MOSCOW. Oct 23 (Interfax-AVN) - The Defence Ministry will sum up results of the competition among projects of the trainer with a piston engine after January 1, 2002, the chairman of the tender commission, Deputy Air Force Commander Colonel General Vladimir Mikhailov, said on Tuesday.
Mikhailov told Interfax-Military News Agency that the commission would thoroughly analyse advantages and disadvantages of all the projects submitted for the tender.
At present there are two competitors, SU-49 (original name SU-32) of the Sukhoi design bureau, and YAK-152 (originally YAK-56, later YAK-54M) of the Yakovlev design bureau.
The Defence Ministry will need several hundreds of trainers for basic and advanced education of pilots in next 10 years, experts say. The Russian Defence Sports and Technical Society and flight colleges of the Air Force will be the main operators of the new-generation planes. In accordance with the rules of the competition, designers are to finance their works themselves.
Sukhoi's plane is powered by an M-14 piston engine. The share of composite materials in the aircraft's total weight makes about 75 percent. The cost of research and tests related to the plane's development is estimated at USD8.5m. According to calculations, the expenses may pay off after the sale of the first 300 planes.
YAK-152 has the same power plant as SU-49, but is made entirely of aluminium alloys.