New realities of the Russian helicopter industry: will we fly or not?
Ka-62 is the most long-suffering domestic helicopter. Source: rhc.aero
Order No. 1693-r
The fact that since last year the domestic aviation industry has been, if not in a dead end, then in a rather difficult situation, is not said only by the lazy. The situation is especially difficult with civil aircraft, most of which cannot do without imported components. Whether they will look for someone to blame for such a collapse is still an open question, but there are still attempts to solve the problem.
On June 25 last year, the government adopted an ambitious program for the development of the air transport industry until 2030. As they say, everyone understands everything. In the text you can find this:
“A negative factor affecting the development of the Russian aviation industry, became the sanctions policy of some foreign states, the consequences of which were expressed in restricting the import of critical technologies, reducing the possibility of purchasing foreign components and materials, as well as equipment in the framework of investment projects. At the beginning of 2022, the scale of sanctions has become unprecedented.”
The main role in this document is played by import substitution and expansion of aircraft production, but helicopter pilots are not ignored either.
The state's plans for rotorcraft are more than ambitious. Let's try to figure out what will work, and for what it will be necessary to do everything possible and impossible.
Ansat is a light helicopter unique for Russia. Only here the motor is Canadian. Source: rhc.aero
The most important challenge is, of course, the number of new aircraft that will be produced by the Russian Helicopters holding company over the next eight years. 764 helicopters must be in service! The main players in the upcoming emergency records are Ansat and the Mi-8MTV-1 series along with the Mi-8AMT. At the same time, the plan was drawn up for existing production sites.
For example, the Kazan Helicopter Plant, according to the management plan, was supposed to produce 111 helicopters last year (58 Mi-8/17, 41 Ansat and 12 Mi-38). At first glance, it is quite an adequate plan, given that in 2013 it was possible to produce 103 cars, and a year later - 107.
But after that, seven years of stagnation happened - growth was only in 2020, when 39 helicopters were assembled. A year later, six more cars appeared. And now it has more than doubled. The exact data on the actual results is still unknown, but in the four months before the end of last year, it was only about 44 built machines.
One of the most important problems was the banal shortage of skilled workers. They organized the "Bring a friend" campaign - ten thousand bonuses were relied on for each new employee who did not quit after three months. The personnel shortage seems to have been quenched. But what contingent? Yesterday's college graduates, or at best, retired from production long ago. Such will gain experience for more than one year. And helicopters, as usual, were needed yesterday.
Source: rostec.ru
A little about the assortment of the Kazan Helicopter Plant.
Until 2030, he must produce at least two hundred light Ansats, that is, approximately 20-22 vehicles per year, taking into account the past. This is the lightest helicopter in the Russian production line - the capacity is not more than 8 people. And just like the winged SSJ-100, the Kazan helicopter is very fond of foreign components.
The plans for 2024 include finding Russian suppliers for fourteen items - the horizontal joint of the tail rotor hub, air conditioning systems, propeller blade filler, control system units and much more. Complementing the similarity with the "Superjet" is the absence of a domestic engine. The Canadian PW207K waved his hand, and the Klimovsky VK-650V is still being developed. Ansat has been in production since 1999, but so far no serial engine from Russia has been found for it.
Added to this is the problem of servicing the engines of already sold helicopters - in 2021 alone, 17 helicopters were handed over to Russian operators. Ansat with the Russian VK-650V has not even taken off yet, and certification will take place presumably next year.
The engine, like all aircraft in Russia, is in great demand - it will go under the hoods of not only new helicopters, but will also have to replace Canadian units on several dozen previously produced aircraft.
Will we fly or not?
The tasks assigned to Russian Helicopters are complicated by a whole heap of old problems.
First of all, this is a chronic underfunding of the industry. On so-called R&D (research and development work), helicopter manufacturers spent a measly 0,8 percent of revenue. The lack of money for new developments in the civilian industry is a trend of recent decades. For the successful development and renewal of production, at least 3–4 percent of income must be spent on innovation. Better yet, ten. Then there would be no need to feverishly look for a replacement for the Canadian engine for the light Ansat.
Around the same time, another time bomb was laid - the lack of money for new developments naturally washed out the design personnel. If there is no funding, then why keep an extra staff of design bureaus? You can still save money and fire everyone.
In many ways, this is precisely why, in addition to Ansat, the main focus in the new industry development program is placed on helicopters of the Mi-8 family. The car is reliable and solid, but it is also based on Soviet engineering. Mi-8MVT-1 until 2030 should build 120 copies, Mi-8AMT - 156. If we compare with aircraft construction, then the fate of these machines is similar to the passenger Tu-214. Both those and others should for some time close the needs of the industry in aircraft. Until import-substituting and more efficient machines arrive.
In the case of airplanes, this is the MS-21, and for helicopter pilots, the Ka-62, the production of which should begin in a couple of years and gradually increase to twenty a year. It says so in the government decree. Only the Kamov machine has not yet been certified, and it seems that mass production in 2025 is worth seriously thinking about. The Ka-62, unfortunately, was created twelve years ago in close cooperation with former partners - the French Safran Helicopter Engines and the Austrian Zoerkler. The first supplied the engine, and the second supplied the main and intermediate gearboxes and part of the transmission.
Why didn't they do it themselves, the reader will ask. It is enough to remember about 0,8 percent of the income that Russian Helicopters directed to innovations, so as not to be surprised by such a result.
And if you can still somehow put up with an imported engine, then the Austrian main gearbox on a Russian helicopter looks like a shame. All story with the Ka-62 it shifts well to the right - this and much more was discussed at the last forum of the Helicopter Industry Association. Igor Panshin, sales director of civil engineering at Russian Helicopters, lamented:
“Today, Russia is experiencing unprecedented sanctions pressure. Now we are facing a non-trivial task: we are forced to mobilize all available resources in order to ensure accelerated import substitution across the entire model range of manufactured helicopters.”
. In relation to the Ka-62, the approval of the main change, that is, the use of domestic components (VK-1600V engine, gearbox and transmission), is expected no earlier than 2025. The government expects to release helicopters in the same year with a fantastic run of 11 aircraft.
There is no talk of increasing the production of MI-26T2 / TS - only five vehicles in the series are planned until 2030. Source: rhc.aero
Panshin told many more interesting facts. For example, the Mi-171A3 is planned to be certified only by the end of this year. And in the comprehensive program that we are talking about now, at least five cars should become serial in 2023. That is, the program is not executed even now, at the very start.
For reference: Mi-171A3 should appear 49 copies in eight years. In general, the accuracy of the Russian Government's calculations is quite surprising. "Ansatov" - 201 aircraft, Mi-38 - 39 boards and only the exotic Ka-226 should be built in one copy.
Why the officials did not like the light passenger helicopter for 6-7 seats is unknown. No less amazing is the story of the 13-seat universal Ka-32A11M, which, according to government plans, should go into production this year. But the approval of all changes, according to Panshin, will not be until the next one.
Mi-8/17, it seems, will replace all promising new items in the near future. Because mastered and assembled from domestic. The main thing is to increase production volumes. Source: rhc.aero
So will we fly or not on new domestic helicopters?
Of course, we will, but, as in a joke, "low, low." More precisely - on the structures of the Soviet period. If even now the industry is not able to fulfill the order of the state, then what can we say about the future. The shortage of helicopters will have to be replaced by well-developed designs, mainly the Mi-8.
Given the even greater difficulties with the development of regional aircraft construction, helicopters on certain routes can become the main means of transport.
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