MOSCOW. Sept 23 (Interfax-AVN) - The St. Petersburg-based Klimov plant will ship a VK-1500 aircraft engine to the Antonov aircraft research and technical corporation in November this year for subsequent conduction of flight tests.
"The first prototype of the engine has acquired a design shape and has been tested for about 180 hours at a bench. The engine is being prepared for 300 hours of ground certification tests," Viktor Psikhanovic, deputy constructor general of the Vladimir Klimov - Motor Sich enterprise set up jointly by Russia and Ukraine, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
He said the engine's development and tests were progressing intensively. "We have been working in four shifts for more than a month," he said.
Psikhanovich said that no more than 10 VK-1500 engines would be produced in 2003 in the interests of the asset's certification.
"Mass production of the VK-1500 will begin at the Ukrainian joint-stock company Motor Sich in 2004. At the suggestion of the Antonov corporation's constructor general Petro Balabuyev, the AN- 3SKh Colt will be the first plane to be fitted with VK-1500 engines. After the upgrade, the plane will be intended for personnel and cargo transportation and designated as AN-3T," Psikhanovich said.
"VK-1500 was designed on the basis of the TVZ-117 engine. Unlike the baseline variant, its compressor has 10 stages instead of 13. The change brought about a slight decrease in the engine's capacity, but made it possible to reduce the heating of its main components. The engine's specified service live amounts to 20,000 hours.
VK-1500 will be installed in AN-3 and BE-132 engines. Russia does not have certified engines of the VK-1500 type developing 1,300 to 1,700 hp.
VK-1500 is likely to be test-operated as a component part of the AN-3 plane, as it is the optimal engine for aircraft of this series.
The AN-3 is an upgrade of the AN-2 biplane. A total of 5,000 planes of this type are in operation around the globe, and this potential market is extremely promising.
The AN-2's upgrade to AN-3 and replacement of its piston engine with a turbofan one is handled by the Polyot production enterprise in the Siberian city of Omsk.
In the future, VK-1500 engines will be installed in local passenger planes similar to the AN-38 mass produced by the Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Association and BE-132MK that are to be mass produced by the Irkutsk Aircraft Production Association.
According to unofficial data, the management of the Antonov corporation is elaborating a decision on the creation of an aircraft plant upgrading the AN-2 planes to the AN-3 level and installing VK-1500 engines in them. At present the Antonov management wants to upgrade the planes at the Aviant state-owned plant in Kyiv.