MOSCOW. April 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The developers of the new combat training aircraft, designated Yak-130, which is going to be fielded with the Russian Air Force and supplied to Algeria under the contract signed recently, are satisfied with the brilliant specifications of the AI-222-25 engine.
"Three aircraft now in tests are propelled by the engines built in the partnership of the Ukrainian Motor Sich company from Zaporizhzhya and the Moscow-based Salyut machine-building company. The developers of the aircraft have nothing against the engine. We are sure that it will have long service life when installed in the Yak-130's export configuration," Nikolai Dolzhenkov, vice president of the Irkut Corp. and deputy director general of the Yakovlev design bureau, told a news conference at the Dvigateli 2006 international engine exhibition in Moscow.
He noted that the Yak-130 is one of the most successful aviation projects. "The aircraft, which is already ordered for the country's Air Force, will also be sold to Algeria that signed a contract on 16 such planes. It will have the most advanced AI-222-25 engine developed by the Progress design bureau from Zaporizhzhya. Under the intergovernmental agreement signed, such engines will be built at Motor Sich and Moscow Salyut. This became possible only owing to the close ties between Russian and Ukrainian engine builders," he said.
According to Dolzhenkov, the engine is being flight-tested now. "We hope that the preliminary acceptance will be completed this year, while next year we expect an official acceptance certificate to be issued," he said.
The Sokol plant from Nizhny Novgorod will be involved into production of Yak-130s for the Russian Defense Ministry, while the Irkut aircraft building association is now getting ready to put the aircraft in mass-production for export. The supplies of Yak-130s to Algeria will start in 2008, Dolzhenkov said.
"Before the engine is handed over to the customer, it will have to pass an intensive test program, but it is clear now that the AI-222-25 will make a good engine for the Yak-130," he said.