Production of engines for SSJ 100 to grow in 2017

Sukhoi Civil Aircraft will get more than 70 SaM146 engines for ssj100 next year Sukhoi Civil Aircraft will get more than 70 SaM146 engines next year (Photo by Transport-Photo.com)

The deliveries of SaM146 turbofan engines designed for the Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ 100) will continue to grow in 2017. Sukhoi Civil Aircraft expects to receive more than 70 powerplants (including spare ones) as well as 50 engines in 2016, NPO Saturn said to the Russian Aviation Insider. The company produces SaM146 engines in cooperation with Safran Aircraft Engines (former Snecma) within the PowerJet joint venture. Earlier plans implied production of 62 engines this year.

As vice-president of United Aircraft Corporation Vladislav Masalov explained, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft will receive 72 engines in 2017. Sam146 program head in NPO Saturn Mikhail Berdennikov adds this number will exactly correspond Sukhoi’s forecast production plans of 35-40 aircraft. “This fits our output capacity well and we reckon the production rate will remain the same for the next few years,” Berdennikov adds.

Some of the engines manufactured for Sukhoi Civil Aircraft in 2017 will be used for production purposes while the rest of them will be transferred as spares to airlines later on or replenish the leasing pool.

NPO Saturn delivered 32 engines since January this year. In 2015 the manufacturer supplied 38 SaM146s including 5 spare ones.

Since the start of the program NPO Saturn produced 228 Sam146s (including 12 spare engines). As of October 6, 2016 the engines logged over 469.4 thousand flight hours and more than 315.7 thousand flight cycles. Maximum running hours were demonstrated by engines operating under severe weather conditions. Particularly, as many as 7.554 thousand hours were performed by one of the engines (serial № 146140) on the aircraft operated by Russia’s Yakutia airline. The biggest number of cycles were registered by a SaM146 under serial № 146137 that powers one of SSJ100s of a Mexican carrier Interjet. Demonstrated dispatch reliability of the powerplants is 99.92%.

The manufacturer will need to invest into development of its maintenance and repair shop in future. Today it may service up to four powerplants at a time with the plans to increase that number up to eight engines. “I think it will satisfy the demand well enough for a few years and will not come at a big price for us. We will basically need to arrange additional tooling packages,” Berdennikov says.

The company’s spare part stores are being constantly restocked. “As for today, they are 95 % full with hardware. And that was exactly the goal that the airframer, our and the French management had set for us. According to contracts between operators and PowerJet, some of the parts that need to be delivered fast are shipped from Charles de Gaulle Airport because some of them fall within French responsibility,” the head of Sam146 program explains. The parties are working on the issue right now.

Alexander Artyukhov, general director of parent United Engine Corporation, says the development of aftersales services will allow the SaM146 program to reach the break-even point by 2021. Berdennikov agrees to that saying the company will be able to get out of the red as it gets more maintenance and repair orders. “Considering the engine’s life cycle and estimated aftersales service revenues, as well as bearing in mind it will have about three overhauls like any other modern engine, we clearly see today that we will turn a profit,” he says.

With the SaM146 project NPO Saturn is responsible for design development and production of the fan, low pressure compressor and turbine, as well as general assembly and the following testing. Safran Aircraft Engines deals with the high pressure compressor, automatic control system and the accessory gear-box. It alsodoes the powerplant integration.

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