fiightglobal.com 18-31 August 2015 | Flight International | 33
RUSSIA
SUPERJET❯❯gies change but philosophy is a way of think-
ing – it is very reliable, very maintainable. It is
friendly to the ground staff. And it is very ro-
bust to the heat injections.”
In considering options for powering the
stretched Superjet, Sukhoi has closely stud-
ied the Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan en-
gine, which is selected to power the Airbus
A320neo, Bombardier CSeries, Embraer E-Jet
E2 and the Mitsubishi Regional Jet. Russianbetween France’s Snecma and Russia’s United
Engine Corp.
“If you compare our engine with the exist-
ing product on the market, which is the [GE]
CF34, in terms of specific fuel consumption
the SaM146 is better by 1-2%, which is a lot,”
Dolotovsky says. “This engine is based on the
technologies and the philosophy – from my
point of view philosophy is much more im-
portant in terms of design because technolo-static. It was developed in the same
class of technology as the
Bombardier CRJ700/900/1000
and E-Jet family. In three years,
Embraer plans to deliver the sec-
ond-generation E190-E2 with a
more efficient wing and the Pratt &
Whitney PW1900G geared turbofan
engine. It could make SuperJet
International’s task much more dif-
ficult to expand the market for the
Russian aircraft in the West.
So far, UAC has discussed plans
to introduce winglets and reduce
the weight of the Superjet, but the
possible launch of a 130-seat ver-
sion offers an opportunity to make
more dramatic improvements.
The focus of any major upgrade
would have to include the engine.
The Superjet 100 uses PowerJet’s
SaM146. It features a low-pres-
sure section contributed by NPO
Saturn, a subsidiary of United
Engine (UEC), and a high-pressure
section developed by Snecma.
The high-pressure module was
derived from Snecma’s Dem21
demonstrator core, and features a
six-stage high-pressure compres-sor and a single turbine stage.
UAC delivered basic performance
parameters for a potential 130-seat-
er to its engine supplier a year ago.ENGINE DECISION
“Together jointly with Snecma we
made a preliminary investigation of
what it would take to modernise the
SaM146, and so it is possible to
make an engine based on SaM146
for this aircraft,” said Vladislav
Masalov, UEC’s chief executive, in a
recent interview.
UAC’s requirements for the 130-
seat aircraft are not fixed, so the
PowerJet consortium developed two
options. The first option is a “light”
upgrade programme involving an
improved version of Snecma’s full-authority digital engine control sys-
tem and a 3% thrust increase. A
larger modernisation is also pro-
posed that includes upgrading the
engine core and low-pressure sec-
tion, Masalov says.
If more fuel efficiency is required
for the Superjet to compete on an
even basis with a new class of re-
gional jets powered by geared turbo-
fans, Masalov says, UEC can
provide another option.
Another UEC subsidiary,
Aviadvigatel, is developing the high-
bypass PD-14 engine as a Russian-
designed alternative to the P&W
geared turbofan for the Irkut
MC-21, a narrowbody in the same
class as the Boeing 737-800 and
Airbus A320. ■“First of all, the
investment will
be channelled to
ease credit burden”
YURI SLYUSAR
Chief executive, United Aircraftrange as a function of wing area and thrust for
a given weight. As the weight of a stretched
model increases over the original, the design-
er must either improve wing efficiency,
thrust, or some combination of both.
For the stretched Superjet, Sukhoi is aim-
ing to emphasise wing area over dramatic
changes in the thrust requirement.
The current Superjet is powered by the
PowerJet SaM146, a product of a collaboration
Four years after entry into service, 66
Superjet 100s have been deliveredSukhoi