The IL-114-300 turboprop aircraft, on which the TV7-117ST-01 engines are installed, is being prepared to begin flight certification tests. It is planned that the flights will involve three aircraft and ODK-Klimov will supply six engines to support these flights this year. Vsevolod Eliseyev, general designer of Klimov, told TASS in an interview.
“Two engines are now ‘on the wing’, the rest are being reworked after the first stage of tests. A pre-production run of three aircraft is also planned. In 2024, beginning in the first quarter, we plan to deliver at least six more engines already in serial form to support the IL-114-300 programme,” he said of the production plans.
The latest engine modifications, including the TV7-117ST-01, have been designed with a digital twin, which has reduced testing costs. Simulation using a digital twin made it possible to reduce the time required for certification: acceleration tests and blade failures were tested using virtual experiments.
According to the general designer of ODK-Klimov, the digital design and application of new technologies made it possible to optimise the mass of the engine. In particular, low-pressure casting technologies will be applied at TV7-117 which will allow to considerably – by 10-15% – decrease the weight of the body parts. The power plant is manufactured using additive technologies and some parts are manufactured by selective laser sintering.
The engines of the family use a FADEC-type automatic regulation and control unit developed by the Saint Petersburg company. The system allows in-flight control of changing and restoring modes of the entire propulsion system, it includes a built-in anti-pumping system and a large self-diagnostic complex, which makes it possible to find failures and eliminate them in a timely manner.
