OREANDA-NEWS. The SaМ146 engine was originally installed “on wing” on April, 21st 2011. It is exactly on that date that the first commercial flight of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft from Moscow to Yerevan was performed. During the two years in revenue service, the SaM146 engine demonstrated good reliability of its design. A high level of confidence has been demonstrated by foreign customers who are placing orders for the Russian-made product: since the beginning of 2013 the deliveries to the customers outside the CIS area have begun.

At the moment there are 32 engines in service, out of which 30 are mounted on-wing, one is undergoing maintenance and one is spare. The main operator of the Sukhoi Supejet 100 aircraft powered by the SaM146 engines is Aeroflot having 10 aircraft in its fleet. Yakutial Airlines is operating two Superjet aircraft while Sky Aviation (Indonesia), Lao Central Airlines (Laos) and Armavia (Armenia) each have one Superjet in their respective fleets.

The total number of flight hours accumulated by all the SaM146 engines flying today equaled 39772 hours or 25212 cycles as of April, 22nd 2013.

Pursuant to the official statistics provided by PowerJet, to date there has not been a single incident in service caused by the engines. According to Georgy Konyukhov, NPO Saturn deputy general designer – SaM146 project head of design, “one of the key reliability indicators is the aircraft dispatch availability ensured by the engines. This figure appears every month in the reports submitted by PowerJet and, for instance, in March it was 99,87%. This shows very high reliability of the engines”.

The SaM146 engine program is an equal-contribution collaboration program between the Russian NPO Saturn and the French Snecma (Safran Group) focused on design, production and market promotion of the new propulsion system entitled SaM146 to power regional-to-medium-haul new-generation aircraft. The project is given high priority and is equally supported at the level of the Russian and French governments.

The SaM146 program is built on the principles of a strategic risk and revenue-sharing partnership in every aspect of the program. As far as the responsibility sharing is concerned, NPO Saturn is in charge of design of the engine low-pressure section, its fabrication and running dedicated tests of parts and sub-assemblies as well as of the final engine assembly, engine dressing and the entire range of ground tests before it ships the engine to the customer. At the same time, Snecma handles the design and manufacturing of the engine high-pressure section, administers overall design supervision and engine systems integration; it is also in charge of running the flight tests and the propulsion system/airframe integration.

Research and Production Association Saturn JSC is an engine-building company specialized in design, manufacture and after sales support of gas-turbine engines for military and civil aviation, the Navy boats and power-generation and gas-pumping installations. NPO Saturn JSC is a part of the United Engine Corporation Managing Company JSC.

United Engine Corporation Managing Company JSC is a subsidiary of the United Industrial Company OBORONPROM JSC. The Company integrates over 85% of Russia’s leading companies specialized in design and development, serial production and service support of gas-turbine machinery, as well as the key enterprises – the industry’s integral players. One of the UEC’s prioritized fields of activity is the implementation of comprehensive programs of development of the companies within the industry with introduction of the world-class new technology.

United Industrial Company OBORONPROM JSC is a diversified machine-building group of companies founded in 2002. It is a part of Russian Technologies State Corporation. Key businesses: helicopter production (Russian Helicopters JSC), engine production (UEC) and other assets.