Vladimir Karnozov

In the conditions of the recent chill in East-West relations, the Paris Air Show 2019 gives Russia a rare chance to expose her key aerospace programs to the European public, as well as provides a convenient place for negotiations with traditional and potential customers including those in official delegations from about hundred nations. Among important ongoing developments are efforts to resume serial production of turboprop aircraft in the country, following termination of most programs almost 20 years ago.

 


Despite failures with the Sukhoi Su-80GP and Antonov An-38 programs at the turn of the century, the local industry now places hope in completely indigenous products: the Ilyushin Il-112V high-wing tactical airlifter and Il-114-300 low-wing regional airliner&nbsp;seating 64 passengers. Optimized for military and civilian use, respectively, both rely on locally made Klimov TV7-117ST turboprop engines.

 


Already available in a prototype form, the two are on the way to quantity production starting in 2021-2023, each with a rate of 10 to 12 airframes annually. Less than three months ahead of the Paris show opening, a first prototype of the Il-112 and an Il-114LL chase plane made three low-altitude circles over the city of Voronezh at a speed of 250 km/h (135 knots). Such was the start of the Il-112 flight trials.

 


Airborne for the first time on March 30 from the aerodrome of the Voronezh Aviation Plant (VASO), Aircraft 01 meets all customer requirements except payload-range (5 tonnes [11,022 pounds]) to 1,200 km [755 nm]), Ilyushin general designer Nikolai Talikov acknowledged. The industry needs to reduce structural weight by 2.5 tonnes&nbsp;to meet the Russian defense ministry’s specification. A set of measures already prepared promises to remove 2,082 kg&nbsp;[4,590 pounds] by application of lighter construction materials, “optimization” of the hydraulic system, and replacement of mechanical linkage by fly-by-wire flight controls. Reworked documentation is being applied during construction of Aircraft 03, a second operable airplane that is due to get airborne in the late 2020 or early 2021.

 


For a year now, the Aircraft 02 has been undergoing stress and fatigue testing at TsAGI, the Central AeroHydroDynamics Institute in Zhukovsky near Moscow. Aircraft 04 is meant to be the first deliverable machine with full compliance to MoD specification.

 


An issue with Aircraft 01 is unstable digital engine controls, discovered during the 45-minute first flight. It proceeded uneventfully until final approach when at 30 meters (98 feet) above the ground the right engine’s control system developed failures and automatically activated the hydro-mechanical backup. This resulted in the right-hand Klimov TV7-117ST reducing rpm compared to left-hand engine, which&nbsp;continued to function normally under digital control. “So, there was a malfunction, but the right engine itself worked well,”&nbsp;Talikov said. “The hydro-mechanical controls serve&nbsp;as a backup, and whenever it gets activated, the airplane remains fully operational.”

 


Apart from a more reliable digital control system, serially produced TV7-117ST engines will be&nbsp;90 kg&nbsp;lighter.

 


Meantime, the customer warned Ilyushin and VASO that it will not award them a contract for serial production unless all parameters in the 2014 specification are met. The defense ministry presented aircraft developers with an amended set of requirements in December 2014. Reportedly,&nbsp;about 50 percent of 135 specific requirements were revised. To date, the manufacturer has managed compliance with 113 of those requirements, according to Talikov.

 


The revisions were&nbsp;made shortly after the politically influenced decision to discontinue all major cooperative Russo-Ukrainian projects in the military-technical sphere in the light of Crimea’s annexation and hostilities in Donbass. Before that, Moscow was favoring a version of the Antonov An-140 turboprop with a ramp. The An-140 commuter passenger version was already in service with the Russian Air and Space Force (VKS), and the new version&nbsp;would reduce acquisition costs while promising fleet unification.

 


Work on shaping the would-be replacement for the long-serving An-26 commenced at the turn of the century. In 2004 Ilyushin won the LVTS (local acronym for “lightweight military transport aircraft”) competition with the offer of the Il-112V. The airplane is suitable for air-dropping large loads, while its major role would be transporting&nbsp;various cargoes between short-runway airports with either paved or grass airstrips.

 


A documentation pack was prepared in 2010, but shortly afterward the customer stopped funding manufacturing preparations at VASO. Three years later the Il-112V project was taken off the shelf. In late 2016, the manufacturer reported that a full pack of digital documentation was ready. After excessive weight issues were discovered, Ilyushin came up with a plan to tackle these in June 2017.

 


Demand for&nbsp;that class of aircraft is estimated at 300 units for Russia and 1,000 for the former Soviet Union. As a first step, the Kremlin plans to place an order for “more than a hundred” Il-112Vs, according to Yuri Borisov, deputy chairman of the Russian government responsible for the military industrial complex.

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