ZHUKOVSKY, Moscow region, August 18 (Itar-Tass) —— The Saturn research and production association has received a certificate of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) for the right to service Sukhoi SuperJet-100 planes.
Saturn Managing Director Ilya Fyodorov said the certificate continues “the acquisition of documents for work with SaM146 [engine] and therefore for the operation of the plane itself”.
Earlier the design bureau was certified to confirm its right to create engines that meet world standards. Then engine production was certified. The third stage of certification confirmed Saturn’s right to repair and maintain the SaM146 engines used in SuperJet-100 planes.
“We are monitoring the situation and will supply as many engines as the aircraft makers need,” Fyodorov said earlier.
“There are no problems with their production. The first plane with our engines is already in service and operates well,” he added.
Saturn makes three Sam146 engines a month and will make five from 2012. Currently, 33 engines for SuperJet-100 planes are in the works.
Saturn has recently presented a new information system for SuperJet-100 engines.
The project is being implemented in cooperation with the company Luxoft, one of the biggest IT developers in the world. It took two years to create the system.
“No industry in the aircraft industry can create a new product without well developed and supporting information technologies. The development of information technologies reflects the level of organisational maturity of business processes in a company. The use of IT systems for computerised design helped to speed up the development of gas turbine engines. It is also important that IT support has become an inalienable part of production and operation processes,” Fyodorov said earlier.
Saturn has been making all design documentation in electronic from since 2001. It started using electronic systems for drafting production documentation in 2003. In 2005 and 2008, Saturn launched super computers with a capacity of 1 and 14.3 teraflops respectively, each of which became the most productive machine in Russia’s industry.
“As a result, the number of counting channels increased 100 times, and the engine design cycle was shortened three times,” Fyodorov said.
Saturn IT Director Yuri Zelenkov said the creation of an information system for post-sale SaM146 engine support was “unique for Russia” and became operational in December 2010.
“The SaM146 engine was created not only for the Russian but also for the Western market. All post-sale services are provided both by Saturn and its partner – the company SNECMA – on a parity basis and by Western standards,” he said.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certified the model SaM146 engine for the Sukhoi SuperJet-100 plane in the middle of last year.
This certificate confirms that the SaM146 engine fully satisfies EU safety requirements, EASA Executive Director Patrick Goudou said.
He noted that it was a result of particularly successful cooperation between PowerJet (joint venture created by Saturn Research and Production Association) and French SNECMA), the Interstate Aviation Committee, and the EASA.
Goudou expressed hope that the new engine will be put into commercial operation within months.
PowerJet Director-General Hean-Paul Ebanga said the certification of SaM146, the first-ever engine designed and made jointly by Russia and France, was “an epoch-making event” in relations between Europe and Russia in the aerospace industry.
During the testing, the SaM146 engine worked for 7,100 hours, including 3,500 hours in flight. Experts said the tests had shown unique properties of the new engine.
Ebanga said that the engine was an alloy of new and tested technologies based on the experience of using the most successful CFM-56 engine in the history of civil aviation and Saturn’s experience of designing and making engines for civil and military planes.
Saturn Director-General Yuri Lastochkin said the programme to create the SaM146 engine for the Sukhoi SuperJet-100 aircraft had proved successful but might face serious competition from China.
The Aviation Register of the Interstate Aviation Committee issued a type certificate for Sukhoi SuperJet-100 on February 3, 2011. The new plane will replace Tu-134 jets.
The plane has completed all certification tests, making 1,060 flights and flying 2,500 hours. All evidential documents have been collected and handed over to the IAC (Interstate Aviation Committee) Aviation Register. The manufacturer plans to receive a certificate for an upgraded version of the plane from the European Aviation Safety Agency in the middle of 2011 in order to take the SuperJet to the global market.
The plane has been designed by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft. The first planes went to the Armenian airline Armavia and Aeroflot.