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AIRSHOWS
MAKS 2005 highlights This year's key aerospace event in Russia was the 7th MAKS International Aviation and Space Salon held at the Gromov Flight Research Institute’s airfield in Zhukovsky near Moscow on 16–21 August. MAKS 2005 hosted 654 exhibitors from 40 countries, including 134 companies from outside the CIS. Bahrain, Belgium, Finland, Georgia, the Netherlands and Slovakia were for the first time represented at the exhibition. The six-day event attracted 512,000 visitors, including more than 122,000 aviation specialists. Over 387,000 entrance tickets were sold to general public. The exhibition included 221 static and flying aircraft (159 of Russia and CIS states and 62 of foreign countries); 84 fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft together performed 243 demonstration flights. Take-off summarise most important events took place during MAKS 2005 CONTRACTS AND DELIVERIES • Two Il-76MFs for Jordan • China buys two Il-76 regiments • Egypt gets its first An-74 • AL-55I to be produced in India • Russian engines for Chinese fighters Su-30MKIs continue Indian service as RMAF prepares to take its first Su-30MKMs A year ago, in December 2004 Irkut corporation delivered the last of 32 Sukhoi Su-30MKI multirole fighters to India. Deliveries had been running since 2002, with the new aircraft inducted by two squadrons of the Indian Air Force. Simultaneously with the completion of the contract, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) in late 2004 launched license production of 140 Su-30MKIs. As a result, by 2020 the IAF will become one of the world-largest Flanker operators with a total of 190 fighters. A further version of the Su-30MKI is a twin-seat Su-30MKM multirole fighter currently under development by Sukhoi for Malaysia. Under an August 2003 contract from the Royal Malaysian Air Force, Irkut corporation will build 18 Su-30MKMs; deliveries are expected to begin in 2006. Andrey Fomin covers the details of Indian contract, Su-30MKI programme in whole and Flankers’ service with IAF as well as peculiarities of Su-30MKM project for Malaysia AIR FORCE • PAK FA to fly in four years • New Su-35 in more detail • MiG showcases MiG-29OVT and readies MiG-35 for tender • RVV-AE SAM version under development • Kamov proposes Army Aviation System • Kazan Helicopters unveils new Ansat version • Active phased arrays debut at MAKS • Kopyo for Yak-130 Mecca of military test pilots. Report from Akhtubinsk On 21 September, the 929th Chkalov GLITs State Flight Test Centre of the Russian Defence Ministry marked its 85th anniversary. The celebration provided for an open day at the Akhtubinsk airfield, once most protected and closed military installation in the South of the country, which involved an air show and a ground exhibition of aircraft and airborne weapons. Our correspondents who attended the event offer their report from Akhtubinsk and tell about Russian combat aircraft testing peculiarities, NII VVS milestones, present day and prospects of the main military aircraft testing centre in Russia "Flying school-desk" for fighters and more Flight schools have been employing special easier-to-pilot and cheaper aircraft for training fighter pilots since almost the very origins of aviation. Development of such aircraft progressed simultaneously with development of combat aviation. Jet trainers made their appearance at the same time as fighter jets. At the moment fighter pilots fly third- and fourth-generation aircraft. The fifth-generation aircraft is expected to become operational in the near future. At the same time pilots keep on honing their flight skills on Alpha Jet, Hawk, K-8, L-39, and MB339 aircraft, designed as far back as the 1970s. However, new fighters require new skills from pilots. This fact results in the necessity to train pilots directly in manoeuvre units, which is quite expensive, as well as to procure special twin-seat versions of combat aircraft, etc. It is only natural that several projects of a new-generation trainer aircraft should be developed in the world in the past decade. Such projects include the German Mako, the Chinese L-15, and the Italian M346. However, the Russia’s Yakovlev Design Bureau was among the first to embark on developing a new trainer, which resulted in designing the Yak-130 combat trainer, submitted for state tests this October. Andrey Yurgenson covers the current status of Yak-130 programme INDUSTRY • VolgAero to launch SaM146 production • Il-76 re-engining programme • Radar MMS procures two flying testbeds • Be-200 returns from Italy and prepares for Eurocertification • Be-103 certified in Brazil • Mi-38 goes public • Ryazan Instrument Plant introduces its own helicopter radar • Mi-54 makes a comeback Sergey Maksin: developing and producing aircraft optronics is a priority for UOMZ plant The Urals Optical and Mechanical Plant (UOMZ) is one of Russia's flagship defence enterprises, developing and manufacturing military and civil optronics. At the present time UOMZ produces hi-tech optronics for the Air Force, the Navy, and the Army. The plant's products are used in avionics, mounted on MiG and Sukhoi family aircraft, as well as Mil and Kamov helicopters. UOMZ successfully fulfils a number of big-ticket international contracts as well. The Urals Optical and Mechanical Plant had been headed by Director General Eduard Yalamov for a long time. Regrettably, he passed away on 21 July 2005 after a siege of acute disease. The Russian Federal Industry Agency announced a contest on filling the vacancy of the UOMZ Director General. On 6 September 2005 the tender committee of the Federal Industry Agency adopted a decision, appointing Sergey Maksin, the-then first deputy Director General, Director General of the Urals Optical and Mechanical Plant. Our correspondent met the new UOMZ Director General and asked Sergey Maksin a few questions about his enterprise and its products COMMERCIAL AVIATION • RRJ team gets state funding and secures first firm order • Tupolev joins MS-21 team • An-148 gets 39 orders • Yakutia to take first Russian-built An-140s • Boeing 787 shows its nose and gets new orders • Two more A380 prototypes join testing programme • Airbus increases cooperation with Russia COSMONAUTICS • Federal space programme 2015 adopted • New expedition at ISS Clipper: reusable successor to Soyuz? Early in the XXI century both Russian and American space exploration programmes keep on exploiting manned spacecraft, designed over a quarter of a century ago, namely the Russian Soyuz expendable spacecraft, which has lived up to its reputation during the 38 years of its operation, and the US Space Shuttle, fielded in 1981. It is worth mentioning that neither of them meets tougher contemporary requirements, facing manned spacecraft, any longer. The Space Shuttle has proved to be too expensive, and has displayed a number of drawbacks, affecting the flight safety. The Soyuz spacecraft no longer meets contemporary requirements either, despite the relative simplicity and high reliability of its design. Contemporary requirements include the necessity to increase the cargo traffic to the International Space Station (ISS), provide for returning results of space exploration back to the Earth, step up the frequency of launches, etc. In addition to that, limited dimensions of the spacecraft cabin complicate long autonomous flights, including space tourism ones. Based on that, the RKK Energia Corporation has been developing a partially reusable new-generation manned spacecraft for several years, taking advantage of its long-term experience in designing manned spacecraft. First information on the Clipper, the name of the new spacecraft was published in February 2004. RKK Energia has designed several versions of the spacecraft and built several models and mock-ups, demonstrating various design solutions, which may be capitalised on in the course of the development of the future reusable spaceship. The first demonstration of the Clipper full-scale mock-up took place at the RKK Energia premises a year ago, last November. The mock-up of the winged version was for the first time demonstrated in public at the MAKS 2005 air show in August 2005. Mikhail Zherdev examines the current status and prospects of the Clipper programme and describes the project details |
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