Russia's Irkut Corp. has shown, in its Irkutsk factory, the first completed MC-21 jetliner. It may be built in versions that carry about 130 to 211 passengers.
The company hopes to commence flight testing by the end of the year. As shown, the aircraft had a pair of Pratt & Whitney PurePower PW1400G-JM geared turbofan engines, but when manufacturing begins in earnest, it may be equipped with the Russian-built Aviadvigatel PD-14, which is still in testing.
The aircraft is scheduled to mark its first flight in 2017 and is planned be handed over to its first customers in 2019-20.
The МС-21 family includes two aircraft with a high degree of design commonality. МС-21-200 designed for 132 to 165 passengers and МС-21-300 designed for 163 to 211 passengers.
Coverage:
- Business Insider
- TASS (owned by Russian government)
- Air Transport World
- Aviation International News
- Sputnik News (sponsored by Russian government; has video)
- Defenseworld.net (Tor-friendly copy)
- ChannelNewsAsia
- Pravda.ru
Related Stories
The MS-21, a new single aisle airliner produced by Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, is the first passenger plane borne aloft by lightweight carbon-composite wings built without a costly pressurized oven called an autoclave.
[...] Under the new technology, instead of using fiber that is pre-impregnated with resin, parts are made from a dry-fiber engineered textile which is placed in a mould and then infused with resin under a vacuum.
The parts can then be cured in an oven without pressure, a process estimated to cost 25 percent more than metal. Ultimately, that gap needs to narrow significantly or disappear.
Boatbuilders and windfarm makers have used this method for years. Secondary airplane parts have also been made that way.
But although Canada's Bombardier partly used the technique for its CSeries, it was rare for flight-critical parts before the designers of the new Russian plane chose it for the wing.
previous stories:
Irkut Shows New MC-21 Airliner
The Little Gear That Could Reshape the Jet Engine
(Score: 1, Funny) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Thursday June 09 2016, @06:37PM
A better name than MC-21 would be Jetty McJetface.
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday June 09 2016, @06:52PM
Let's all hope it never gets renamed Crashy McCrashFace.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @07:40PM
OG-21?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by toygeek on Thursday June 09 2016, @07:13PM
Geared turbofans are kind of a Holy Grail of jet engine design as far as I can tell. Simpler, lighter, 10-15% better fuel economy, and because the main fan spins 3x slower, 75% less noise. That's a lot of win right there.
There is no Sig. Okay, maybe a short one. http://miscdotgeek.com
(Score: 2) by WillR on Thursday June 09 2016, @07:43PM
/s
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @08:12PM
Apparently it's feasible. According to a Pratt & Whitney press release [aviationpros.com], the PW1400G-JM is their third geared turbofan design to receive FAA approval. Aviadvigatel is working on a geared turbofan engine, too ( the PD-18R).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Unixnut on Thursday June 09 2016, @08:34PM
Surely that is how turbo props already worked?
I have to admit I am not an expert in this field, so I might be missing something. However this sounds like the same set up as a turboprop engine, except instead of a 4 blade prop they stuck a fan on it, making it a geared turbofan.
Is there something novel about this design that I am missing, which made it impossible to produce before? Or is this more just the application of old technology in the face of more stringent noise restrictions?
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Thursday June 09 2016, @09:26PM
Yes, turboprops also have gear reduction like this, and already had some of the benefits listed for the geared turbofan. There's not a lot of difference between a high-bypass geared turbofan and a turboprop except for the ducted fan on one and open blades on the other.
The situation is probably that no one had done it yet on a turbofan, not that it was impossible. It just took a while for someone in the turbofan group to look across the aisle at the designs from the turbofan group and have an "I could have had a V8" moment.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 3, Informative) by butthurt on Friday June 10 2016, @12:32AM
If Wikipedia is to be believed, the first turbofan engine to be flown was a geared turbofan, the Turbomeca Aspin, which was first flown in 1952.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbomeca_Aspin [wikipedia.org]
With the same caveat, the turboprop was patented in 1929 and first ones were built around 1937.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turboprop#History [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by subs on Friday June 10 2016, @01:25AM
Geared turbofans have been in service for a long time (see Garrett TFE731 [wikipedia.org]). It's more a matter of scale, rather than type of construction.
(Score: 4, Informative) by subs on Friday June 10 2016, @01:32AM
It's not really novel in concept, geared turbofans have been around for a while now [wikipedia.org], as have large, high-power turboprops [wikipedia.org] (the effective thrust output of a Kuznetsov NK-12 is roughly equivalent to a 50-60 kN jet engine). The real innovation is the power scale. The NK-12, when it came out, was considered a marvel of gearbox engineering and until the new breed of geared turbofans have sprung up, the most powerful geared turbine engine ever flown in service. The new breed of geared turbofans coming along now provide the equivalent of 2-3x more power through that gearbox than the NK-12 did. That's the real deal.
(Score: 2) by fishybell on Thursday June 09 2016, @07:32PM
In soviet Russia, plane flies you!
...oh wait, that still works.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by richtopia on Thursday June 09 2016, @08:24PM
I don't think that Boeing or Airbus have any worries in Western markets, but across the world it looks like the duopoly in the short-mid range market may be threatened.
The MC-21 (article) looks competitive, coming from an established design bureau, although sourcing subsystems may be difficult being based in Russia. Orders are dominated by Russian airlines.
The C919 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comac_C919 [wikipedia.org] ) was covered on SN a few months ago. I think they have the contracts lined up for major subsystems (I think engines and avionics are being imported), and if you look at the list of orders there is sizeable demand, although all from Chinese airlines.
Embraer and Bombadier are scaling up their regional gets and may be also competing in this space soon. For Bombadier the C-series isn't quite at the same seat count as the 737 or 320, but is marketed as a competitor ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_CSeries [wikipedia.org] ). Embraer's next generation also encroaches on this market ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_E-Jet_E2_family [wikipedia.org] ). These manufacturers already have their regional jets in many markets; I know that Delta (Connection) flies aeroplanes from both manufacturers.
(Score: 3, Informative) by turgid on Thursday June 09 2016, @08:33PM
That nice Mr Putin [youtube.com], in a characteristic selfless show of courageous intelligence and leadership, designed the MC-21 all by himself to get back at the Neo-Nazi Boeing and Airbus corporations threatening world domination and the end of democracy.
The MC-21 has top secret advanced anti-Neo-Nazi technology and is absolutely 100% heterosexual.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 4, Interesting) by mendax on Thursday June 09 2016, @09:25PM
Another Russian airliner no one wants to buy, although the Russian government has lately been forcing Aeroflot to buy Sukoi Superjets. Note that Aeroflot DOES NOT want them but has little choice. Passengers don't like them because they're more cramped than the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320. If the Sukoi Superjet is any indication, the MC-21 is not going to be bought by many non-Russian airlines [airfleets.net], although a Mexican airline seems to have bought a lot of them.
Now if the Russians can build an plane that Western airlines would want to fly, it would be a game changer. Russian airliners have a bad reputation which is mostly undeserved. They are solidly built, very sturdy, and very reliable. Most crashes of Russian airliners were due to pilot error or bad maintenance.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Thursday June 09 2016, @10:33PM
Yeah, except the Superjet is actually a joint venture and the important parts are built elsewhere, but sure, fuck sanctions, we can build everything ourselves. Not. Embarrassing, really.