MOSCOW. Oct 1 (Interfax-AVN) - AI-222 aircraft engines intended for YAK-130 trainer planes arouse serious interest among foreign customers, Vyacheslav Boguslayev, director general of Ukraine's Motor Sich engine-building association, said on Tuesday.
"We are negotiating with two states on possible supplies of AI-222 aircraft engines. I am sure that both countries will eventually procure the engines for their trainer planes," Boguslayev told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The first contract on AI-222 engines may be signed in late 2002 or early 2003, he noted.
"It will cover engine supplies, but the Ukrainian party is ready to consider a possibility of launching licensed production of AI-222 in that country. The engine is taking bench tests, and this slows down the making of a decision by the foreign customer. After the country procures the first batch of AI-222 engines and adjusts them to the plane, the possibility of starting the engine's licensed production may come into the spotlight again," Boguslayev said.
He did not disclose the country he was talking about.
AI-222 is a promising development of the Progress engine- building design bureau, based in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia. It belongs to engines of the next generation in its class.
"Bench tests of the engine's gas-generator are underway. By the end of the year, Motor Sich is to assemble the first two engines that should be shipped to the Sokol aircraft plant in subsequent installation in the first YAK-130 plane built there. Supplies of AI-222 engines in 2003 will be carried out in accordance with a supply schedule signed by Motor Sich, the Yakovlev design bureau and the Sokol plant," the director general noted.
Boguslayev recalled that AI-222 supplies to Russia are authorized by a Ukrainian-Russian intergovernmental agreement.
Mass production of the engine will be handled by Moscow's Salyut engine-building enterprise in Russia and by Motor Sich in Ukraine. Establishment of the engine's mass production in Russia is a requirement of the Defense Ministry for commissioning of a combat and training plane of the YAK-130 type.
The AI-222 engine has a thrust of 2,500kg in the maximum take-off mode. Its thrust amounts to 1,450 kg in the maximum mode on an altitude of 5 kilometers and 300 kg the economical mode on an altitude of 10 kilometers.