RuAviation

Starting from 2024, all Su-57 fighters being built at the Gagarin Aviation Plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and to be transferred to the Russian Air Force will receive new AL-51F1 engines, also known as the “AL-51F1 product”. Gagarin Aviation Plant and will be transferred to the Russian Air Force, will receive new AL-51F1 engines, also known as “product 30”. This is reported by TASS citing high-ranking sources close to the Russian Air Force.

“The engine of the second stage has passed tests and is ready for operation,” one of the agency’s interlocutors said. A second source confirmed this information and added that “all serial fifth-generation Su-57 aircraft being transferred to the VKS in 2024 will receive a fifth-generation engine.”

According to the agency’s interlocutor, more than 10 Su-57s with first-stage engines have already been handed over to the VKS in 2023, and they are successfully carrying out tasks in the special military operation zone. “There are no plans to change the first stage engines on the Su-57s already handed over to the KVS for new engines,” he said, explaining that even with AL-41F1 engines, the Su-57 surpasses the US F-35 in its performance.

There is no official confirmation of this information.

In July 2023, a presentation by ODK-Kuznetsov was shown at the Samara Technical University during a scientific and technical conference on the prospects for the development of the engine industry. One of its slides showed the second-stage engine for the Su-57 as AL-51-F1. This presentation was also noticed abroad. For example, Aviation week published a review of the engine a few days after the conference, prepared by the publication’s expert Peter Butowsky.

The second-stage engine for the Su-57 fighter is being developed at the A. Lyulka Experimental Design Bureau in Lytkarinsk (Moscow, a branch of UMPO). The propulsion system will allow the aircraft to perform cruising flight at supersonic speed without using afterburner. On 11 November 2016, the first launch of a bench sample of the “product 30” engine demonstrator took place. Flight tests as part of the Su-57 began in December 2017, with the prototype aircraft with flight number “052” becoming the flying laboratory – the left AL-41F1 engine on it was replaced with a new one.

In an interview with RIA Novosti ahead of the Army-2023 international military-technical forum, First Deputy Director General of Rostec State Corporation Vladimir Artyakov said in an interview with RIA Novosti that the Su-57 aircraft is adapted to use both the first and second stage engine. “Even with the first-stage engine, the fighter meets the basic requirements for a fifth-generation aircraft. The aircraft with the second stage engine is now undergoing flight tests. It is already planned to deliver the Su-57 with a new engine within the framework of the existing serial contract – UAC and United Aircraft Corporation are working on it,” Artyakov said.

In addition to the Su-57, the AL-51F1 engine is also expected to be installed on the S-70B-1 Okhotnik UAV with a flat nozzle, as well as on the Su-75 CheckMate light tactical aircraft.