Russia's United Engine Corporation to focus strategy to 2030 on new generation gas turbine engines - chief designer

NOVOSIBIRSK. Aug 27 (Interfax) - Russia's United Engine Corporation (UEC), a division of Rostec Group, has updated its strategy for scientific and technological development for the period to 2030 and beyond to 2036, UEC chief designer Yury Shmotin said at the Tekhnoprom-2024 forum in Novosibirsk on Tuesday.

"For small scale general aviation with flights lasting up to an hour, electric engines are the most promising," Shmotin said.

But for other applications, "there are no alternatives to gas turbine engines in the next thirty years," he said.

UEC's scientific and technological development strategy will aim for the company to join forces with scientific organizations, institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, post-secondary educational institutions and innovative companies to lay the advanced scientific and technical groundwork for the development of promising new generation gas turbine engines, Shmotin said. The gradual implementation of the strategy will ensure the development of UEC's product line.

He also recalled that UEC has decided to also expand its competencies in the development of hybrid engines, and a hybrid engine demonstrator was presented at the Innoprom forum in July.

He said UEC plans to build a technology demonstrator engine for helicopters by 2029. "An important challenge that we're starting this year is to create a demonstrator for new generations of helicopters. With the scientific and technical groundwork that was created in development, we plan to develop, build and test a technology demonstrator engine by 2029," Shmotin said.

UEC also has plans to complete the next stage of measures under its import substitution program in 2025. "In 2025 we plan to complete the next stage of a range of efforts that will enable us to say that we are effectively carrying out the import substitution program, but there is still a lot of work ahead," Shmotin said.

He said that as of this year UES is developing all new products using domestic software as part of the transition to import independence. For example, revolutionary technologies were used in a number of assemblies for the PD-35 engine, Shmotin said.

"The blades of low-pressure turbines were made using additive technologies for the first time," he said.