Russia’s prospective fifth-generation fighter prototype could fly as soon as next year, but only using an upgrade to an existing engine until a new design is produced, says air force chief of staff Gen Vladimir Mikhailov.
“We need many new concepts in it,” Mikhailov says. “During modernisation of the existing systems we are going forward to new levels, but we haven’t made really quantum leaps. The engine will be based on the modifications we have made now.”
Mikhailov made his remarks following a visit to Moscow’s Salyut engine plant in mid-June, during which he discussed propulsion developments with company director Yuri Eliseyev.
Salyut is currently working on a series of modifications for engines including the Motor Sich AI-225 for the Yakovlev Yak-130, and Saturn AL-31 for the Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-27SM, with the latter including thrust-vector control and a new low-pressure fan and combustion chamber.
Eliseyev says that following the completion of state acceptance trials in June 2006, existing AL-31 turbofans in Russian air force service will begin to be fitted with the new systems during overhaul, with Salyut intending to produce around 100 sets a year.
“The engine that has passed the fourth stage of upgrade, tentatively named AL-31FM-4, will have main specifications corresponding to those of a fifth-generation engine,” Eliseyev said during a 2005 interview with a Russian news agency. However, progress on a full specification fifth-generation powerplant appears to be slow, with Mikhailov noting that such a design is unlikely to be ready before 2010, given favourable conditions. “It is a project for a team of enterprises, rather than a single company,” he says.
Mikhailov’s comments follow the unveiling last month of a proposal sent to the Russian government’s new military-industrial commission to create a holding company that would encompass most of the country’s leading fighter and helicopter engine manufacturers.
Source: Flight International
