SAMARA. March 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The Samara-based Kuznetsov research and technical corporation will submit its project for a competition among aircraft engines for light helicopters, the corporation's director general and constructor general Yevgeny Gritsenko said on Tuesday.
"The Kuznetsov research and technical corporation is planning to submit the project of the NK-123 light turbofan engine developing about 550hp for the competition. We are developing the engine for the IL-100 light multipurpose plane and for other aircraft of the same class," Gritsenko told Interfax- Military News Agency.
Design and technical documents on the NK-123 are fully ready, he stressed. The engine was designed in cooperation with the Voronezh-based Chemical Automatics Design Bureau.
The NK-123 will be made in metal only if it wins the competition that is expected to involve up to six companies, Gritsenko noted.
He declined to disclose the expected value of R&D, saying only that the NK-123 development program is estimated at USD30m.
According to Gritsenko, the NK-123 should be fitted with up- to-date diagnostics and operation control systems. The engine meets ICAO standards as far as the noise and exhausts level is concerned. It has an electronic digital automatic control system reserved by a simplified hydromechanical system. It can be used as a power plant for light helicopters after minor operational development.
The engine's capacity amounts to 460hp in the cruising (economical) mode, 550hp in the take-off mode and 600hp in the emergency mode. The weight of the engine is 120kg.
The federal purpose-oriented program of Russian civilian aviation development provides for R&D in the sphere of designing a future gas-turbine aircraft engine developing 500-800hp from 2002 to 2005. The engine is to power light general-purpose aircraft. About RUB600m (USD19.12m) is allocated for this purpose. According to the program, the new engine is to be certified in 2005.