RuAviation

Channel One of Russian television presented the trailer of the film Masters of the Sky, dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the Experimental Design Bureau named after Pavel Sukhoi. The film itself will be aired on 15 December at 5pm, and is notable for the fact that for the first time it will show the fifth-generation Su-57 fighter equipped with the second-stage product 30 or AL-51F1 engine with a flat nozzle and deflectable thrust vector.

The film trailer shows several shots of the T-50-2 prototype aircraft with the long-awaited propulsion system, as well as the Su-57M with two AL-51F1 engines. This powerplant is the final link that makes the Su-57 fighter aircraft fully compliant with the requirements set in Russia for fifth-generation machines.

Such requirements include multifunctionality, stealth, ultra-maneuverability, intelligence and all-around awareness of the pilot of the external environment, a large combat load with high-precision long-range missiles, and cruising supersonic flight in a formless mode. The fulfilment of the last criterion and provides the engine of the second stage. Therefore, the public demonstration on Channel One of the Su-57 with AL-51F1 engines indicates that the propulsion system is ready, has been tested and can be installed as standard.

In December 2023, high-ranking sources close to the Russian Air Force told TASS about plans to equip all Su-57s produced by the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft factory with AL-51F1 engines from 2024. However, the fighter jets that UAC has already delivered to the troops in the past year were equipped with the first stage engines – AL-41F1 (product 117).

The development of the second stage engine (product 30) for the Su-57 is underway at the Arkhip Lyulka Design Bureau. The first launch of the bench prototype took place on 11 November 2016. Flight tests began on the prototype aircraft with the tail number ‘052’ (T-50-2) in December 2017. Instead of the standard left engine, the machine was fitted with the first prototype of product 30 then still with a round nozzle.

The new engine was first presented under the designation AL-51F1 in July 2023 at a scientific and technical conference on the prospects for the development of engine building at the Samara Technical University. In the ODK-Kuznetsov presentation, the second-stage engine for the Su-57 was labelled AL-51F1 on one of the slides.

The first stage AL-41F1 engine has a nominal thrust of 8,800kgf, 14,500kgf on afterburner and 15,000kgf on emergency mode. According to experts and analysts of the aviation industry, the AL-51F1 engine will develop a nominal thrust of at least 11,000 kgf, and 17,000 kgf on afterburner. Given the Su-57’s take-off weight of more than 35 tonnes, the aircraft’s thrust-to-weight ratio will be more than one – 1.15-1.2 at normal take-off weight. Now this parameter is 1.09 at normal takeoff weight and 0.97 at full takeoff weight.

The documentary Masters of the Sky will be broadcast on Channel One on 15 December at 17:00 for Moscow, St. Petersburg and the European part of Russia. Residents of the Urals, Siberia, Far East, Kamchatka and Chukotka should check the release time according to the broadcasting grid of Channel One in each region.