OREANDA-NEWS. The NPO Saturn assembly shop shipped its 100th SaM146 engine powering SSJ100 ordered by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC) since the beginning of its serial production to the Komsomolsk-upon-Amur-based KnAAPO. To date 64 power plants have been delivered to foreign and domestic customers operating the aircraft powered by the SaM146 engines.

The SaM146 engine program serving the needs of the SSJ100 regional/medium-range aircraft is proceeding at the set pace. The SaM146 engine (1S17 version) was certified by EASA (European Air Safety Agency) and IAC AR (Interstate Aviation Committee AviaRegister) in summer 2010, and has been in revenue service powering the SSJ100 aircraft for almost 3 years now.

On January 17, 2012 the 1S18 version of the SaM146 propulsion system featuring increased thrust designed to power the extended-range SSJ100-95 aircraft was certified to meet the EASA requirements.

On April 12, 2012 NPO Saturn was granted an EASA production organization approval (POA) certificate, while a year earlier (on January 2011) Saturn received a similar certificate granted by IAC AR.

As of February 20, 2014, the overall on-wing time logged by the entire SaM146-operated fleet exceeded 78 thousand flight hours and over 51 thousand cycles. The main engine reliability indicators demonstrate compliance with the requirements of the international standards and world-class practice of operating modern aircraft engines, in particular, the engine dispatch ratio equals 99.94%.

At the moment the SSJ100 aircraft is operated by airlines in 4 countries while its flight route network incorporates some 70 airports in 23 different states.

The principal operators of the Sukhoi SuperJet 100 aircraft equipped with the SaM146 engines are: Aeroflot - Russian Airlines having in its fleet 10 such aircraft, InterJet (Mexico) having already received 5 aircrafts and awaiting 4 more in the nearest future, Sky Aviation (Indonesia) having 3 aircraft, Moskoviya operating 2 Superjet's and waiting to receive 1 more aircraft soon, Yakutiya - 2 aircraft, Lao Central Airlines (Laos) - 1 aircraft, Gazpromavia has already received 3 aircraft, revenue service was slated to begin from February 2014, another 6 aircraft were delivered to a leasing company; at the moment the negotiations with other potential operators are underway.

As a result of state support and its own investments, NPO Saturn has been able to industrialize some state-of-the-art production processes, build and put into operation new facilities for the design, manufacturing and after-market support of the SaM146 engines.

As part of the deployment of a holistic customer support network for the SaM146 engines, two customer support centers (one in Russia and one in France) have been certified and are now fully functional; spare parts distribution centers have also been put into operation. The company's MRO facilities have been certified to meet the requirements of FAVT (Federal Air Traffic Agency) and IAC AR. Presently NPO Saturn proceeds with the EASA certification of its MRO activities.

Based on the needs of the airframer producing the SSJ100 aircraft, SCAC and NPO Saturn implement various actions aimed at gradual SaM146 production ramp-up, which should help the company reach a throughput exceeding 100 engines per year starting from next year.

At the festive get-together dedicated to the delivery of the SaM146 engine to the customer, 34 company employees were bestowed NPO Saturn certificates of honor for significant personal contribution to the design and serial production of the SaM146 engines.

Mikhail Berdennikov, SaM146 program director at NPO Saturn:

“Here we are, at the assembly shop. Behind this wall, there is the shop specialized in repair and assembly of the D-30-KP, the legendary, impeccable-in-operation but still soon-to-be-gone engines. Over there is the past, right here is the future. And we are immensely proud of this future...

The delivery of the 100th SaM146 engine is a unique event, first of all because Russia never had a product like this before. The SaM146 is the only Russian engine certified to meet the requirements of European Aviation Safety Agency, and the fact that over these past three years we have almost tripled the production volume of these engines is a great success, our demonstrated ramp-up ability meets the best industrial standards. Besides, to us this engine is very special, it was not created in the way all the other engines were developed back in the Soviet times, or in post-Soviet Russia. All the procedures along with the design and certification-related activities were performed in a new way. Through this program, NPO Saturn has acquired new competences, and what's most important, it has been able to foster a new generation of engineers who think and go about their daily activities differently than their predecessors. The SaM146 has demonstrated brilliant in-service performance, and that shows and proves that we've chosen the right way.”

Christel Gayet, deputy chief executive officer in charge of transformations and cross-border collaboration:

“We are now witnessing a very special event. It is a result of collaboration between different people of Saturn and Snecma.

I think everyone can take pride in what we have been able to achieve since the SaM146 engine is the result of the entire company's effort. Every employee has played his or her special role in this program which is manifested in the highest level of quality of this product and on-time delivery meeting all our customers' expectations.

With all due respect to our achievements (this hundredth engine being one of them), I would like to share with you about the prospects of this undertaking, of the future which awaits us.

We've been extremely lucky: we are operating in a market which is actively growing. This market grows 4-5 % every year and it will continue to grow at this pace for the next 20 years, while for a 10-year perspective the aircraft engine-building market is valued at USD 800 bln. And the SaM146 engine is in fact the product which has given NPO Saturn a chance to enter that growing market.”

Some facts:

The SaM146 propulsion system was designed by NPO Saturn in collaboration with a French company Snecma and represents an integrated power plant (incorporating the engine, the nacelle and the engine accessories) purpose-designed for application on regional/medium-range new-generation aircraft.

The SaM146 program is built on the principals of a strategic, risk- and revenue-sharing partnership with parity in every respect of activity. NPO Saturn is in charge of the design of low-pressure components of the engine, their manufacturing and conducting of special tests of new parts; it's also in charge of the engine assembly, preparation and conducting of the entire range of ground tests and engine delivery to the customer while Snecma is in charge of the design and fabrication of the high-pressure engine components, general design supervision and engine systems integration; Snecma is also in charge of conducting flight tests of the power plant and integration of the propulsion system with the airframe.

The SaM146 is the first Russian-made propulsion system having received an internationally recognized EASA type certificate. The first application of the SaM146 power plant is the Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft family designed by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (a 100% subsidiary of Sukhoi Holding Company in partnership with Alenia (Italy).

The engine has materialized and been fully certified. All of its design parameters have been achieved in operation. A number of post-certification activities have been planned and are now underway in relation with engine life tests, performance optimization activities, weight decrease and conducting of specific design engineering actions aimed at improving the engine performance and in-service reliability.

The NPO Saturn Research and Production Association (OJSC) is an engine-building company specialized in the design and development, production and after-market support of gas turbine engines for military and civil aviation, naval ships and power-generating plants and gas-pumping units. The association is part of the All-Russian public organization The Union of mechanical engineers of Russia whereby the regional branch is headed by I. N. Fedorov, NPO Saturn CEO.

NPO Saturn is part of United Engine Corporation (OJSC) and acts as the leader of the Civil Engines Division, a business unit of UEC founded on 09.10.2012 as a result of integration of the following companies: NPO Saturn (OJSC), Aviadvigatel (OJSC), PMZ (OJSC), Metallist-PM (CJSC), Energetik-PM (OJSC), REMOS-PM (CJSC), Motoservis-PM (CJSC) and Zheleznodorozhnik-PM (CJSC).

United Engine Corporation (OJSC) is a subsidiary of the OBORONPROM UIC (OJSC). The UEC structure integrates over 85% of Russia's leading companies specialized in the design and development, serial production and after-market support of gas turbine machinery as well as the key enterprises - the industry's integral players. One of UEC's prioritized fields of activity is the implementation of comprehensive programs of development of the companies in the industry by introducing new technologies meeting the world-class standards.

The OBORONPROM United Industrial Corporation (OJSC) is a multi-field machine-building group created in 2002. It is part of Rostec. The main fields of activity are helicopter building (the Russian Helicopters holding), engine building (the UEC holding) and other assets.

The Rostekhnologii State Corporation (Rostec) is a Russian corporation established in 2007 in order to facilitate the development, manufacturing and export of high-technology industrial products of military and civil purposes. Today it comprises over 663 companies, which form 8 military-industrial and 5 civil industry holdings. Rostec's subsidiaries are located in 60 regions of Russia and supply their products to over 70 countries worldwide. In 2012 revenues of the Corporation amounted to RUB 931 billion, net profits were RUB 38.5 billion and total taxation exceeded RUB 109 billion.