Summary
- Airlines operating the domestically made MC-21 might want to temporarily ground the aircraft for engine overhauls, leading to the necessity for Russia to reverse engineer Airbus and Boeing aircraft for a sustainable fleet.
- Imported engines from Western manufacturers have limited service lives and would require overhauls in the subsequent years.
- Russian-made engines have shorter service lives in comparison with Western engines, highlighting the necessity for reverse engineering to keep up the Russian airline industry.
Evgeny Elin, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Russia’s S7 Group, which owns S7 Airlines, has warned that airlines which might be going to operate the domestically made Irkut MC-21 would must ground the aircraft periodically as a consequence of engine overhauls of the PD-14 engines. In consequence, with sanctions in place, Russia must learn how you can reverse engineer Airbus and Boeing aircraft to sustain an airworthy fleet.
Reverse engineering
Elin’s comments got here through the Russian Industrialist International Forum in late November 2023, where he spoke in regards to the status of the S7 Group, S7 Airlines, and the Russian aviation industry on the whole. Elin explained that the country’s airlines are going to face an issue in the subsequent few years, specifically, since the service lifetime of imported engines, similar to the CFM International CFM56, powering Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG) or the Airbus A320ceo aircraft families, or the CFM International LEAP or the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engine families, are limited, and they’d have to be overhauled in the subsequent seven or so years.
The chairman noted that the realistic service lifetime of a Western-made engine is about eight years, meaning that overhauls could have to be done by the late 2020s, considering that sanctions on Russia’s aerospace sector have been put in place since 2022. They’ve limited access to spare parts and maintenance information.
Photo: EXPOFORUM
Moreover, Elin identified that Russian-made engines must be overhauled much quicker than their Western counterparts, showcasing a graph that said that the Aviadvigatel PS-90 and Aviadvigatel PD-14 have a service lifetime of 6,000 flight hours (FH) and three,600 FH, respectively. The latter engine’s service life should extend to 12,500 FH by 2030. Nevertheless, S7 Group’s executive noted that the CFM56 could fly for as much as 40,000 FH between overhauls, mentioning a difference between Russian and Western-built power plants. Elin even identified that the Business Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) couldn’t get a domestic engine for the C919, China’s competitor to the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320neo aircraft families, counting on the CFM International LEAP-1C to power the C919.
Photo: COMAC
As such, Elin stated that it was higher for the country’s airlines to actively reverse-engineer Airbus and Boeing aircraft to maintain the establishment of the Russian airline industry. The chief also shared a prognosis that by 2030, there will likely be a complete of 545 aircraft flying in Russia, 340 of which can be either the Irkut MC-21 or the Tupolev Tu-214. The remaining 205 can be foreign-made aircraft, similar to the Airbus A320 or Boeing 737. In accordance with ch-aviation data, S7 Airlines operates a 102 narrowbody aircraft fleet with no Russian-made jets. Out of the 102, 38 are either in storage or in maintenance.
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Denying an engine fire
Recently, an S7 Airlines Boeing 737-800, registered as RA-73665 (previous registration VQ-BKV), was forced to return to Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport (OVB) as a consequence of a reported engine fire. While the airline has since denied an engine fire, explaining that the 2 engines experienced compressor stalls and subsequent pressure surges, the aircraft has remained at OVB because the incident on December 7, 2023.
Russia’s aviation sector has been placed under sanctions following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The country’s airlines since have illegally re-registered their aircraft in Russia and have attempted to source parts and technical information from various sources, including Iran.