Here is you can find some russian aviation news from different mass media sources.

MiG finally rolls out MFI, Russia's fifth generation' multi-role tactical aircraft.

ANPK MiG's aircraft is claimed to be capable of long range supersonic flight without afterburners.  © Jane's Aerospace News

Rybinsk will produce engines for next century fighters

02-10-1998. Copyright 1998, AeroWorldNet. All rights reserved.

Rybinsk Motors, based some 400 km north of Moscow, will manufacture the AL-41F, a fifth generation engine for military aircraft, and its derivatives for civil applications. The agreement was signed on September 18 by the manufacturer, Rybinsk Motors, the AL-41F developer, Lulka-Saturn, Defence Ministry and the administrations of Moscow City and Jaroslav region. It calls for prompt finishing of development and putting into production of the new engine for next-generation combat aircraft. It is expected that the new Russian Government, which is being formed by prime-minister Eugeny Primakov, will soon support this initiative with a special decree.

A remarkable thing about the new agreement is that it was reached thanks to an active position of Moscow City Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, one of the most popular candidates to Boris Yeltsin's throne in the next presidential elections.

Speaking to journalists on his arrival to Rybinsk, Luzhkov said that the goal of this visit is to establish additional links between industrial enterprises of the two cities, by offering a new product designed in Moscow for production in Rybinsk using some parts and sub-components from Moscow-based companies.

The news of launching the AL-41F into mass production came during the ongoing financial crisis in Russia. Commenting on this, Yuri Luzhkov said, "Today's event is that of the next century, because it is all about the engine for the next century's airplanes. Figuratively speaking, we are opening a window into the next century."

The Moscow City mayor added that the AL-41F will provide a basis for creation of engines and turbines for civil applications, including gas-pumping and electric power stations.

Touching on the financial matters of the agreement, Luzhkov said, "This project gives us a good opportunity to concentrate our forces on something that will make the defense and civil industries work and bring to life new products."

One of these new products will be a highly economical gas-pumping unit for Russian natural gas giant GAZPROM, which already funds several promising projects undertaken by Lulka-Saturn, including the AL-31 turbine unit, a derivative of the Su-27's engine for ground applications.

According to Victor Chepkin, Lulka-Saturn general designer, work on the AL-41F began in 1985. The engine belongs to the fifth generation of military engines, distinguished by the capability to provide a sustained supersonic flight, at Mach numbers 1.6...1.8, without afterburner. They will produce 11 kg of thrust per one kg of dry weight, which is some 15% more than their predecessors. Another feature is installation of a 3-D nozzle. According to Chepkin, thrust-vectoring capability increases the combat effectiveness of a fighter in close-in engagements by 3.5 times, provided the fighter is fitted with a highly intelligent integrated flight control/weapons management system.

Neither the AL-41F itself, nor its specification has not been revealed to the public yet. It is only known that it is a low by-pass jet engine with the gas temperature before the turbine 12% higher than that of the best existing engines. The number of compressor blades is less, but the pressure in the compressor is higher.

To withstand the heat, the turbine blades are mono-crystal pieces made of new composite materials, such as boron-fibre. To reduce the weight of the engine, many parts are made of composites, including shells of the inner and outer air contours.

Lulka-Saturn's own experimental factory and Salyut engine plant, both situated in Moscow, have made 27 sets of the new engine.

"We have mastered the new technologies and are ready to hand them over to Rybinsk," Chepkin said.

Setting up a full-scale production line at can take from three to four years, requiring investments worth Rbs 2 billion, according to Yuri Lastochkin, Rybinsk Motors general director. In addition, Rbs 0.2 - 0.3 billion is required to complete development of the engine.

It is believed that the AL-41F has a reheated thrust of 20 tons. In terms of weight and size, it is comparable with the AL-31F in use on the Su-27-family aircraft. The new engine can be installed on the Sukhoi S-37 Berkut, a fifth-generation fighter with forward-swept wings.

Chepkin said, "We agreed with Mikhail Petrovich [Simonov - Sukhoi general designer] that he puts the aircraft in the air on the old engines, because otherwise it would be too many new things to be tried on a new airframe at a time. If the aircraft flies OK, we will install our new engines on it."

He added that the rear fuselage should be re-configured to accommodate the AL-41Fs, but this work has already been done by Sukhoi engineers.

s Except for the S-37 Berkut, the Al-41F will power a projected single-engine fighter, referred to as the LFS (Light Front-line Airplane). Both Russian fighter houses, Sukhoi and Mikoyan, are working on such an aircraft. The latter company is understood to have installed first examples of the AL-41F on its Article 1.42 heavy-weight air superiority fighter (also referred to as the MFI, the Multifunctional Front-line Fighter), which has not been flown yet due to financial problems. However, general designer of ANPK MiG (official name of the Mikoyan design bureau) Mikhail Korzhuyev told AeroWorldNet at Farnborough '98 that the MFI first prototype will be flown by the end of this year, in an effort to restore the old Mikoyan's image as the maker of the world's best fighters.

Although the AL-41F was designed primarily for combat aircraft, its modular design allows to consider the engine as a basic, universal powerplant for other applications. The most ambitious plan is to use the AL-41's gas generator as a core for high by-pass engines for existing and projected airliners. These would deliver a thrust between 16 and 40 tons. Chepkin said that the most powerful version can be used on the Boeing 777. He added that Sukhoi, Ilyishin and Tupolev are working together on shaping a new large transport airplane, close in size to the Airbus A-3XX, that would be powered by four such engines. As always, the Russian designers think big, and the recent financial crisis does not seem to change their idiosyncrasies.

New Mikoyan project

25-05-1998. The picture of Mikoyan I-2000 was found on Jane's Web Site (http://www.janes.com).
As Russia's primary fighter, the I-2000 should be well placed to vie with the US Joint Strike Fighter for export sales.
Source: the 8 April issue of Jane's Defence Weekly © MAPO MiG via P Butowski

Sukhoi S-37 "Berkut"

(c) Prime-TASS, November 1997

Sukhoi's S-37 Berkut flight tests began

At the Zhukovsky flight research center near Moscow, flight test began on September 25 of the first prototype of the Sukhoi’s S-37 Berkut. The Russian press has immediately dubbed this aircraft as “the superfighter which destroys the monopoly of the US on aircraft of the 21st century and is expected to be competitive with the fighter of the fifth generation F-22 Raptor”. However, the new aircraft of the general designer Mikhail Simonov is unlikely to represent a true fighter of the fifth generation, about the development of which representatives of Russia’s Air Force and Sukhoi Design Bureau have dropped mysterious hints during the past several years. It is not a secret for anyone that the development of the Russian fighter of the fifth generation is 5 to 7 years behind the F-22.

This prototype (early known as S-32) is rather intended for experimental development of those technological decisions that can be really employed on future combat aircraft of the Sukhoi family. In any case, in connection with an extremely difficult situation of the Russian aircraft industry, the S-37 aircraft is faced with a hard road to go from a prototype to the fully-fledged fighter. As always, the demonstration of the earlier secret new product arouses many questions to which representatives of the Sukhoi Design Bureau have for well-known reasons a standard answer “No comments”. In particular, unknown is the purpose of the new aircraft, its flight characteristics, level of the craft’s outfit with standard armament and equipment. At the same time, Lieutenant-Gen-eral Yuri Klishin, deputy commander-in-chief of the Air Force in charge of armament, has pointed out at the MAKS’97 airshow that the Russian aircraft of the fifth generation will be a multi-role one. That means that apart from accomplishing mission of a pure fighter, the new aircraft will be able in future to deliver strikes at ground targets with the help of state-of-the art high-precision weapons. Proceeding from possible missions that Russia’s Air Force is to set before the fighter of the fifth generation, the list of technical features developed on the S-37 are sure to include low radar signature, supersonic cruising flight speed at the engines non-afterburner operation mode and provision of maneuverability over the wide range of the speed range. The S-37’s configuration is unusual for the aircraft of the Sukhoi family as it employs a forward swept wing (FSW). According to the deputy head of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), Valery Sukhanov, the employment of FSW will give the future combat Russian aircraft the following advantages: raise aerodynamic characteristics and especially maneuverability at subsonic flight speeds, improve controllability at high angles of attack, in-crease the flight range through FSW’s high lift qualities, raise take-off and landing characteristics. Besides, FSW has lower radar signature from the for-ward hemisphere. Valeri Sukhanov has declined to comment on reports about flight tests of the S-37. However, he has said that in the 1980s work in this direction in the USSR and the US was going on practically in parallel. Due to objective circumstances connected with the beginning of restructuring in the former USSR, work on FSW substantially slowed down. At the same time American specialists, who had conducted in the 1980s a cycle of flight tests of twoX-29A with FSW, gave up the idea of using such a wing on serial combat aircraft of the fifth generation because of major technical risks. As of today, TsAGI’s scientists have accomplished a large volume of theoretical research of FSW. This research have confirmed the possibility of employing of a such wing on supersonic flight modes. At the same time, the necessity has been established of resolving of a number of problems related to strength of such a wing and reinforcing its structure because of the influence of high loads. At present, with the development of technologies of composite materials, is possible to solve the task of developing a highly loaded light high-strength FSW, Sukhanov has pointed out. In his view, the beginning of experimental development of the FSW concept on S-37 is a topical task and is to contribute to the shaping of the scientific and technical potential for future Russian aircraft. The new Sukhoi prototype is con-figured as an integral triplane equipped with forward canards. The forward-swept wing is 90% of composite materials.

According to well-informed Russian experts, the FSW coupled with thrust vectoring will further enhance the plane’s maneuverability in close air combat. The first S-37 plane is powered with two D-30F6 turbofans, each developing a takeoff thrust of 15,500 kgf (34,170 lb.), currently used in the MiG-31M. It is evident that the S-37 powerplant is not a standard one. A new aircraft is most likely to be equipped with turbofans of the fifth generation developed by the Lyulka-Saturn joint stock company. The unofficial press has described the type of this engine equipped with thrust vectoring control system as AL-41F, and added that its thrust placed it in the 20 tons class (44,100 lbf.). The announced speed of 2,200 kmph. (1,190 ktas) seems to be close to the truth as it is near the maximum for the aircraft with fixed-geometry air in-takes. To provide normal engines operation at low flight speeds, the fuselage’s upper part, at approximately the wing’s leading edge, is fitted with additional extendable air scoops. The S-37 performance characteristics and dimensions are the same as those of the multi-purpose Su-35 fighter. The new fighter has Russian avionics manufactured at the Ramenski instrument-building design bureau. The S-37 plane differs notably from other planes of the Su-27 family as its radar visibility has been reduced considerably thanks to a number of measures and devices. Its airframe has a coating of radar-absorbing materials, and its air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons are suspended only in sufficiently spacious internal compartments. There are no air weapons under the wings. According to some experts, air weapons can be attached to the under-wing pylons, if the need arises. However, that seems an unlikely development as the S-37 wing has no pylons and is optimised to ensure economical supersonic cruising flight with engines operating in non-after-burner mode and perform advanced flight maneuvers over a wide speed range. The use of semi-round air intakes with curved air ducts is to contribute to reducing S-37 radar signature. A sufficiently large number of S-37 components and equipment has been borrowed from the Su-27 aircraft family, which is yet another proof that the given craft can not be in any possible way classified as “a Russian superfighter” and is intended to try out key technical decisions necessary for the development of the aircraft of the fifth generation. The structure of two fins, cabin and canopy, for instance, has been borrowed from the Su-27. The pilot’s seat, inclined at an angle of 30 deg. to reduce existing g-loads during maneuvering, is similar to that employed on the Su-35. The landing gear and the nose undercarriage leg have been borrowed from the shipborne fighter Su-27K (Su-33). It is obvious, on the whole, that bringing the S-37 up to the requirements of the Air Force will take the aircraft’s developer a long road to go. At the same time Berkut is structurally much closer to a full-fledged fighter that experimental GrummanX-29A with FWS. According to Russian experts, from a technical point of view, it is quite possible to upgrade S-37 until it is accepted for service. But whether this tasks will be ever accomplished remains a major question. In this case, it is not only the matter of a possible competition with the MiG-MAPO multi-functional fighter (1.42 project). Unfortunately, it is not ruled out that Russia will not be able in the near future to afford the development and preparation for serial production of at least one of these extremely expensive aircraft. In early September, defence-ministry acquisition chief Colonel General Anatoly Sitnov told a special Government meeting examining the plight of the military and civil aerospace sector that the Russian military could finance only two next-generation combat-aircraft programmes at a time. However, practical implementation of this announcement remains in much doubt. Criticising the Air Force’s attempts to pursue a fifth-generation fighter programme, Sitnov says: “What is the use of developing, for instance, the Sukhoi fifth-generation fighter, if the aircraft’s cockpit dates back to a second- or third-generation design?”.

SUKHOI S-37 BASIC CHARACTERISTICS:

POWERPLANT:

Engine type D-30F6

Thrust 15,500 kgf. (34,170lb.)

Specific fuel consumption 0.72 kg./kgf. hr.

DIMENSIONS:

Length 22.6 meters (74 ft.)

Height 6.4 meters (21 ft.)

Wingspan 16.7 meters (54.7 ft.)

WEIGHTS:

Maximum takeoff weight 34,000 kg. (74,960 lb.)

Normal takeoff weight 25,670 kg. (56,590 lb.)

MANUFACTURER’S CLAIMED PERFORMANCE:

Maximum speed (sea level) 1,400 kmph. (756 ktas.)

(altitude) 2,200 kmph. (1,190 ktas.)

Flight range 3,300 km. (1,782 naut.mi.)

Service ceiling 18,000 meters (59,055 ft.)

Maximum g-load 9g

Please your comments send to me by e-mail.
(c) Said Aminov, 12.01.99 11:40