2023-08-01 22:22:57
Photo: © Aviation of Russia
The civil aviation division of the UAC, formed around the Yakovlev company, is pursuing a course towards technological sovereignty in the civil aircraft industry. After 1991, the economic factors that dominated domestic civil aviation led to a halt in all key programs for the creation of passenger aircraft and their systems. The Russian skies near Ilov, Anov, Yakov and Carcasses were squeezed out by aircraft A and B, Embraer and Bombardier. Our country has missed a whole generation of civil aircraft.
The first steps towards the restoration of the civil aircraft industry were outlined in the mid-2000s, when the state took concrete steps and began to pay more attention to the industry. In 2011, the SSJ100 aircraft began to carry passengers. In 2017, the MS-21 made its first flight, in the fall of 2018, the promising PD-14 turbofan engine received a type certificate. In Seattle and Toulouse, this did not cause enthusiasm.
The pressure on our key programs started well before February 24, 2022. The decisive milestone was 2018, when the United States imposed sanctions against the AeroComposite company and forced suppliers from other countries to refuse to fulfill existing contracts.
“It was then that we realized that it was necessary to launch a full-scale import substitution program for all civil aircraft, both the MS-21 and the Superjet,” said Yury Slyusar, General Director of UAC, at the presentation of the new brand on July 26, 2023 in Zhukovsky.
The coincidence of the sanctions hysteria with the first positive results of the MS-21 flight tests is not an accident. The entry into the market of an advanced aircraft in terms of technical solutions, as well as the revival of the Russian civil aircraft industry, directly contradicted the interests of the United States and the West as a whole, and a new strategy for the development of civil aircraft industry became a long-term response to the sanctions.
One of the most important areas of the strategy is the development of a unified system to support the operation of new aircraft, which was originally created as part of the SSJ100 program. The system was developed taking into account both positive and negative operating experience of this type. In recent years, its development has been in the interests of two programs – Superjet and MS-21 with the expectation of expanding to new civil aircraft, in particular, to the Il-114-300. The main advantage of the created PPO system is that it is focused on the needs of the operators. It includes maintenance and repair organizations, logistics warehouses and personnel training centers. The unifying function is assigned to a single digital platform RADIUS, which serves to support the operation of aircraft. Some of its functional subsystems and components are already in operation, for example, the situation center, while others are being put into operation sequentially.
The formation of the core of the civil aviation division started in 2019. The goal of the reform was to create an integrated company within the framework of the UAC, which would provide support for civil aviation programs at all stages of the life cycle: research and development, cooperation, production, marketing, operation support, modernization and disposal of civil aircraft. In a short time, on the basis of the Irkut corporation, assets specializing in the creation of new civil aircraft – Sukhoi Civil Aircraft and companies operating in a single technological chain, in particular – AeroComposite, were consolidated. In 2023, it’s time to complete the creation of the civil aviation division and rebrand Irkut. There were good reasons for this.
The name change is in line with the UAC’s unified approach to the names of its subsidiaries – UAC-Sukhoi, UAC-Tupolev, UAC-Ilyushin. But there is another, no less important reason – Russia does not have the right to scatter one of its most famous aviation brands. Alexander Sergeevich Yakovlev is an aircraft designer, on whose initiative and under whose leadership aircraft were created that played an exceptionally important role not only in the development of domestic aviation, but also in the fate of the country.
Andrey Boginsky, General Director of PJSC Yakovlev, emphasized when introducing the new brand: “The Yakovlev company will develop design schools for two outstanding design teams founded by Alexander Yakovlev and Pavel Sukhiy. The developers of the “Superjet” have achieved impressive results. Although the original school of the Sukhoi Design Bureau had no experience in creating passenger aviation, its students managed to introduce digital development and production technologies into civil aircraft construction, set a new standard of comfort in their class, and certify the aircraft according to EASA standards.”
According to Alexander Dolotovsky, Deputy Director for Development of the Regional Aircraft branch of Yakovlev PJSC, the masters of the Soviet aircraft industry, who created the Su-27 and MiG-29, Tu-204 and Il-96, as well as the Buran spacecraft, participated in the development of the SSJ100 .
Irkut engineers used the experience of the Superjet and solved a number of fundamentally new tasks. Among them: the integration of control systems, the introduction of power composite structures of the wing and tail, the automation of production technologies, the emergence of revolutionary solutions in the field of comfort for medium-haul aircraft. “Productive competition between the two design teams in a number of areas will continue within the framework of a single engineering center, the creation of which is provided for by our plans,” says Andrey Boginsky.
A unified operation support system, as well as modern procedures for marketing, financing, leasing, and state support are necessary not only for interaction with Russian operators. It was the impending return to the international market that was the reason that during the rebranding of the Irkut corporation, the name of the MS-21 aircraft was not changed to Yak-242, and the Superjet 100 lost only one letter S, becoming the SJ-100. English, French and Spanish speakers and future passengers will always perceive better Latin and English abbreviations than Cyrillic.
In 2022, a comprehensive program for the development of the domestic aircraft industry until 2030 was adopted. “This is a clear action plan, which is divided into stages. The first stage is 2023-2025. During this period, we must produce 18 MS-21 aircraft: six in 2024, 12 in 2025, and more than 40 Superjet New import-substituting ones,” Andrey Boginsky said.
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