RuAviation

In 2020, the United Engine Corporation (UEC) together with relevant research institutes completed the development and manufactured the first prototypes of composite fan blades for the PD-35 engine. The first stage of testing of the PD-35 fan blade demonstrator took place on 27 June 2020 in Perm as part of the PD-14 engine. At the regular Airshow China Airshow in Zhuhai in November 2024, composite fan blades of PD-35 were demonstrated to specialists and visitors of the exhibition.

The use of a fan blade made of composites instead of a hollow titanium blade is justified by the need to reduce the weight of the engine. The use of polymer composite materials (PCM) will make it possible to achieve a 30 per cent reduction in the weight of the fan as compared to a similar product with hollow blades, which on a large-sized engine, such as the PD-35, will have a tangible effect in the form of a reduction in the weight of the entire power plant. ODK believes that the material from which the PD-35 fan blades will be made has become a breakthrough in the field of PCM.

‘An example of today’s breakthrough in the field of polymer materials for our engine building is the creation of the PD-35 polymer fan blade. Without this technology it would be impossible to create a high thrust engine because it is a key position. The next stage of development of this technology will be thermoplastic polymers, and this is a huge layer of work that we have to overcome – to create a production technology,’ Mikhail Bakradze, Deputy Director General of United Engine Corporation JSC, told at the plenary session of the IV Congress of Young Scientists.

According to him, new materials are necessary for transition to new types of engines. At the end of the 20th century, thanks to the development of a multi-component alloy of about 20 technical components, it was possible to create the fourth-generation PS-90A engine. Now ODK has already created and continues to work on engines and engine components that meet the characteristics of the fifth generation.
‘The development of polymers and composites with even higher characteristics will ensure the transition to the sixth generation engines in the foreseeable future,’ Mikhail Bakradze noted in his speech.

At the same time he emphasised that even in the presence of technical and scientific groundwork, only development work in the creation of a new engine takes from seven to ten years.

On 2 November 2024, it became known that the PD-35 demonstrator engine passed the first stage of tests on a new open test stand. During the tests, it repeatedly went to the take-off mode with the achievement of thrust of 35 tonnes. The obtained parameters and characteristics were higher than predicted values and confirmed the correctness of the designers’ chosen technical solutions.