MOSCOW, August 24 (AVN) - The local Salyut machine-building enterprise has started modernisation of the AL-31F engine installed in SU-27 Flanker family planes, Salyut Director General Yuri Yeliseyev said on Friday.
The enterprise is hoping to increase the engine's thrust from 12.5t to 15t in two to three years by means of integrating elements of the fifth-generation engine, Yeliseyev told the Military News Agency. Salyut's experts have developed the AL-31F variant with thrust vector control, which is different from the one proposed by the Lyulka-Saturn JS, the company that originally designed the engine.
According to Yeliseyev, Salyut established its own aircraft engine building design bureau two years ago to carry out research and tests. The bureau's personnel has grown from 22 to 650 people since then. Salyut has teamed up with the Central Aircraft Engine Building Institute to develop hyper-speed engines and with the Soyuz design bureau to develop rocket engines.