“Superjet” flies, but SaM is on its own – Newspaper Kommersant No. 65 (7510) dated 04/14/2023

According to Kommersant, the SSJ 100 operators have applied to the Ministry of Transport with a request to give UEC-Saturn the status of a developer of the SaM146 engine manufactured by the Russian-French PowerJet joint venture. This is necessary for carrying out overhauls and coordinating changes to the aircraft documentation. Now the UEC is recognized only as a developer of modifications, which can update service bulletins and “bring them to the attention of carriers.” According to Kommersant’s sources in the industry, the UEC does not want to take responsibility for extending the service life and serious engine repairs, without which the available aircraft fleet will begin to decline.

As it became known to Kommersant, the Association of Air Transport Operators (AEVT) asked the Ministry of Transport to apply to the government “with a proposal to empower the UEC-Saturn enterprise (part of the Rostec UEC) with the authority to develop the SaM146 engine installed on the SSJ 100.” In a letter from the head of the AEVT, Vladimir Tasun, to the head of the Ministry of Transport, Vitaly Savelyev (Kommersant has it), it is said that such a need arose “in order to keep operational documentation up to date.” A Kommersant source in the Ministry of Transport confirmed the receipt of the letter in March, but the department and the AEVT declined to comment.

The developer is the holder of the SaM146 type certificate of the PowerJet JV, registered in France (50% each from UEC-Saturn and Safran Aircraft Engines). The engine was certified by EASA and validated in the Russian Federation by the IAC aviation register. In February 2022, the French side stopped the supply of spare parts, technical support and engine repairs, as well as obligations as an engine developer.

UEC Kommersant reported that in June 2022 PJSC UEC-Saturn received a certificate from the Federal Air Transport Agency as a developer of modifications to the SaM146 engine. According to FAP-21, the modification developer is only responsible for minor changes. The UEC clarified that this gives the right to work on updating spare parts catalogs, issuing service bulletins, clarifying repair documentation, which are brought directly to the operators. “Updating the manual for the technical operation of the aircraft is the responsibility of the developer of the SSJ 100 (Irkut).— “b”),” the UEC noted.

Officially, the SSJ operators refused to answer Kommersant’s questions. According to sources in the two companies, the problem is that without an engine developer it is impossible to extend the service life and no serious work with it that is not provided for by the operational documentation. According to one of Kommersant’s interlocutors, some types of work “are technically feasible, but not documented, responsibility in case of incidents remains blurred.” “The engine designer is responsible for everything that happens to the engine, from restoring airworthiness to extending its life or atypical repairs, which, for obvious reasons, no one wants to take on,” notes one of the interlocutors. Irkut and UAC declined to comment.

Another interlocutor of Kommersant noted that the issue of responsibility for coordinating repairs is not paramount, since the restoration of the hot part of the engine has not been mastered in the Russian Federation in any case. The issue of airworthiness extension will arise for all carriers “not at the same time, but it will rise,” emphasizes a Kommersant source in the industry. The resource of the engines supplied to the first batches of SSJs is 7580 take-off and landing cycles, the newer SaM146 – 8590 cycles.

Rostec told Kommersant that Safran, within the PowerJet, was responsible for the hot part of the engine – a gas generator as part of a high-pressure compressor, a combustion chamber and a high-pressure turbine, an engine control system, a gearbox and engine integration. UEC-Saturn produces the cold part – the fan and the low-pressure turbine, performs general assembly and bench tests.

“This means that each party has technical documentation for its type of work, which the other party does not have. In the same way, responsibility for the supply of spare parts for repair and maintenance of operation was distributed, ”the corporation explained. They added that now it is necessary “to re-create a number of foreign components, which is what the Russian side is doing, the key issue is not speed, but reliability.

No one will subscribe to works for which there are no powers confirmed by the Federal Air Transport Agency, Oleg Panteleev, Executive Director of Aviaport, is sure. But extending the life of the SaM146, which is of interest to the operators, is serious work, and there is no certainty that it can be implemented without large-scale budget funding, even if the developer had a full package of certificates.

The main question is what is the position of the authorities regarding the SSJ 100 project with SaM146 engines: against the background of the fact that the developer and the state are directing maximum resources to the SSJ New, maintaining the operation of the SSJ 100 cannot have a higher priority, says the head of Aviaport. “Funds are allocated for the creation of an import-substituting aircraft and strict deadlines are set. And there has not yet been information on large-scale financing for the creation of repair documentation for the SaM146 and foreign SSJ systems, ”he adds.

A possible solution could be to transfer the status of an engine developer to one of the SSJ operating airlines or its technical center, he believes. As an alternative, some carriers see the empowerment of one of the technical centers in Iran, which Oleg Panteleev considers potentially realistic.

Aigul Abdullina