The information was provided by the Ural Civil Aviation Plant (UZGA JSC) during the press tour, where journalists were told about the development of the VK-800SM engine for LMS-901 Baikal aircraft and the creation of the production and testing facilities for its production. Vzlyot (Take Off) magazine writes about this.
At the briefing, Sergey Vakushin, general designer of the Engines division of UZGA JSC, said that by the end of this year the VK-800SM should enter flight tests as part of the Yak-40LL flying laboratory at SibNIA, and the first flight of the Baikal aircraft with VK-800SM is planned for the third quarter of 2024. “The third quarter of 2024 is the first flight as part of the LMS-901 prototype,” he said.
The company announced about the start of bench tests of gas generator BK-800SM in September 2022, when it was first run, which confirmed the correctness of the selected design solutions and high convergence of the data obtained with the calculated data. It was noted that the testing program implies autonomous testing of individual engine units – combustion chamber and compressor – on specialized units, for which the Central Institute of Aviation Motors (CIAM) test facility is used.
Produced at UZGA combustion chamber autonomous installation VK-800SM successfully passed the test on the bench CIAM in the period from January 15 to March 17 this year, an autonomous installation of centrifugal compressor will go for bench testing in the coming weeks. The engine prototype gas generator has already operated for over 60 hours and is being prepared for the next stage of testing.
The assembly of the first prototype engine is nearing completion in Ekaterinburg and will soon be subjected to bench tests. The company has already commissioned a test bench to test the gas generator and propeller engine.
Serial production of these engines at UZGA will be launched from 2025. In accordance with the comprehensive program of the aviation industry, in 2024 UZGA shall produce 14 airplanes LMS-901 Baikal, in 2025 – 15, and from 2025 to reach the production rate of 25 planes and 30 engines VK-800SM per year.
