RYBINSK, Yaroslavl Region. July 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The Saturn research and production association has started assembling a fifth-generation aircraft engine, Saturn's press service reported on Friday.
"All design documents related to the production of components for the fifth-generation engine were elaborated by Saturn and handed over to Ufa for components production in accordance with an agreement between Saturn, the Ufa engine- building association and the Sukhoi military aircraft corporation. Under the agreement, the Ufa association supplied the components for assembling the fifth-generation engine to Saturn," the press release reads.
Saturn Technical Director and Constructor General Mikhail Kuzmenko said a series of derivatives of the AL-31 engine have been designed in the framework of joint work. The engine performed good at tests and was considered a suitable baseline model.
Under a program approved by the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and the Air Force command, control over incoming components, assembly and tests of the new asset will be completed within a few months, and a plane powered with the new engine will perform its maiden flight before the end of the year.
"Our cooperation with Ufa engine builders is a vivid example of real fruitful cooperation aimed at efficient accomplishment of top-priority state missions," Saturn Director General Yuri Lastochkin said.
The Russian government has appointed Saturn chief developer of a new-generation engine.