An-124 replacement: reality or fantasy
Image from a patent for an industrial design for a Russian super-heavy military transport aircraft. Submission date – May 2022
Strategic interests
The presence of its own fleet of heavy and super-heavy military transport aircraft is a clear sign of a power that has ambitions for world leadership. Even in a multipolar world. In the Soviet Union, this was all right. By the mid-80s, a powerful fleet was formed in the country, the backbone of which was the advanced for their time Il-76, An-22 and An-124. The total number of cars reached 450.
The interests of the USSR extended to the whole world, and transport aviation played a huge role in this. With the collapse of the Union, hard times have come for military aviation - suffice it to say that from 1992 to 2015, the Air Force did not receive a single transport aircraft. Then the era of deeply modernized Il-76MD and Il-76MD-90A began, which are currently considered the most modern military transport aircraft of the Aerospace Forces.
The machines are excellent, but have not undergone fundamental changes - in a good way, it was necessary to build a new aircraft. The potential of the new Il-76 remained at the level of the 70-80s. Without preliminary preparation, only the equipment of the Airborne Forces enters the cargo compartment - everything else either has to be disassembled or literally squeezed in.
Paradoxically, with a carrying capacity of 60 tons, the Il-76 should have placed any domestic tank with a large margin, but the width of the T-72 without side screens is 3,37 m, and the cargo compartment of the aircraft is 3,45 m. The Il-76 is an aircraft exclusively for airborne equipment, nothing more.
An-124 "Ruslan". Source: sdelanounas.ru
Military equipment will inevitably become heavier and increase in size. The chronic shortage of machines such as An-22 (carrying capacity up to 80 tons) and An-124 (carrying capacity up to 120 tons) makes us think about the prospects for domestic aviation. An-22 can be safely considered retired - there are only three or four aircraft in airworthiness.
There are more Ruslans - sixteen combat-ready copies. According to other sources, there are no more than five super-heavy machines. Compare that to 52 US heavy haulers C-5M Galaxy. Of course, it is impossible to directly compare the activity of America and Russia on the globe, but more than a threefold lag in the number of super-heavy aircraft cannot be considered acceptable. Moreover, the Americans have the S-17 Globemaster III with a maximum payload of about 77 tons, that is, the actual analogue of the "old man" An-22. And here the Pentagon simply has a total numerical advantage - 279 machines were riveted.
As a result, in the segment of 70-80-ton machines, we have a void, and in the class of "super-heavy" there is a threefold numerical backlog. Given the size of the US and Russian armies, the specific number of heavy military transport aircraft is simply incomparably greater among the Americans. Recall that the Russian army in the near future should be increased by ten percent.
An-22. Source: warfiles.ru
It cannot be said that nothing is being done in this direction. Even before the Ukrainian Maidan, an intergovernmental agreement was signed on the serial production of the An-124 with D-18T engines. It was supposed to start at the Ulyanovsk Aviastar in 2016. Motors, respectively, intended to produce in Zaporozhye. It is unnecessary to talk about what and who prevented this, but the fact remains that nine years ago Russia was left without prospects for the further development of a whole class of aircraft.
After that, individuals confidently spoke about the possibility of resuming the production of Ruslans in Russia already with domestic engines. The fact is that the giant NK-32 from the T-160 supersonic bomber can be considered the only adequate replacement - in terms of afterburner thrust, it is even more powerful than the Zaporozhye D-18T. But then the difficulties begin.
Firstly, the NK-32 is smaller than the native Ruslan engine in profile - a diameter of 1,78 meters versus 2,33 meters. At the same time, it is much longer - immediately 7,4 meters against 5,4 meters. This is not surprising - the NK-32 was not designed to be placed in engine nacelles under the wings. This is an engine for supersonic flight, and it is designed with a low bypass ratio of only 1,4. The Zaporozhye engine has a similar parameter equal to 5,6.
And the fuel consumption of the NK-32, of course, is more than twice as much. Such voracious engines would not only make any commercial transportation impossible, but would also significantly reduce the flight range (or payload) of the new An-124. Each "Ruslan" had to load twice as much fuel on board. Despite the obvious and rather fundamental problems, the Deputy General Designer of JSC Kuznetsov A. Shatsky back in 2015 said:
“The target dates (to make the motor before 2019) are extremely tight. It is necessary to accurately "fit" into the dimensions of the D-18T engine nacelle. Despite all the difficulties, this task is quite solvable.
It was intended to use the "hot" part of the NK-32 engine to create a modification for a super-heavy aircraft, but it turned out to be not much easier than launching an engine from scratch into a series.
As a result, the revival of Ruslan was put to rest, but the NK-32 may well serve under the wings of the PAK DA project vehicles. More precisely, its modification NK-32D.
Difficult prospects
An-124 was lucky - it appeared at the very end of the Soviet Union in 1986. And for some time it was mass-produced. Even got a six-engine version of the An-224. But the fate of replacing the turboprop An-22 "Antey" was much more complicated. The machine is known under the name IL-106.
Classmate C-17 Globemaster III was supposed to appear in the middle - late 90s, and remained at the layout stage. The successor to the unborn aircraft in modern times should be the Prospective Aviation Complex of the Military Transport Aviation (PAK VTA), which will fill the empty niche of 80-ton transporters.
Il-106 project from Soviet times. Prepared to replace the An-22 "Antey". Judging by the layout, it was predicted to put turbopropfan engines NK-93 on the plane
In general, there are many difficulties and inconsistencies with the very concept of PAK VTA. There is a feeling that the military department has not yet decided what aviation needs - two aircraft, which will replace, respectively, the An-22 and An-124, or one universal one. At different times, projects of super-heavy aircraft "Elephant" and options for the creative rethinking of the Il-106 flashed by. The deeply modernized NK-32D was considered as a power plant, but so far there is no information about the work on it. The research project for the unique turbopropfan engine NK-93 has been completed. The product has amazing characteristics - the bypass ratio is 16,7, and the specific consumption is 10 percent lower than that of the Zaporozhye D-18T. The engine turned out to be interesting and, of course, requires detailed consideration on the pages of the Military Review. And also the reasons why he was out of work.
NK-93. Source: wikipedia.org
One of the variants of the PAK VTA. Please note that loading through the bow ramp has been eliminated in order to reduce the cost. The aircraft was built based on the Il-106. Source: www.naukatehnika.com
A couple of years ago, the military seems to have decided on the requirements for the PAK VTA. The aircraft will not be a direct replacement for the An-124, since the lower limit of the carrying capacity is indicated at 80 tons. The length of the cargo compartment of the aircraft must be at least 27,5 meters, width and height - 5,8 and 4,4 m, respectively. The aircraft must include helicopters, aircraft and air defense systems without prior dismantling. The fate of the Elephant project, well-known in narrow circles, which was preparing to lift up to 150 tons into the sky, is not entirely clear.
The project "Elephant" from ten steps from the An-124 "Ruslan" is indistinguishable. Source: topcor.ru
Despite all of the above, the preliminary appearance of the future transport aircraft is already ready. Fifth or sixth in a row? In May last year, a patent application was filed on behalf of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Figures published at the end of 2022.
Patent images of the future super-heavy military transport aircraft. We hope the final
There is nothing revolutionary in the images - except that the tail of the car began to look like an overseas classmate C-5 Galaxy. The project is clearly tailored for the use of the promising PD-35 engine, and this is where the main difficulties begin.
The fact is that, frankly speaking, the state is not up to a heavy engine with a thrust of more than 35 tons. Sanctions reality makes us throw all our efforts into refining the PD-8 engines and, above all, the PD-14. If this is not done, then in ten years it will be possible to fly in Russia with little. And this problem will be more important than the construction of a super-heavy "truck" mainly for the Aerospace Forces.
As a result, the timing of work on the PD-35 is shifted well to the right - in the most optimistic scenario, a prototype will be assembled next year. Add to this a couple of years to fine-tune the project. Whether it will be possible to build a new super-heavy transport aircraft in parallel with work on the PD-35, or will it be necessary to wait for the finished engines, the question is open. In any case, it is the promising high-thrust engine that is a critical element of the entire concept of the aircraft, which will replace the pair of An-124 and An-22 in the future. And he's not ready yet.
PD-35. Source: topcor.ru
A bit of optimism at the end.
The PD-35 is not being developed from scratch - it is based on the gas generator from the PD-18, which is already quite successfully rising into the air. It is going to be scaled up for a load of 35-40 tons. They are waiting for the engine not only in the VKS. The project of the Russian long-haul airliner on the Il-96 platform also requires a heavy power plant. We stock up on optimism and look forward to good News.
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