Russian aviation industry. Through hardship to the stars!
On November 20, 2018, the press center of the Parliamentary Newspaper hosted the conference “Development of domestic aviation science - the basis of technological security in Russia.”
The conference was dedicated to the results of the work of the Expert Council on Scientific and Technological Development and Applied Science, created under the State Duma Commission of the Russian Federation on legal support for the development of organizations of the military-industrial complex of Russia, as well as the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after Professor N.E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI).
The Expert Council deals with the problems and mechanisms of legislative support for research and development in the interests of the domestic defense industry.
The conference was attended by the General Director of the Scientific Research Center “Institute named after N.E. Zhukovsky" Andrey Dutov, General Director of FSUE TsAGI Kirill Sypalo, Chairman of the Commission of the State Duma of the Russian Federation on legal support for the development of organizations of the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation Vladimir Gutenev.
The hour-long press conference was a rather rare public event in our time, when the participants spoke strictly to the point, frankly (but diplomatically) and competently, in good Russian.
Experts said that Russian military aviation did not experience any particular difficulties and could develop normally even during the “holy nineties”, which cannot be said about the civil and military transport aviation sectors.
Three programs for the development of the aviation industry were adopted in Russia, but none were fully implemented. The latter program fell victim to the severance of military-industrial ties with Ukraine. On the Ukrainian side, more than fifty research and production enterprises worked for the Russian aviation industry, so in the last 4 years the topic of import substitution has been high on the agenda. According to experts, the program is being successfully implemented, guaranteeing a bright future for the domestic aviation industry.
Despite the difficulties, Russian scientists are trying to keep up with their foreign colleagues in promising developments. One of the most interesting promising developments is the project of an electric aircraft with a hybrid engine.
General Director of the Zhukovsky Institute Andrei Dutov said that in 2019 an aircraft with a hybrid aircraft engine with a power of 500 kW is preparing to make its first flight in Russia. In terms of development and implementation of this project, Russian scientists and designers are ahead of such eminent competitors as Airbus and Siemens.
Things are going well with technology and the introduction of composites. In particular, with their help, it was possible to significantly lighten and increase the wingspan of the new, long-awaited MS-21 passenger airliner by two meters.
Difficulties, however, still remain. Thus, domestic aviation is in dire need of its own engines and world-class avionics.
Systematic work is being carried out in this direction and there has even been a serious leap forward with the PD-14 and PD-35 engines. The latter, by the way, is one of the most ambitious projects of Russian science.
At the same time, experts noted that the financial side of the matter, despite the state’s serious interest in the comprehensive development of the domestic aviation industry, remains the Achilles heel of the development of Russia’s own civil aviation. Therefore, it is not out of good fortune that our scientists and designers are participating in a joint project with the Chinese to create a new wide-body airliner CR-292.
According to experts, the Russian side in this project acts as a donor of ideas, and the Chinese as a technical implementer. That is, the contribution to the project is unequal and unpleasant nuances are possible along the way of project implementation.
At the same time, the State Duma representative noted that the Russian side is well aware that eternal friendship does not exist in the world, therefore our aviation industry, wise by bitter experience, is preparing its own “Plan B” just in case of fire - building a completely independent wide-body airliner Il- 96-400, radically different from all previous IL-96s.
The fate of the airliner directly depends on the successful completion of the development of a domestic engine for it, especially in terms of economy and maintainability. But, as the expert notes, “it is better to have in stock a slightly less efficient airliner of your own design and construction than a world-class airliner of joint development, which does not yet exist even on paper.”
On the other hand, it was emphasized that currently aviation technologies around the world have reached saturation and it is practically impossible to create an aircraft that is more efficient than existing competitors even by 10-15%. Not to mention the miracle plane. It is expected that in two to three years a new scientific and technological revolution will take place in the world, which will also bring aviation technology to a new level.
Apparently, the experts in a veiled form wanted to convey that Russia in the near future should not speed up the implementation of the expensive wide-body airliner project in order to start from a more breakthrough position with the advent of scientific and technological revolution.
It should be noted that in the speeches of the press conference participants there was an undisguised longing for Soviet times, when mutual understanding between the authorities and science was complete. The best period of Soviet aviation was the 1960s - 1980s.
Speaking about the problems of the relationship between the authorities and the aviation industry, experts said that the leading countries of the world have recently found a middle ground. USA - about ten years ago, Germany - about seven years ago.
Russia does not need to reinvent the wheel and fumble for something. We just need to restore the Soviet experience, when it was just a stone's throw from the drawing board of the research institute to the aircraft factory.
Russia needs not only reindustrialization, but also the reconstruction of industry research centers. In the USSR there were 68 of them. Despite the fact that aerospace industry research centers basically managed to survive the “holy nineties”. But things are not going well for the subcontractors.
State Duma representative Vladimir Gutenev diplomatically announced the Expert Council’s disagreement with the current policy of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, which is fixated on global scientific indicators, such as the citation index, publications and participation in scientific conferences.
As an example, he cited the legendary Soviet aircraft designer Tupolev, who had very few scientific publications to his name, but the steel birds of his design bureau were admired on all continents of the planet and no one in the world scientific community would dare to declare the inferiority of Tupolev as a scientist and designer.
He called the main goal of Russian civil aviation not at all compliance with some fashionable world trends, but compliance with the norms and standards of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Committee), in which, at the invitation of this authoritative body, more than 30 Russian aviation specialists work.
The topic of the failure of the Su-100 Superjet regional aircraft was also touched upon.
According to Gutenev, the difficult export fate of the aircraft was due to the gullibility of Russian officials in relation to Western partners. Despite the first interest shown, the story was not continued.
In addition, as the expert noted, a document is currently being developed to correct the monstrous imbalance in the legislation, according to which it is unprofitable for Russian air carriers to buy or lease Russian-made aircraft, which to a large extent constrains the civilian aviation industry.
Thus, it is profitable for air carriers to lease used Boeings and Airbuses from foreign companies and register them in some aviation offshore companies, without paying 20% VAT to the Russian treasury. Here, apparently, the war will be long, since at one time even the President of Russia was unable to overcome the resistance of the Russian lobby of Boeing and Airbus.
Journalists at the meeting were most interested in the question “why Russia is lagging behind in the development and construction of drones.”
The head of the Zhukovsky Institute, Andrei Dutov, answered them in the sense that there are no special problems in building the bird itself - there are materials, engines, technologies, personnel, etc. The main problem is the development of a secure information system for surveillance, control and telemetry. And this problem, by and large, can be dealt with.
The main thing is to figure out why it is necessary. Those drones that the domestic aviation industry is developing and building today are made by order of the Russian Ministry of Defense, which gives clear technical specifications.
The most striking example was the Buran, which made an unmanned flight to orbit and back, unprecedented in the history of astronautics.
If we are talking about civilian drones, then first of all a regulatory framework and infrastructure complex must be formed
for their maintenance. However, there is no order for all this from either the Russian state or business.
As an interesting addition, experts spoke about the participation of Russian aircraft engine engineers in providing serious assistance in the implementation of energy projects and even in the development of a car engine as part of the “Cortege” project - work on a new domestic car for government members with an eye on the civilian market.
This ended the press conference. The only conclusion that comes to mind after watching it is that the Russian aviation industry, in spite of everything, is on its way through thorns to the stars!
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