OREANDA-NEWS. January 20, 2012. The year 2011 saw some events that demonstrated well the achievements of NPO Saturn to the broad public. In 2011 the SSJ100 powered by the SaM146 engines entered its revenue service. At the MAKS-2011 aviation and space salon, the NPO Saturn-made engines took to the sky the newest developments of the Russian aviation-building industry – T-50, Su-35 and SSJ100. The same year for the first time the public was demonstrated the HJT-36 jet trainer equipped with the AL-55I engines. The significant events of the year were the two anniversary dates – the 65th anniversary of the A. Lyulka research and development center, a subsidiary of NPO Saturn, and the 95th anniversary of NPO Saturn itself.

The 2011 was crucial for the SaM146 engine program. At the beginning of the year the company was granted an AR IAC certificate authorizing NPO Saturn to carry out serial production of the SaM146 engines. In April the launch customer – the Armavia airline – put the SSJ100 aircraft into revenue service. In June, a second SSJ100 was put into revenue service, this time by the Aeroflot – Russian airlines air carrier. In June the company had completed a huge amount of work related to obtaining an MRO organization certificate for the SaM146 engine authorizing the company to perform MRO operations for both the CIS customers and Russian operators. The next step is to obtain similar certificates from EASA.

In 2011 NPO Saturn delivered GTD-110 №6, a high-power gas-turbine engine, to the block №2 of the Ivanovo combined-cycle power plant (a subsidiary of INTER RAO UES OJSC), generating 325 megawatts of power. To complete the Ivanovo CCPP’s block №2, a second GTD-110 will be delivered to the customer before the end of the year. The company carries out a number of actions aimed at enhancing operating performance and in-service reliability of GTD-110 and is constantly working on improving its customer support network.

Among other key events of 2011 – the executed contract for the overhaul of the D-30KP-2 engines on the order of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. After a number of years of a lack of funding, the government had found substantial means for sustaining the airworthiness of the military and cargo aviation. Consequently in 2011 the company overhauled around 50 engines for the amount exceeding 1 billion rubles.

The 2011 is inseparably linked with the company’s continued technological improvement; several projects were launched with the government funding of the new high-tech production facilities and dedicated areas in the frame of the federal target program focused on the defense and industrial complex of Russia.

In 2011 the design community of NPO Saturn continued accumulating the R&D backlog of knowledge and experience to be subsequently used for design and fabrication of the prospective engine for PAK FA. In the frame of the PD-14 project focused on the design and development of an engine for the MS-21 medium-haul aircraft, NPO Saturn had acquired status of the program’s main subcontractor. The works on designing the first-in-Russia E70/8 marine gas-turbine engine for industrial use delivering 8 megawatts of power and having a dual-fuel combustion chamber were completed. The works on designing a modification of the SaM146 engine having increased thrust and works on the special-purpose machinery were continued.

An important landmark of the expiring year was the accumulated in-service operating time of the GTD-6RM fleet of engines logging over 1 000 000 hours. In diverse types of operation in various climatic conditions, the engine had demonstrated its designed life and proved a high level of reliability.

For NPO Saturn the 2011 became a year of corporate transformations linked to the realization of the anti-crisis program. A vital part in the company’s operations belongs to the mobilization of its internal resources – active interaction with its suppliers, searching for new sales markets, creating competence centers in order to increase the production efficiency and continuing to outsource the non-core operations. The signature in 2011 of two contracts for supply of 184 D-30-KP-2 aviation engines for a Chinese customer and 200 GTD-10RM industrial gas-turbine engines for the amount of approximately 1 billion USD will require the company to undergo substantial organizational transformation.

NPO Saturn CEO, chairman of the Yaroslavl branch of the Machine builders union of Russia Ilya Fedorov noted: “For NPO Saturn the 2011 was difficult and easy at the same time. It is the year of brilliant performance at the MAKS air show and uneasy mastering of the SaM146 engine serial production. The year of successful completion of the government defense order regarding the repair of the D-30KP-2 engines and rocket field, as well as signature of long-term contracts that will have to be completed in the period of 3-4 years ahead. It is the year that will give Saturn a new corporate structure due to the evolution of the structure of orders and set objectives.

Today we foresee meeting the budget for the majority of indicators, and Saturn has all the chances to finish the financial year without any loss. In the plans for 2012 we have a 30% growth of production volume and heavy investment in the company’s further development. We have to increase by three the number of serially produced SaM146 engines while improving this engine’s financial performance. We are faced with a significant amount of work with regard to the government defense order including a rapid increase of orders for engines powering winged rockets.

It is very important that Saturn is becoming a company ready for structural transformations depending on the objectives set before it. Our design and development bureau has become different. It stared designing new products to meet the target cost. We create and develop Saturn-based competence centers and continue disposing of the assets that are not related to the production of gas-turbine engines. Speaking of Saturn’s internal structure, it will change with the sole purpose of fulfilling our commitments on the new contracts, and increasing the volume of serially produced SaM146 engines.