Yak-152 vs UTS-800: Russia chooses "flying desk"
Photo: fotografersha.livejournal.com
Transition difficulties
The recent International Military-Technical Forum "Army-2021" was remembered for many novelties, but a special place in it was occupied by the UTS-800 from the Ural Plant of Civil aviation... A promising trainer aircraft can serve the armed forces well, or, as a project, it can end in nothing.
However, first things first.
Now for the initial training of Russian cadets, Austrian aircraft Diamond DA40 Diamond Star and DA42 Twin Star are used. Cars for the Ministry of Defense are produced under license at the Ural Civil Aviation Plant. As of 2021, 150 DA40 aircraft were manufactured in Russia.
After them, the pilots are trained on such machines as the famous Czechoslovak combat training aircraft L-39 Albatros and the more modern Russian Yak-130. Experts have repeatedly said that this plane is too complicated and expensive, but no one plans to abandon it. Moreover, the great potential of the vehicle allows it to be used as a light attack aircraft.
Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
History Russian piston trainer aircraft of initial training, which are to be replaced by foreign ones, is no less remarkable: this is all the more important given that their fate is being decided right now.
According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, a competition is currently being held to find a replacement for the fleet of training vehicles. Participation in it is accepted Yak-152 and UTS-800.
According to Shoigu, at least 700 well-trained graduate pilots are needed per year to effectively use the potential of existing and prospective airline complexes. For this, the material base of universities must include at least 500 modern training aircraft and two hundred helicopters.
Yak-152
Developed by the Yakovlev Design Bureau and manufactured by PJSC Irkut Corporation, the Yak-152 made its first flight on September 29, 2016, but over all these years, only three prototypes were produced.
Photo: Anna Zvereva / flickr.com
Nevertheless, at first glance, everything looks good. As part of the Yak-130 combat training complex, the Yak-152 received a cockpit information and control field that was completely unified with the Yak-130. The combined use of two machines should significantly facilitate the training of flight personnel. The Yak-152 has a tandem arrangement of crew members, the maximum take-off weight is 1480 kilograms, and the maximum speed of the Yak-152 is 500 kilometers per hour (at a cruising speed of 380 kilometers per hour).
The aircraft received an aviation 12-cylinder V-shaped diesel engine RED A03Т V12 (takeoff power is 500 horsepower) of the German company RED Aircraft. It is financed by the Russian holding Finam. On the territory of Russia, these products are assembled and serviced by the Russo-Balt company.
Source: wikipedia.org
Despite attempts to establish licensed production at the Russian site and partial elimination of dependence on imports, the production of diesel engines for Yak, apparently, remains the weak point of the project. In favor of this, in particular, says the statement of the general director of the Central Institute of Aviation Motors named after Baranov, Mikhail Gordin.
Source: youtube.com
According to him, the Yak-152 trainer aircraft may receive a domestic engine. True, it is still considered not as a replacement for the RED engine, but as an "analogue". The specialist admits the extremely successful layout of the RED A03Т V12 and the presence of components in it that Russia does not produce. One way or another, so far all this is nothing more than plans and the subject of "separate experimental design development."
UTS-800
Difficulties with the Yak-152 diesel engine open the way for the brainchild of the Ural Civil Aviation Plant (UZGA) - the UTS-800 aircraft. It should receive the Russian VK-800S turboprop engine with a capacity of 800 horsepower. The turboprop modification was developed on the basis of the Russian gas turbine aircraft engine VK-800 manufactured by the Plant named after V.I. V. Ya. Klimov. Within the framework of the program of the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Russia, the development of the turboprop version has been carried out by UZGA since 2017.
Photo: Mikhail Zherdev
The task set for the UTS-800 is the same as for the Yak-152. But these are still completely different machines. The maximum takeoff weight of the "800" exceeds 2000 kilograms. The empty weight of the car is 1706 kilograms. The Yak-152 has a maximum take-off weight, as mentioned above, - 1480 kilograms.
The maximum horizontal flight speed of the UTS-800 is 460 kilometers per hour, and the cruising speed is 360 kilometers per hour. As a propeller, we chose a product from Aerosila, which has four blades. According to the chief designer of the UTS-800 Dmitry Tinyakov, the aircraft has two types of refueling. One is designed for aerobatics, the other acts as a multipurpose one. Depending on the type of refueling, the car is either suitable for aerobatics, or gets a longer duration in the air.
Photo: Mikhail Zherdev
According to Tinyakov, the price of the aircraft in operation will be five times lower than in the case of the Yak-130. According to various sources, it will amount to either 25 thousand rubles per flight hour, or 32. In any case, the comparison with the Yak-130 is not entirely correct: the machines are in different classes, although they are designed to solve similar problems. But if we compare the price of UTS-800 and Yak-152, then the indicators will clearly not be on the side of the first machine.
In addition, one of the complaints about the UTS-800 was that the car was a "copy" of the Austrian DART-450. But this is not entirely true. The Russian aircraft has a larger cockpit that allows the pilot to be rescued at zero altitude at zero speed, and the installation of a second seat significantly higher than the first improves visibility. In addition, the air intake on the Russian car was taken out slightly lower than in the case of the DART.
The flying man will master the road
UTS-800, with all its theoretical pluses and minuses, has never been in the sky, while the Yak has been flying for a long time (even if we are talking about a very small number of machines). If nothing changes, the Ural Civil Aviation Plant will be able to lift the UTS-800 into the sky by the end of the year. After that, the car will have a long way of testing, which the Yak has already partially passed. Serial production of the UTS-800 is scheduled for 2024.
It should also be said that the very concept of a propeller-driven trainer is sometimes criticized, since it is far from a modern fighter in terms of control, speed, maneuverability, and so on.
As an alternative, they sometimes offer a relatively inexpensive CP-10 trainer equipped with an AI-25TL turbojet engine (it is Ukrainian, so the aircraft should go into production with the Russian AL-55). The car made its first flight in 2015. One prototype has been built to date.
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