Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex (TANTK) named after Beriev is the only large design bureau in the world specializing in the creation of amphibious aircraft. Meanwhile, world practice shows that the development of the direction of hydroaviation today is unpromising, obviously unprofitable, and is possible only with the direct support of the state. From an economic point of view, it is more expedient to reorient the TANTK and its serial plant, JSC Taganrog Aviation, for the development and construction of "land" (not amphibious) special aircraft. This process of reorientation began in the USSR, but was suspended in the post-Soviet period.
The origins of naval aircraft construction
Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex named after V. I. Berieva traces its history back to 1934, when the Central Design Bureau (CDB) of naval aircraft construction was formed in Taganrog at the aircraft plant number 31. The first task was to organize the production of a close sea reconnaissance aircraft - the MBR-2 flying boat, developed in 1932 by GM Beriev (1903-1979). As a result, Beriev was appointed chief designer of this Central Design Bureau. Prior to that, he worked as the head of brigade No. 5 (naval aircraft) of the Central Design Bureau at the aircraft plant No. 39. This bureau was organized in 1933 and was headed by S. V. Ilyushin.
After the war, under the leadership of Beriev, a new multipurpose flying boat, the Be-6, was developed for the USSR Navy, which made its first flight in 1948 and was produced at Plant No. 86 in 1952-1957 (123 aircraft). However, the main direction of the OKB's activity was the creation of a seaplane with a jet engine. In 1952, an experimental jet flying boat R-1 was created, and by the end of the 50s, the world's first serial jet seaplane, called the Be-10, was developed. In 1958-1961, plant number 86 built 27 such flying boats in the version of a torpedo bomber. The Be-10 has set 12 world records.
In 1967, the pilot plant No. 49 was renamed the Taganrog Machine-Building Plant (TMZ), and the serial plant No. 86 was renamed into the Taganrog Mechanical Plant named after V. I. Dmitrov. In 1968, Beriev retired and AK Konstantinov was appointed the new chief designer of TMZ.
In October 1989, TMZ was named the Taganrog Scientific and Technical Complex (TANTK), and in December of the same year the plant was named after the founder - G. M. Beriev. In turn, the Taganrog Mechanical Plant named after Dmitrov was renamed the Taganrog Aviation Production Enterprise named after V. I. Dmitrov.
“The Be-200 remains the only real product of TANTK in the sphere of its specialization. However, there is not a large number of people willing to buy it."
In the 70s, funding for R&D on hydroaviation in the USSR was greatly reduced. At that time, the Taganrog Machine-Building Plant was conducting research and development on deck-based and land-based anti-submarine aircraft. In 1977, with the assistance of TMZ, they created a Tu-142MR repeater aircraft, and in 1978, an airborne early warning radar (AWACS) and A-50 control aircraft (based on the Il-76). At the same time, in the latter case, TMZ acted as the main contractor and integrator of the project (the Il-76 aircraft were built in Tashkent; NPO Vega was the developer of the main radio-technical complex for them with the Shmel radar). Only in the 80s at the Taganrog Mechanical Plant named after V. I. Dmitrov produced 25 A-50. In Soviet times, TMZ also began work on an aircraft combat laser complex under the code A-60 (two experimental aircraft were manufactured on the basis of the Il-76).
However, the amphibious theme was not completely phased out. In 1973, in the interests of the USSR Navy, the development of a new anti-submarine seaplane with jet engines began to replace the Be-12. In 1986, the aircraft under the designation A-40 "Albatross" made its first flight. This aircraft, with a maximum take-off weight of 90 tons, became the largest amphibious jet aircraft in the world. In 1995, due to the cessation of state funding, tests of the A-40 were suspended, by that time only two prototypes had been built. It was decided to resume the program in a revised form and under the A-42 index only in 2007.
In parallel with the development of the A-40, TMZ was creating a similar in concept, but more compact multipurpose amphibious aircraft A-200 with a take-off weight of 40 tons. Its production was planned to be organized at the Irkutsk Aviation Production Association (IAPO). In 1990, a preliminary design was ready, but the first flight of the prototype took place only in 1998. The aircraft was renamed Be-200 and in the post-Soviet period it became the basis for cooperation between the Taganrog enterprise and the Irkut corporation, created after the collapse of the USSR on the basis of IAPO.
In 2006, the state-owned United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) was established, uniting all key enterprises in the industry, including NPK Irkut and OJSC Tupolev. As a result, TANTK them. Berieva and Tavia (Taganrog Aviation OJSC) ended up under the complete control of the state, although the formal shareholder structure remained the same with regard to TANTK.
After the creation of the UAC, Aleksey Fedorov, who became the head of the corporation, realized his previous intention and lobbied for the decision to move the production of the Be-200 from Irkutsk to Taganrog. The relocation of production should be completed by 2013; it is planned to spend 4.8 billion rubles for this purpose.
Today TANTK them. Beriev is part of the special aviation division of the UAC, which, in addition to seaplane aviation, will be engaged in the creation of strategic and long-range Tupolev bombers and special aircraft based on the Tu-214 and Il-76. Based on the priorities, Tupolev OJSC was chosen as the base enterprise of the division. Nevertheless, despite the secondary role in the TANTK division named after. Beriev, this OKB, together with its serial plant "Tavia", has been designated by the UAC competence center for hydroamphibious aviation.
The head of TANTK and Tavia is Viktor Kobzev, who previously held the position of head of ZAO Beta-IR, a joint venture between IAPO, TANTK and Tavia, created in 1990 to implement the Be-200 program (now the majority stake in this joint venture belongs to Irkut).
Main programs
Be-200
The first customer of the Be-200 was the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation. In accordance with a contract signed back in January 1997, the Ministry of Emergency Situations ordered seven aircraft in the Be-200ES version (can be used as search and rescue, firefighting and transport), the first of which was built in 2003. However, in reality, by 2006, the ministry received only four production aircraft (serial numbers 101, 102, 201 and 202) and then, it seemed, lost interest in the Be-200. The fifth aircraft built for the Ministry of Emergencies of the Russian Federation (serial number 203) was sold to the Ministry of Emergencies of Azerbaijan in April 2008. The construction of the other two machines was stalled, and the sixth aircraft (serial number 301) made its first flight in Irkutsk only in July 2010. The seventh Be-200ES (serial number 302) should be completed in 2011, while the head board 101 was taken out of service and sent in 2008 to the Aircraft Company for repairs, where it remains to this day.
The situation with the internal order for the Be-200 has changed due to a large number of forest fires in Russia in July-August last year due to an abnormally hot summer. As a result of the events, the Russian government decided to purchase eight more Be-200ES for the Emergencies Ministry. The delivery of the first two aircraft from the Irkut reserve is expected in 2011, the remaining six will be built by Tavia and delivered in two batches of three aircraft each in 2012 and 2013. At the same time, the cost of the eight ordered vehicles is 12 billion rubles.
At the same time, the Russian side continues marketing the Be-200 on the world market, promoting it mainly in a fire-fighting version, however, due to the high cost, the chances of concluding contracts are unlikely. Foreign countries prefer not to buy the Be-200 for end use, but to rent it for solving urgent problems. At various times, the aircraft of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were used to extinguish fires in Italy (2004-2005), Portugal (2006-2007), Indonesia (2006), Greece (2007), Israel (2010). The only foreign buyer of the Be-200 is the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan, which received the aforementioned aircraft 203 in 2008.
Offers of the Be-200 aircraft in cargo, medical, administrative, passenger (Be-210), search and rescue (Be-200PS), anti-submarine (Be-200P), patrol (Be-200MP, Be-220) and other options are also not found customers.
In May 2010, the Indian Navy requested information (RfP) about the possibility of delivering six Be-200s. Delhi plans to use them as patrol and search and rescue missions, deploying in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The tender is likely to include Bombardier 415 and Dornier Seastar aircraft.
Aircraft based on the Be-200
For most modifications of the Be-200 (except perhaps for the fire-fighting version), amphibiousness seems to be a dubious advantage, which only complicates the machine and worsens its aerodynamic and weight characteristics. Therefore, the projects of the Aircraft Company to create on the basis of the Be-200 "land" variants with the replacement of the "boat" fuselage with a conventional one (aircraft type) became quite logical. It is known that TANTK is currently working on two "land" versions of the Be-200 - the AWACS aircraft and the Be-250 control (for a promising radar system developed by the Vega concern) and the Be-300 aircraft in the patrol and anti-submarine Be-300MP versions (with the installation of a promising search and sighting system "Kasatka" developed by JSC "Radar-MMS"). "Kasatka" is also offered for the new patrol version of the Be-200 amphibian under the designation Be-200MP.
A-50
In 1978, with the leading role of TANTK, the A-50 AWACS and control aircraft were created. The task of the Beriev Design Bureau included the integration of the complex and the adaptation of the Il-76 military transport aircraft to accommodate the Shmel radio complex developed by NPO Vega. In 1978-1983, three prototypes of the A-50 (product A) were refitted in Taganrog. Serial production of the A-50 was carried out in Tashkent with the installation of a radar complex in Taganrog from 1984 to 1990 (a total of 25 production vehicles were built).
Since 1984, the development of a modified A-50M aircraft with a Shmel-2 radar complex and PS-90A-76 engines was underway, but in 1990 the work was stopped, and the prototype remained unfinished in Tashkent.
In 1997, the Rosvooruzhenie company (now Rosoboronexport) and the Israeli corporation IAI signed an agreement on the creation of an AWACS aircraft and A-50I control. An Israeli IAI Phalcon radar system with an EL / M-2075 radar with phased antenna arrays was installed on the machine. The customer for the car was China, which ordered four aircraft worth one billion dollars in 1997. By 2000, work on the first machine was completed by re-equipping one of the former serial A-50s, but the United States demanded that Israel stop cooperating with the PRC. In 2001, the Phalcon complex was dismantled from the converted A-50I, and the empty board was transferred to the PRC in 2002, where it later served as a platform for creating its own KJ-2000 AWACS aircraft.
India became the first real owner of the Russian-Israeli aircraft. In 2003, a contract worth $ 1.1 billion was signed for the supply of three A-50EIs to Delhi with an IAI Phalcon radar complex and PS-90A-76 engines. According to him, the first car was planned to be delivered in 2006, and the last - in 2009, but the contract is being implemented with serious delays. The first aircraft was sent from TANTK to Israel for the installation of a radar system in January 2008 and was handed over to the Indian Air Force in complete form only in May 2009. The second was received by the Indians in March 2010. The third aircraft was relocated from TANTK to Israel in October 2010 and is expected to be delivered to the customer in 2011. Delhi intends to exercise an option for three additional aircraft.
Meanwhile, the modernization of the combatant A-50 of the Russian Air Force began. TANTK them. Berieva and the Vega concern have successfully worked out a modification of the A-50U with a modernized radio-technical complex. At the end of 2009, an act was signed on the completion of state joint tests of this machine. In 2010, the modernization of the first of the combatant A-50 of the Russian Air Force to the A-50U version was completed and work began on another side. In total, the Russian Air Force is currently operating 12 A-50 aircraft.
In parallel, TANTK, together with the Vega concern, is developing an A-100 AWACS and control aircraft with a new generation radar system intended to replace the A-50. The platform for the new machine should be the same Il-76TD, and in the future, the Il-476, which is being mastered in Voronezh. In August 2010, the general director of the Vega concern, Vladimir Verba, said that “in three to four years we will receive the newest complex on the same carrier (IL-76)”.
Be-103
In the early 90s, TANTK began designing the Be-103 lightweight six-seat multipurpose piston amphibious aircraft. The first flight of the new car took place in 1997. In addition to Russia, the Be-103 from 2003 to 2008 was certified in the USA, China, Brazil and the European Union. At KnAAPO them. Gagarin (part of the AHK "Sukhoi"), a serial production line was deployed. It was believed that the Be-103 has good market prospects. However, in reality, from 1997 to 2005, only ten experimental and production aircraft were built for Russian customers, and three of them crashed. Three more cars were delivered in 2003 to the United States, since then they have been resold several times.
Great hopes were pinned on the promotion of the Be-103 in the PRC. In 2003, an agreement was signed to supply 20 Be-103s to China with an option for another 10 vehicles. The issue of organizing licensed production of the Be-103 in China (in Huzhou) was also considered, the volume of which was estimated at no less than 50 vehicles. However, the Be-103 also failed in the Chinese direction. Although in 2003-2007 KnAAPO built all 20 aircraft of the Chinese order and laid 10 under the option, in reality only two aircraft were delivered to the PRC in the fall of 2010 of China Flying Dragon Airlines from Tianjin. The Chinese side seems to have refused to accept the rest of the aircraft, and these 18 Be-103s remain mothballed at KnAAPO. With a cost of about one million dollars and an increased accident rate revealed, the Be-103 aircraft is clearly uncompetitive. By now, the program has actually been discontinued.
Screens and other projects
TANTK considers one of the promising areas to be the creation of super-heavy amphibians - ekranopolymers with a take-off weight of 2500 tons. Similar studies began in the USSR in the 1980s. Now TANTK, together with TsAGI, continues to develop this topic, which Kobzev once again announced during the Hydroaviasalon-2010. The advantage of ekranolet should be high efficiency and high carrying capacity. The creators see their main purpose in transoceanic container shipping. The ekranolets will not need any special infrastructure, they can be operated using the capabilities of the existing seaports. The project, according to Kobzev, will take from 15 to 20 years and more than $ 10 billion. However, it is highly doubtful that such funds will be found, especially since the economic feasibility has yet to be proven.
At the same time, TANTK continues to advertise projects of a number of amphibious aircraft that have been going on since the 90s - the four-seater light piston Be-101 (takeoff weight up to 1.5 tons), twin-engine turboprop Be-112 (11 tons) and Be-114 (22 tons) and corporate amphibian Be-170. The possibility of bringing all these programs to practical implementation is unlikely.
Unpromising directions
TANTK them. Beriev remains the only significant aviation design bureau in the world specializing in the field of hydroaviation, promoting its "unique competence" in this area. Meanwhile, it is obvious that the era of hydroaviation is becoming a thing of the past. Large seaplanes have only a very narrow niche for fire fighting and search and rescue vehicles, and the real need for seaplanes even in this niche is questionable. Light-engine hydroaviation retains a certain value, but here the demand is satisfied by float variants of conventional "land" light-engine vehicles, fortunately, in operation it is possible to easily replace the wheeled chassis with a float one and vice versa. There is no urgent need for specialized light-engine amphibians, whose flight characteristics are obviously worse than "land" aircraft, and such amphibians are now small-scale exotic products for enthusiasts.
In light of this, the persistent commitment of TANTK to hydroaviation dooms this company to a marginal position and leads to the waste of funds on obviously unrealizable projects. It seems that there is not and will not be any market demand for the amphibious projects currently being developed by TANTK (Be-101, Be-112, Be-114, Be-170), not to mention the frankly fantastic projects of ekranoliters. Attempts to revive the A-40/42 aircraft also do not have clear significant prospects, and the idea of organizing the construction of just a few copies of heavy and expensive A-42s for the Russian Navy looks very dubious from an economic and operational point of view and will most likely be revised by government agencies after an objective analysis.
The Be-200 remains the only real product of the TANTK in the area of its specialization. However, there is no particular number of people willing to buy it, and even the pilot customer (EMERCOM of Russia) clearly did not show much interest in this aircraft until the summer fires of 2010. The real prospects for the continuation of the production of the Be-200 depend mainly on how long the state will continue such acts of charity in relation to the UAC and TANTK at the expense of taxpayers.
The futility of the seaplane specialization of the OKB im. Beriev was obvious already by the 70s, and the decision of the leadership of the Soviet aviation industry at that time to re-profile the bureau in the direction of work on "land special" aviation should be considered completely justified. The projects of the amphibians A-40, Be-200 and Be-103 did not bring any benefit to either TANTK or the state as a whole, becoming costly relapses, which clearly showed the dead end of this topic. As a result, even now, as can be judged, the TANTK receives its main income not from participation in the production of one-off Be-200, but from the implementation of the A-50EI, A-50U, A-60 programs, R&D on new AWACS aircraft and other special machines, works for aircraft of the Tu-142 family, etc. The Be-250 and Be-300 projects also look very attractive, the latter being able to become virtually uncontested version of a promising basic patrol and anti-submarine aircraft both for the Russian Navy and for export.
TANTK them. Beriev can have a long-term future only if the management of the UAC brings to its logical end the re-profiling of the Taganrog complex, begun in Soviet times, for the creation of special-purpose aviation systems (fully focusing it on this topic, including the transfer of specialized topics from other Russian design bureaus). Obviously, this will require at the same time a more firm approach to the topics of the future work of the Aircraft Company, including the termination of the dispersal of resources on unrealistic hydro-aviation projects.
