The main aircraft: how the program for the creation of the Russian liner MS-21 is developing

Five years ago, on May 28, 2017, flight tests of the Russian narrow-body medium-haul passenger airliner MS-21-300 started at the airfield of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant.

Test pilots Oleg Kononenko and Roman Taskaev, who were awarded the title of Hero of Russia, sent the newest car on its first flight.

Commenting on this significant event, Sergey Chemezov, General Director of Rostec, called the debut flight of the MS-21-300 one of the key milestones that the Russian civil aircraft industry has achieved in the 21st century.

MS-21-300 is a modification of the liner with PW1400G engines of the American company Pratt & Whitney.

It was with these power units that the Russian aircraft was originally created.

At the same time, the industry of the Russian Federation did not expect that the airliner would fly exclusively on foreign engines: in parallel with the development of the MS-21 program, a domestic analogue of the engine, the PD-14, was created.

Subsequently, the aircraft with Russian power plants received the designation MS-21-310.

Its first flight took place on December 15, 2020.

“MC-21 was created when relations with the West were not so bad, and our own developments on a new generation engine were still raw.

Therefore, it was decided to purchase the PW1400G and install them on the first production samples.

The point was also that the foreign customer had a choice between aircraft with American and Russian engines, ”Vladimir Popov, Honored Pilot of the Russian Federation, explained in a RT commentary.

"Key Technologies"

MS-21 ("Main aircraft of the XXI century") is a family of new generation liners for flights over a distance of several thousand kilometers.

Under the designation MS-21-300/310, it is planned to produce aircraft with 160-211 seats.

Also, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) intends to produce smaller MS-21-200 aircraft for 130-176 seats.

The maximum flight range of "three hundred" should be 6 thousand km, "two hundred" - 6.4 thousand km.

From the passenger's point of view, the MS-21 differs from its foreign counterparts primarily in a higher level of comfort.

The Russian car is the most spacious existing narrow-body aircraft in the world.

The cabin width of the MC-21 is 406 cm, which is approximately 30 cm more than that of the Boeing 737.

“The wide aisle makes it possible to serve passengers without blocking the passage with trolleys, to allow two passengers to disperse freely, and to provide better service to the disabled and people with disabilities,” the UAC materials say.

The creators of the MS-21 expanded the personal space of passengers, and in the interior design they took into account "modern anthropometric trends", making the flight more comfortable for people of different builds.

Also, the wide fuselage is convenient because it allows you to increase the capacity of luggage racks and underfloor luggage compartments.

Despite the overall body, MS-21 did not become heavier than foreign competitors.

This effect was achieved by integrating composite materials and promising metal alloys into the design of the machine.

The share of composites in the aircraft is estimated at 40%; for example, the MS-21 wing is completely made of this material. 

“The composite wing is lighter and more aerodynamic than a metal wing.

From the point of view of the cost of operating the aircraft, this is a big plus.

In particular, the “black wing” (a wing made of carbon fiber. -

) lightens the weight of the aircraft, respectively, fuel consumption decreases, flight range increases, ”said Vladimir Popov.

• MS-21

• © Irkut Corporation

According to Rostec, the composite wing gives the MS-21 the ability to consume 8% less fuel compared to its counterparts.

“Specialists have calculated that a medium-range aircraft with a conventional aluminum wing spends about 140,000 tons of fuel during its life.

Only due to the composite wing, the MS-21 will be able to save more than 11 thousand tons of fuel.

Plus, this advantage is increased cruising speed and flight altitude, ”the state corporation’s website says.

It is worth noting that the materials for the “black wing” of the MS-21 were partially imported from the United States, but in 2018 Washington imposed further sanctions against the Russian Federation, and their supply ceased.

In such a situation, it was decided to create our own missing composites.

This task was entrusted to the engineers of Moscow State University.

M.V.

Lomonosov, "Rosatom" and a number of enterprises in the aviation industry of the Russian Federation.

Import substitution was supported by the government, which allocated 4.4 billion rubles to scientists for development.

The first flight of the MS-21 with a wing made of domestic composites took place on December 25, 2021.

The aircraft was flown by the same crew as MS-21-300 on May 28, 2017.

In March of this year, tests of the caisson, the main power element of the wing of the Russian aircraft, took place.

The product was subjected to breaking loads.

During the experiment, it broke only after exceeding the calculated indicator.

Thus, the highest characteristics of the strength and safety of the caisson "under the most unfavorable combination of flight conditions" were proved.

In the production of the "black wing" for the MS-21, Russian enterprises use a recently patented vacuum infusion technology that allows you to literally bake aircraft wings.

The advantage of this technology lies in the convenience of manufacturing complex large-sized surfaces.

“The appearance of a completely Russian “black wing” and the development of the technology for its production can, without exaggeration, be called a big breakthrough in our science and industry.

Without this, the MS-21 would have lost a lot of its competitive advantages over Boeing and Airbus narrow-body aircraft, ”Roman Gusarov, editor-in-chief of the Avia.ru portal, said in an interview with RT.

Another important achievement of domestic specialists, experts interviewed by RT, called the development of the PD-14, the first Russian turbofan aircraft engine created in our country after the collapse of the USSR.

• MS-21

• © Irkut Corporation

The unit was created on the basis of a well-established classic gearless circuit.

At the end of December, in an interview with journalists, the executive director of JSC Perm Motors, Sergey Kharin, said that the technical solutions used in the PD-14 made it possible to achieve specific characteristics at the level of the best foreign products.

“When discussing the merits of the PD-14, we are primarily talking about the life cycle cost.

The PD-14 has a lower temperature in the hot part, cheaper materials, repairs, after-sales service.

In this, the Russian engine is ahead of foreign counterparts,” said Kharin.

According to Rostec, Russian designers have developed and implemented "16 key technologies" into the new engine.

“When creating the engine, new Russian alloys of titanium and nickel are used.

The design of the engine nacelle consists of 65% of domestic polymer composites, due to which the required level of sound insulation is achieved and the engine weight is reduced, ”the state corporation reports.

"All investments are justified"

Despite the mass of unique developments integrated into the MS-21, the Russian airliner project continues to experience difficulties due to dependence on foreign components.

In order to abandon this dependence, at the end of December 2021, the Russian government decided to allocate an additional 61 billion rubles for import substitution and other work under the liner program.

“Compared to the SSJ-100, the MS-21 was much less affected by Western sanctions, but they still had a negative impact - the terms of certification and the launch of mass production have shifted,” Vladimir Popov stated.

The expert explained the dependence of the MS-21 on Western components by the general “underdevelopment” of the civil industry sector of the Russian Federation due to the focus on importing aviation products from Western countries established in the 1990s.

“When creating the MS-21, Russia could not rely solely on its technologies.

It was necessary to pull up engineering, the engine-building industry, and avionics.

Now the sanctions have even helped.

Sooner or later, Russia would still have to make a completely domestic airliner out of the MS-21, ”Popov argues.

A similar point of view is shared by Roman Gusarov.

According to the expert, tough sanctions against the aircraft industry of the Russian Federation have become an inevitable price for the sovereign policy and Russia's desire to gain technological independence from the West.

“This spring we received a full package of sanctions on the aviation industry.

In this regard, it is now necessary to create new components and certify them.

Nevertheless, I don’t see any serious mistakes that the developers and ideologists of the MS-21 would have made, ”says Gusarov.

• MS-21 on the runway

• © Irkut Corporation

The interlocutor of RT emphasized that the MS-21 remains a modern competitive aircraft, the need for which Russia has only increased against the backdrop of recent Western sanctions.

“There was hope that the MS-21 would fly first, and then we would gradually change foreign components to domestic ones.

Yes, it turned out the opposite, but it is important to understand that these tests benefited the Russian aviation industry.

During the program, dozens of new high-tech areas have appeared.

There is still a lot of work to be done, but all investments in the MS-21 are justified, especially in the current conditions, ”Gusarov summed up.