades-long efforts, for example, have so far failed to achieve success in this area. The Chinese quickly copied and equipped the Russian Su-27 fighter with their own systems, releasing it under the designation J-11. However, they were never able to copy its AL-31F engine, so China is still forced to purchase this no longer the most modern turbojet engine from Russia.

PD-14 - the first domestic aircraft engine of the 5th generation

Progress in aircraft engine manufacturing is characterized by several parameters, but one of the main ones is the temperature of the gas in front of the turbine. The transition to each new generation of turbojet engines, and there are five of them in total, was characterized by an increase in this temperature by 100-200 degrees. Thus, the gas temperature of the 1st generation turbojet engines, which appeared in the late 1940s, did not exceed 1150 °K, in the 2nd generation (1950s) this figure increased to 1250 °K, in the 3rd generation (1960s) this parameter rose to 1450 °K; for engines of the 4th generation (1970-1980) the gas temperature reached 1650 °K. Turbine blades of 5th generation engines, the first examples of which appeared in the West in the mid-90s, operate at a temperature of 1900 °K. Currently, only 15% of engines in use worldwide are of the 5th generation.

An increase in gas temperature, as well as new design schemes, primarily double-circuit, have made it possible to achieve impressive progress over the 70 years of development of turbojet engines. For example, the ratio of engine thrust to its weight increased during this time by 5 times and for modern models reached 10. The degree of air compression in the compressor increased 10 times: from 5 to 50, while the number of compressor stages decreased by half - on average from 20 to 10. The specific fuel consumption of modern turbojet engines has been halved compared to 1st generation engines. Every 15 years, the volume of passenger traffic in the world doubles while the total fuel consumption of the world's aircraft fleet remains almost unchanged.

Currently, Russia produces the only 4th generation civil aircraft engine - the PS-90. If we compare the PD-14 with it, then the two engines have similar weights (2950 kg for the basic version PS-90A and 2870 kg for the PD-14), dimensions (fan diameter for both is 1.9 m), compression ratio (35.5 and 41) and take-off thrust (16 and 14 tf).

In this case the compressor high pressure PD-14 consists of 8 stages, and PS-90 - of 13 with a lower total compression ratio. The bypass ratio of the PD-14 is twice as high (4.5 for the PS-90 and 8.5 for the PD-14) with the same fan diameter. As a result, the specific fuel consumption in cruising flight for the PD-14 will drop, according to preliminary estimates, by 15% compared to existing engines: to 0.53-0.54 kg/(kgf h) versus 0.595 kg/(kgf h) ) at PS-90.

PD-14 is the first aircraft engine created in Russia after the collapse of the USSR

When Vladimir Putin congratulated Russian specialists on the start of testing the PD-14, he said that the last time such an event occurred in our country was 29 years ago. Most likely, this meant December 26, 1986, when the first flight of the Il-76LL took place under the PS-90A test program.

The Soviet Union was a great aviation power. In the 1980s, eight powerful aircraft engine design bureaus operated in the USSR. Often firms competed with each other, since there was a practice of giving the same task to two design bureaus. Alas, times have changed. After the collapse of the 1990s, all industry forces had to be brought together to implement the project of creating a modern engine. Actually, the formation in 2008 of the United Engine Corporation (UEC), with many of whose enterprises VTB Bank actively cooperates, was aimed at creating an organization capable of not only preserving the country’s competencies in gas turbine construction, but also competing with the world’s leading companies.

The lead contractor for the PD-14 project is the Aviadvigatel Design Bureau (Perm), which, by the way, also developed the PS-90. Serial production is organized at the Perm Motor Plant, but parts and components will be manufactured throughout the country. The cooperation involves the Ufa Engine Production Association (UMPO), NPO Saturn (Rybinsk), NPCG Salyut (Moscow), Metalist-Samara and many others.

PD-14 - engine for long-haul aircraft of the 21st century

One of the most successful projects in the area civil aviation The USSR had a medium-range aircraft Tu-154. Produced in a quantity of 1,026 units, it formed the basis of Aeroflot's fleet for many years. Alas, time passes, and this hard worker no longer meets modern requirements either in terms of efficiency or ecology (noise and harmful emissions). The main weakness of the Tu-154 is the 3rd generation D-30KU engines with high specific fuel consumption (0.69 kg/(kgf·h).

The medium-range Tu-204, which replaced the Tu-154 with 4th generation PS-90 engines, in the conditions of the collapse of the country and the free market, could not withstand competition with foreign manufacturers even in the struggle for domestic air carriers. Meanwhile, the segment of medium-haul narrow-body aircraft, which is dominated by the Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 (in 2015 alone, 986 of them were delivered to airlines around the world), is the most widespread, and its presence is necessary condition preservation of the domestic civil aircraft industry. Thus, in the early 2000s, an urgent need was identified to create a competitive new generation turbojet engine for a medium-range aircraft with 130-170 seats. Such an aircraft should be the MS-21 (Mainline Aircraft of the 21st Century), developed by the United Aircraft Corporation. The task is incredibly difficult, since not only the Tu-204, but also no other aircraft in the world could withstand the competition with Boeing and Airbus. It is for MS-21 that the PD-14 is being developed. Success in this project will be akin to an economic miracle, but such undertakings are the only way for Russian economy get off the oil needle.

PD-14 - basic design for the engine family

The letters “PD” stand for advanced engine, and the number 14 stands for thrust in ton-force. PD-14 is the base engine for the family of turbojet engines with a thrust from 8 to 18 tf. The business idea of ​​the project is that all these engines are created on the basis of a unified gas generator of a high degree of perfection. The gas generator is the heart of the turbojet engine, which consists of a high-pressure compressor, combustion chamber and turbine. It is the manufacturing technologies of these components, primarily the so-called hot part, that are critical.

The family of engines based on the PD-14 will make it possible to equip almost all Russian aircraft with modern power plants: from the PD-7 for the short-haul Sukhoi Superjet 100 to the PD-18, which can be installed on the flagship of the Russian aircraft industry - the long-haul Il-96. Based on the PD-14 gas generator, it is planned to develop a PD-10V helicopter engine to replace the Ukrainian D-136 on the world's largest Mi-26 helicopter. The same engine can also be used on the Russian-Chinese heavy helicopter, the development of which has already begun. On the basis of the PD-14 gas generator, gas pumping installations and gas turbine power plants with a capacity of 8 to 16 MW, which are so necessary for Russia, can be created.

PD-14 is 16 critical technologies

For the PD-14, with the leading role of the Central Institute of Aviation Engine Manufacturing (CIAM), the leading research institute of the industry and the Aviadvigatel Design Bureau, 16 critical technologies were developed: monocrystalline high-pressure turbine blades with a promising cooling system, operable at gas temperatures up to 2000 °K, hollow wide-chord fan blade made of titanium alloy, thanks to which it was possible to increase the efficiency of the fan stage by 5% in comparison with PS-90, low-emission combustion chamber made of intermetallic alloy, sound-absorbing structures made of composite materials, ceramic coatings on the hot part parts, hollow turbine blades low pressure and etc.

PD-14 will continue to be improved. At MAKS 2015, one could already see the prototype of a wide-chord fan blade made of carbon fiber, created at CIAM, the mass of which is 65% of the mass of the hollow titanium blade currently used. At the CIAM stand, one could also see a prototype of the gearbox that is supposed to be equipped with the modification of the PD-18R. The gearbox will allow you to reduce the fan speed, due to which, not tied to the turbine speed, it will operate in a more efficient mode. It is expected to raise the gas temperature in front of the turbine by 50 °K. This will increase the thrust of the PD-18R to 20 tf, and reduce specific fuel consumption by another 5%.

PD-14 is 20 new materials

When creating the PD-14, the developers from the very beginning relied on domestic materials. It was clear that Russian companies under no circumstances will they provide access to new foreign-made materials. Here, the All-Russian Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM) played a leading role, with the participation of which about 20 new materials were developed for the PD-14.

But creating the material is half the battle. Sometimes Russian metals are superior in quality to foreign ones, but their use in a civil aircraft engine requires certification according to international standards. Otherwise, the engine, no matter how good it is, will not be allowed to fly outside Russia. The rules here are very strict because we are talking about people's safety. The same applies to the engine manufacturing process: enterprises in the industry require certification according to the standards of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). All this will force us to improve production standards, and it is necessary to re-equip the industry to accommodate new technologies. The development of the PD-14 itself took place using new, digital technology, thanks to which the 7th copy of the engine was assembled in Perm using mass production technology, while previously a pilot batch was produced in quantities of up to 35 copies.

PD-14 should take the entire industry to a new level. What can I say, even the Il-76LL flying laboratory, after several years of inactivity, needed to be retrofitted with equipment. Work has also been found for the unique CIAM stands, which allow simulating flight conditions on the ground. In general, the PD-14 project will save more than 10,000 highly qualified jobs for Russia.

PD-14 is the first domestic engine that directly competes with its Western counterpart

The development of a modern engine takes 1.5-2 times longer than the development of an aircraft. Unfortunately, aircraft manufacturers are faced with a situation where the engine does not have time to start testing the aircraft for which it is intended. The rollout of the first copy of the MS-21 will take place at the beginning of 2016, and testing of the PD-14 has just begun. True, the project provided an alternative from the very beginning: MS-21 customers could choose between the PD-14 and Pratt & Whitney’s PW1400G. It is with the American engine that the MC-21 will go on its first flight, and it is with it that the PD-14 will have to compete for a place under the wing.

Compared to its competitor, the PD-14 is somewhat inferior in efficiency, but it is lighter, has a noticeably smaller diameter (1.9 m versus 2.1), and therefore less resistance. And one more feature: Russian specialists deliberately went for some simplification of the design. The basic PD-14 does not use a gearbox in the fan drive, and also does not use an adjustable nozzle of the external circuit; it has a lower gas temperature in front of the turbine, which makes it easier to achieve reliability and service life indicators. Therefore, the PD-14 engine is cheaper and, according to preliminary estimates, will require lower maintenance and repair costs. By the way, in the context of falling oil prices, it is lower operating costs, and not efficiency, that become the driving factor and the main competitive advantage of an aircraft engine. In general, the direct operating costs of the MS-21 with the PD-14 can be 2.5% lower than that of the version with the American engine.

To date, 175 MS-21 have been ordered, of which 35 are with the PD-14 engine

An interesting article about the past, present and future of our rocket industry and the prospects for space flights.

The creator of the world's best liquid rocket engines, academician Boris Katorgin, explains why the Americans still cannot repeat our achievements in this area and how to maintain the Soviet head start in the future.

On June 21, 2012, the winners of the Global Energy Prize were awarded at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. An authoritative commission of industry experts from different countries selected three applications from the 639 submitted and named the winners of the 2012 prize, which is already commonly called the “Nobel Prize for energy workers.” As a result, 33 million bonus rubles were divided this year famous inventor from UK professor RodneyJohnAllam and two of our outstanding scientists - academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences BorisKatorgin And ValeryKostyuk.

All three are related to the creation of cryogenic technology, the study of the properties of cryogenic products and their use in various power plants. Academician Boris Katorgin was awarded “for the development of highly efficient liquid rocket engines using cryogenic fuels, which ensure reliable operation of space systems at high energy parameters for the peaceful use of space.” With the direct participation of Katorgin, who devoted more than fifty years to the OKB-456 enterprise, now known as NPO Energomash, liquid rocket engines (LPRE) were created, the performance characteristics of which are now considered the best in the world. Katorgin himself was involved in the development of schemes for organizing the working process in engines, the mixture formation of fuel components and the elimination of pulsation in the combustion chamber. His fundamental work on nuclear rocket engines (NRE) with high specific impulse and developments in the field of creating high-power continuous chemical lasers are also known.

During the most difficult times for Russian science-intensive organizations, from 1991 to 2009, Boris Katorgin headed NPO Energomash, combining the positions of general director and general designer, and managed not only to save the company, but also to create a number of new engines. The lack of an internal order for engines forced Katorgin to look for a customer on the foreign market. One of the new engines was the RD-180, developed in 1995 specifically to participate in a tender organized by the American corporation Lockheed Martin, which was choosing a liquid-propellant rocket engine for the Atlas launch vehicle, which was then being modernized. As a result, NPO Energomash signed an agreement for the supply of 101 engines and by the beginning of 2012 had already supplied more than 60 liquid propellant engines to the United States, 35 of which were successfully operated on Atlases when launching satellites for various purposes.

Before presenting the award, “Expert” talked with academician Boris Katorgin about the state and prospects for the development of liquid rocket engines and found out why engines based on developments forty years ago are still considered innovative, and the RD-180 could not be recreated at American factories.

— Boris Ivanovich, V how exactly yours merit V creation domestic liquid reactive engines, And Now considered the best V the world?

— To explain this to a non-specialist, you probably need a special skill. For liquid rocket engines, I developed combustion chambers and gas generators; in general, he supervised the creation of the engines themselves for the peaceful exploration of outer space. (In the combustion chambers, mixing and burning of fuel and oxidizer occurs and a volume of hot gases is formed, which, then ejected through the nozzles, create the jet thrust itself; in gas generators, the fuel mixture is also burned, but for the operation of turbopumps, which, under enormous pressure, pump fuel and oxidizer into the same combustion chamber. — « Expert".)

— You speak O peaceful development space, Although obviously, What All engines traction from several dozens up to 800 tons, which were created V NGO " Energomash", intended before Total For military needs.

“We didn’t have to drop a single atomic bomb, we didn’t deliver a single nuclear warhead on our missiles to the target, and thank God. All military developments went into peaceful space. We can be proud of the enormous contribution of our rocket and space technology to the development of human civilization. Thanks to astronautics, entire technological clusters were born: space navigation, telecommunications, satellite television, sensing systems.

— Engine For intercontinental ballistic rockets R-9, above which You worked, Then lay down V basis a little whether Not all our manned programs.

— Back in the late 1950s, I carried out computational and experimental work to improve mixture formation in the combustion chambers of the RD-111 engine, which was intended for that same rocket. The results of the work are still used in modified RD-107 and RD-108 engines for the same Soyuz rocket; about two thousand space flights have been carried out on them, including all manned programs.

— Two of the year back I took interview at your his Colleagues, laureate Global energy" academician Alexandra Leontyev. IN conversation O closed For wide public specialists, whom Leontyev myself When- That was, He mentioned Vitaliy Ievleva, Same a lot of who did For our space industry.

— Many academicians who worked for the defense industry were kept secret - that’s a fact. Now much has been declassified - this is also a fact. I know Alexander Ivanovich very well: he worked on creating calculation methods and methods for cooling the combustion chambers of various rocket engines. Solving this technological problem was not easy, especially when we began to squeeze out the maximum chemical energy of the fuel mixture to obtain maximum specific impulse, increasing, among other measures, the pressure in the combustion chambers to 250 atmospheres. Let's take our most powerful engine - RD-170. Fuel consumption with oxidizer - kerosene with liquid oxygen passing through the engine - 2.5 tons per second. The heat flows in it reach 50 megawatts per square meter - this is enormous energy. The temperature in the combustion chamber is 3.5 thousand degrees Celsius. It was necessary to come up with a special cooling for the combustion chamber so that it could work properly and withstand the thermal pressure. Alexander Ivanovich did just that, and, I must say, he did a great job. Vitaly Mikhailovich Ievlev - corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Technical Sciences, professor, who, unfortunately, died quite early - was a scientist of the widest profile, possessed of encyclopedic erudition. Like Leontiev, he worked a lot on methods for calculating highly stressed thermal structures. Their work overlapped in some places, was integrated in others, and as a result, an excellent technique was obtained that can be used to calculate the thermal intensity of any combustion chambers; Now, perhaps, using it, any student can do this. In addition, Vitaly Mikhailovich took Active participation in the development of nuclear and plasma rocket engines. Here our interests intersected in those years when Energomash was doing the same thing.

— IN our conversation With Leontyev We affected topic sales Energomashevsky engines RD-180 V USA, And Alexander Ivanovich told What in in many ways this engine - result developments, which were done How once at creation RD-170, And V some That sense his half. What This - really result reverse scaling?

— Any engine in a new dimension is, of course, new device. The RD-180 with a thrust of 400 tons is really half the size of the RD-170 with a thrust of 800 tons. The RD-191, intended for our new rocket“Angara”, the thrust is 200 tons. What do these engines have in common? They all have one turbopump, but the RD-170 has four combustion chambers, the “American” RD-180 has two, and the RD-191 has one. Each engine requires its own turbopump unit - after all, if a single-chamber RD-170 consumes approximately 2.5 tons of fuel per second, for which a turbopump with a capacity of 180 thousand kilowatts was developed, more than two times greater than, for example, the power of a reactor nuclear icebreaker“Arctic”, then the two-chamber RD-180 is only half, 1.2 tons. I participated directly in the development of turbopumps for the RD-180 and RD-191 and at the same time supervised the creation of these engines as a whole.

— Camera combustion, Means, on everyone these engines one And that same, only quantity their miscellaneous?

- Yes, and this is our main achievement. In one such chamber with a diameter of only 380 millimeters, a little more than 0.6 tons of fuel per second is burned. Without exaggeration, this chamber is a unique, highly heat-stressed equipment with special protection belts against powerful heat flows. Protection is carried out not only due to external cooling of the chamber walls, but also thanks to an ingenious method of “lining” a film of fuel on them, which, evaporating, cools the wall. On the basis of this outstanding camera, which has no equal in the world, we manufacture our best engines: RD-170 and RD-171 for Energia and Zenit, RD-180 for the American Atlas and RD-191 for the new Russian rocket "Angara".

— « Angara" must was replace " Proton- M" more some years back, But creators rockets collided With serious problems, first flying tests repeatedly were postponed And project like would continues slip.

— There really were problems. The decision has now been made to launch the rocket in 2013. The peculiarity of the Angara is that, based on its universal rocket modules, it is possible to create a whole family of launch vehicles with a payload capacity of 2.5 to 25 tons for launching cargo into low Earth orbit based on the universal oxygen-kerosene engine RD-191. “Angara-1” has one engine, “Angara-3” has three with a total thrust of 600 tons, “Angara-5” will have 1000 tons of thrust, that is, it will be able to put more cargo into orbit than “Proton”. In addition, instead of the very toxic heptyl, which is burned in Proton engines, we use environmentally friendly fuel, after combustion of which only water and carbon dioxide remain.

— How happened, What That same RD-170, which was created more V mid 1970- X, before these since then remains By essentially, innovative product, A his technologies are used V quality basic For new Liquid rocket engine?

— A similar story happened with an airplane created after World War II by Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev (long-range strategic bomber M series, developed by Moscow OKB-23 in the 1950s. — « Expert"). In many respects, the aircraft was about thirty years ahead of its time, and elements of its design were later borrowed by other aircraft manufacturers. It’s the same here: the RD-170 has a lot of new elements, materials, and design solutions. In my estimation, they won't become obsolete for several decades. This is primarily due to the founder of NPO Energomash and its general designer Valentin Petrovich Glushko and Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vitaly Petrovich Radovsky, who headed the company after Glushko’s death. (Note that the world's best energy and operational characteristics of the RD-170 are largely achieved thanks to Katorgin's solution to the problem of suppressing high-frequency combustion instability through the development of anti-pulsation partitions in the same combustion chamber. - « Expert".) And what about the RD-253 first stage engine for the Proton launch vehicle? Adopted back in 1965, it is so perfect that it has not yet been surpassed by anyone. This is exactly how Glushko taught us to design - at the limit of the possible and necessarily above the world average. Another important thing to remember is that the country has invested in its technological future. What was it like in the Soviet Union? The Ministry of General Engineering, which was in charge, in particular, of space and rockets, spent 22 percent of its huge budget on R&D alone - in all areas, including propulsion. Research funding is much lower today, and that says a lot.

— Not means whether achievement these LRE some perfect qualities, and It happened This half a century back, What missile engine With chemical source energy V some That sense is becoming obsolete myself: basic discoveries done And V new generations rocket engine, Now speech coming quicker O So called supporting innovation?

- Definitely not. Liquid rocket engines are in demand and will be in demand for a very long time, because no other technology is capable of more reliably and economically lifting cargo from the Earth and placing it into low-Earth orbit. They are safe from an environmental point of view, especially those that run on liquid oxygen and kerosene. But liquid rocket engines, of course, are completely unsuitable for flights to stars and other galaxies. The mass of the entire metagalaxy is 1056 grams. In order to accelerate on a liquid-propellant rocket engine to at least a quarter of the speed of light, you will need an absolutely incredible amount of fuel - 103200 grams, so it’s stupid to even think about it. Liquid rocket engines have their own niche - propulsion engines. Using liquid engines, you can accelerate the carrier to the second escape velocity, fly to Mars, and that’s it.

— Next stage - nuclear rocket engines?

- Certainly. Whether we will live to reach some stages is unknown, but much has been done to develop nuclear propulsion engines already in Soviet time. Now, under the leadership of the Keldysh Center, headed by Academician Anatoly Sazonovich Koroteev, a so-called transport and energy module is being developed. The designers came to the conclusion that it was possible to create a gas-cooled nuclear reactor that was less stressful than in the USSR, which would work both as a power plant and as a source of energy for plasma engines when traveling in space. Such a reactor is currently being designed at NIKIET named after N. A. Dollezhal under the leadership of Corresponding Member of the RAS Yuri Grigorievich Dragunov. The Kaliningrad design bureau “Fakel” also participates in the project, where electric jet engines are being created. As in Soviet times, it will not be possible to do without the Voronezh Chemical Automatics Design Bureau, where gas turbines and compressors will be manufactured to drive the coolant - the gas mixture - in a closed circuit.

— A Bye let's fly on Liquid rocket engine?

— Of course, and we clearly see prospects for the further development of these engines. There are tactical, long-term tasks, there are no limits: the introduction of new, more heat-resistant coatings, new composite materials, reducing the weight of engines, increasing their reliability, simplifying the control circuit. A number of elements can be introduced to more closely monitor the wear of parts and other processes occurring in the engine. There are strategic tasks: for example, the development of liquefied methane and acetylene together with ammonia or ternary fuel as combustible fuel. NPO Energomash is developing a three-component engine. Such a liquid-propellant rocket engine could be used as an engine for both the first and second stages. At the first stage, it uses well-developed components: oxygen, liquid kerosene, and if you add about five percent more hydrogen, the specific impulse will increase significantly - one of the main energy characteristics engine, which means more payload can be sent into space. At the first stage, all kerosene with the addition of hydrogen is produced, and at the second, the same engine switches from running on three-component fuel to two-component fuel - hydrogen and oxygen.

We have already created an experimental engine, albeit of small size and a thrust of only about 7 tons, carried out 44 tests, made full-scale mixing elements in the nozzles, in the gas generator, in the combustion chamber, and found out that it is possible to first work on three components, and then smoothly switch to two. Everything works out, high combustion efficiency is achieved, but to go further, we need a larger sample, we need to modify the stands in order to launch into the combustion chamber the components that we are going to use in a real engine: liquid hydrogen and oxygen, as well as kerosene. I think this is a very promising direction and big step forward. And I hope to have time to do something during my lifetime.

— Why Americans, having received right on playback RD-180, Not can do his already a lot of years?

— Americans are very pragmatic. In the 1990s, at the very beginning of working with us, they realized that in the energy field we were much ahead of them and we needed to adopt these technologies from us. For example, our RD-170 engine in one launch, due to its greater specific impulse, could carry two tons more payload than their most powerful F-1, which meant a gain of 20 million dollars at that time. They announced a competition for an engine with a thrust of 400 tons for their Atlases, which was won by our RD-180. Then the Americans thought that they would start working with us, and in four years they would take our technologies and reproduce them themselves. I immediately told them: you will spend more than a billion dollars and ten years. Four years have passed, and they say: yes, we need six years. More years passed, they said: no, we need another eight years. Seventeen years have passed and they have not reproduced a single engine. They now need billions of dollars just for bench equipment. At Energomash we have stands where the same RD-170 engine, whose jet power reaches 27 million kilowatts, can be tested in a pressure chamber.

— I Not misheard - 27 gigawatt? This more established power everyone NPP " Rosatom".

— Twenty-seven gigawatts is the power of the jet, which develops in relatively a short time. When tested on a bench, the energy of the jet is first extinguished in a special pool, then in a dissipation pipe with a diameter of 16 meters and a height of 100 meters. To build such a stand, which houses an engine that creates such power, you need to invest a lot of money. The Americans have now abandoned this and are taking the finished product. As a result, we do not sell raw materials, but a product with enormous added value, into which highly intellectual work has been invested. Unfortunately, in Russia this is a rare example of high-tech sales abroad in such a large volume. But this proves that if we pose the question correctly, we are capable of much.

— Boris Ivanovich, What necessary do, to Not lose head start, typed Soviet missile engine building? Maybe, except lack financing R&D Very painful And other problem - personnel?

— To remain on the world market, we must constantly move forward and create new products. Apparently, until we were completely pressed and thunder struck. But the state needs to realize that without new developments it will find itself on the margins of the world market, and today, in this transition period, while we have not yet matured to normal capitalism, the state must first of all invest in the new. Then you can transfer the development for the release of the series private company on conditions beneficial to both the state and business. I don’t believe that it is impossible to come up with reasonable methods for creating new things; without them, it is useless to talk about development and innovation.

There are frames. I head the department at the Moscow Aviation Institute, where we train both engine and laser engineers. The guys are smart, they want to do the job they are learning, but we need to give them a normal initial impulse so that they don’t go, like many people do now, to write programs for distributing goods in stores. To do this, it is necessary to create an appropriate laboratory environment and provide a decent salary. Build the correct structure of interaction between science and the Ministry of Education. The same Academy of Sciences resolves many issues related to personnel training. Indeed, among the current members of the academy and corresponding members there are many specialists who manage high-tech enterprises and research institutes, powerful design bureaus. They are directly interested in the departments assigned to their organizations training the necessary specialists in the field of technology, physics, and chemistry, so that they immediately receive not just a specialized university graduate, but a ready-made specialist with some life and scientific and technical experience. This has always been the case: the best specialists were born in institutes and enterprises where educational departments existed. At Energomash and NPO Lavochkin we have departments of the MAI branch “Kometa”, which I head. There are old personnel who can pass on experience to the young. But there is very little time left, and the losses will be irrevocable: in order to simply return to the current level, you will have to expend much more effort than is needed today to maintain it.

Here's some pretty recent news:

The Samara-based Kuznetsov enterprise has entered into a preliminary agreement to supply Washington with 50 NK-33 power plants developed for the Soviet lunar program.

An option (permission) for the supply of the specified number of engines until 2020 was concluded with the American corporation Orbital Sciences, which produces satellites and launch vehicles, and the Aerojet company, one of the largest manufacturers of rocket engines in the United States . It's about about a preliminary agreement, since the option agreement implies the right, but not the obligation, of the buyer to make a purchase on predetermined conditions. Two modified NK-33 engines are used on the first stage of the Antares launch vehicle (project name Taurus-2), developed in the United States under a contract with NASA. The carrier is designed to deliver cargo to the ISS. Its first launch is planned for 2013. The NK-33 engine was developed for the N1 launch vehicle, which was supposed to take Soviet cosmonauts to the Moon.

There was also some rather controversial information on the blog describing

The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -