Irkutsk Aviation Plant (IAZ) celebrated its 90th anniversary on 24 August. During its history, the plant has built aircraft of all leading design bureaus of the country. Tupolev, Ilyushin, Petlyakov, Ermolaev, Yakovlev, Mikoyan and Gurevich, Sukhoi, Beriev machines were produced in Irkutsk. Now the plant’s product line is represented by the aircraft of the design teams of Yakovlev and Sukhoi Design Bureau: MC-21, Yak-130 and Su-30SM/SM2.
The main gift for the plant’s employees was the flight programme. In front of thousands of plant workers and residents of Irkutsk-2, demonstration flights of MC-21, Yak-130 and Su-30SM aircraft, piloted by Yakovlev’s test pilots and the Russian Knights aerobatic team, took place in the sky above Komsomolsky Park. The MC-21 was represented by flight 73053, which flew to Irkutsk for storage at the end of May.
On the eve of the festive events, Andrey Boginsky, General Director of PJSC Yakovlev, supervised the implementation of the projects of the investment programme of the IAZ at the facilities of the aggregate assembly and metallurgical production facilities under construction, got acquainted with the reconstruction of the treatment facilities, and also inspected the construction site of the garage for special equipment of the flight test unit.
Artur Bektemirov, Chief Builder of IAZ, noted that over the last seven years several buildings with a total area of about 70 thousand square metres have been commissioned. Today 12 more objects are in different degrees of implementation, the construction of a new building ‘20/32’ along the runway is being completed, the construction of a garage for special vehicles of shop 216 with the area of almost 6 thousand sq. m. is underway, the areas of the anodic-painting shop 234 in the building 142 are being reconstructed, the overhaul of treatment facilities is 70% complete, the design and estimate documentation for the construction of the shop for machining of large-sized parts of MC-21 is ready, the project of the logistics centre of the second stage is undergoing technical and environmental expertise, the facades of the main production facilities are being repaired, the design and estimate documentation for the construction of the new building are ready for completion.
On 24 August in the final assembly shop Andrey Boginsky and UAC CEO Yuri Slyusar heard reports and discussed the status of preparation for flight tests of two MC-21 prototypes (b/n 73055 and 73057). In addition, Yuri Slyusar and Andrei Boginsky held a meeting to discuss the preparation of serial production of MC-21. Andrei Boginsky told journalists that the Irkutsk aircraft plant’s capacity is designed to produce 36 aircraft per year, the first contract has been signed for 18 aircraft, work is underway on them, and an advance payment has been received from the leasing company.
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Fuselage docking of the tenth serial set of MC-21 aircraft has been completed at the IAZ. The work is carried out in the final assembly shop. The fuselage of the next MC-21 was assembled in shop 246 of the civil aircraft assembly shop. At the first stage, the front half-fuselage from compartments F1, F2 and F3 and the rear half-fuselage from compartments F4, F4A and F5 were docked. Then the components of the future aircraft were moved to the area of the final assembly building. Here, the measurement and positioning team set the aircraft in a horizon line and aligned it. Then, after checking a number of parameters, including clearances and alignment, the docking process began. At the next stage, the specialists of IAZ performed the convergence of the Wing Console with the centre wing.
In parallel with the work on the tenth serial MC-21 aircraft, the IAZ continues to assemble panels for the eleventh airliner. It is planned that in September the front and rear half-fuselages of the eleventh set will be joined, and in October it will be brought together.
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At present, nine MC-21 airframes are in the assembly and test shop of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant in varying degrees of readiness. Parts have been produced for the 16th, 17th and 18th machines. The next sets of pylons for the MC-21 aircraft and nacelles for PD-14 engines produced at VASO were sent to the Irkutsk Aviation Plant in mid-August. This year Voronezh aircraft builders plan to supply 11 aircraft kits for MC-21.
The list of units supplied by VASO includes hatches from polymer composite materials, fairings of flap rails, pylons, flaps of main and front landing gear support, as well as ‘wing-fuselage’ fairing. Composite parts of nose and tail parts of vertical and horizontal plumage, pipelines and fuel system elements are also provided. In total, more than 20,000 enterprises and 56 major suppliers are involved in production cooperation under the MC-21 serial production programme.
Obninsk produces cockpit glazing for the airliner, Balashikha produces wheels and brakes, Yaroslavl produces tyres, Minsk supplies bearings and St. Petersburg fuel system. Ramenskoye produces navigation and landing units and airborne collision warning systems, Moscow produces wing mechanisation systems, Kazan produces rudders, flaps and interiors. Nizhny Novgorod is preparing flight control drive systems and air conditioning equipment for the MC-21, Perm is supplying PD-14 engines, Ufa is supplying power supply equipment, Samara is supplying hydraulic system units and portholes, Ulyanovsk is producing the wing and centroplane, emergency ladders and control panels, and Komsomolsk-on-Amur is producing doors and hatches. The final assembly of the MC-21 is carried out in Irkutsk. Also in Irkutsk the stock of serial machines is being formed.
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To install passenger seats in the aircraft cabin, the mounting holes have an inch pitch. Hence the distances between the seats are usually specified in inches. Nikita Shapiro, Head of the Sketch Design Department of the Yakovlev Engineering Centre, told Izvestia that the MC-21 cabin was designed to increase personal space for passengers and thus reduce fatigue from a long flight.
The seat pitch for economy class cabins is taken within 29-32 inches or 73.7-81.3 cm, while in MC-21 the seat pitch was set at 32 inches. A person up to 180 cm tall will sit in such a cabin without resting his knees on the back of the front seat. If the seat pitch is 32 inches, the MC-21 will seat 181 passengers, and if the pitch is reduced to 29 inches, the low-cost aircraft will seat up to 211 people. Now the type certificate for the MC-21 allows maximum accommodation of 171 passengers and eight crew members in the aircraft.
According to Nikita Shapiro, the solutions incorporated in the MC-21 design ensure flexibility of layouts and the possibility of adapting the passenger cabin to the requirements of a particular airline. On short routes, it is possible to reduce the size of toilet and kitchen modules, and for low-budget carriers that offer passengers only sandwiches and water or no meals at all, there is an opportunity to get additional seats and make transportations more economically viable.
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In Dimitrovgrad on the site of the State Scientific Centre of the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors (JSC SSC RIAR) a specialised complex of machining of the full technological cycle for the domestic aircraft industry is being created. The enterprise will manufacture components for the wing of MC-21 aircraft by order of AeroComposite. The initiative is aimed at supporting domestic production and increasing the share of Russian components in the aviation industry. Within the framework of the first stage of the project, high-tech equipment has already been delivered to JSC SSC RIAR, the premises are being renovated and employees are being trained.
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In August 2024, MC-21 aircraft performed four flights.
In Zhukovsky, the flight task of the crew of flight 73051 was to assess the operation of the wing de-icing system. Hot air extraction from engines, operation of valves, system temperature regime, influence of the switched on system on PD-14 engines operation were checked. A source of the site Aviation of Russia in LII named after Gromov explained that ‘it is more critical to make such assessments in warm weather, and in summer and in the clouds is often icing’.
In Irkutsk, 73053 underwent routine maintenance and performed a control flight on 19 August. On August 22, a training flight for the IAZ anniversary followed, and on August 24 – participation in the flight programme in front of the audience over the Komsomolsky Park. During the training flight the crew performed the Ranversmann manoeuvre: a turn on a slide, when the aircraft gains altitude with a constant pitch angle and changes direction of flight without loss of altitude. The manoeuvre is used by combat aircraft when attacking or counterattacking.
The roll angle at the highest point of the slide was 110 degrees. Such capabilities of the MC-21 demonstrate the reliability of the airliner’s design, perfect aerodynamics and advanced control system. To increase thrust-to-weight ratio, the aircraft had onboard cargo for alignment only and was not fully fuelled.
