The Voronezh Joint-Stock Aircraft Building Company (VASO) is manufacturing the first flight prototype of the Il-112V aircraft, developed by the Aviation Complex named after V. I. S. V. Ilyushin. In the New Year area, it is planned to complete assembly and begin ground testing in order to lift the aircraft into the air by next summer. In addition, to ensure the first flight, stands are being made on which various systems and assemblies will be tested. The tests of the aerodynamic models of the Il-112V aircraft in the tubes of TsAGI have been completed.
Air "GAZelle"
“These planes are air GAZelles,” says the chief designer of the Il-112V (Il company) Sergei Lyashenko. - They only belong to the military transport aviation by class and purpose, but they perform tasks mainly within the military districts. IL-112V aircraft are designed to perform logistics tasks at small, including low-equipped airfields with both concrete and unpaved runways. In wartime, they can also provide the landing of light weapons, military equipment and personnel."
At present, the Russian Aerospace Forces operate about 140 light military transport aircraft (LVTS) - An-26 and its modifications. In total, from 1969 to 1986, about 1,150 of these aircraft were produced, of which more than 600 are in operation all over the world. However, they have practically exhausted their resource. Therefore, they needed a replacement.
In 2014, a contract was signed with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for development work on the Il-112V. In 2015, the IL company defended the technical project, in 2016 all the documentation was released, which was transferred to the VASO manufacturing plant. It is planned that the final assembly of the first flight Il-112V will be completed in early 2017. By the middle of next year, the cycle of workshop and airfield development should be completed. “The work is being carried out according to the schedule, in accordance with the terms of the state contract. The schedule provides for the lifting of the first prototype Il-112V in mid-2017. The work is proceeding strictly in accordance with this document, says Dmitry Savelyev, director of the IL-112 program directorate at the IL company.
The Il-112V project had a number of features. As Sergei Lyashenko said, the documentation for the new aircraft was issued in two formats at once - in the usual paper and in digital. “We were making mathematical 3D models, but there was a drawing nearby,” explained the chief designer of the aircraft. - In such a set, this documentation was transferred to VASO. It should also be remembered that the main cooperators of VASO - the Ulyanovsk Aviastar-SP and the Kazan KAPO-Composite - have already switched to digital, and they are no longer given anything on paper.
Another innovation of the project was the production of immediately, in fact, serial equipment for the production of the Il-112V. “Earlier, for the assembly of the first flight model, the equipment was manufactured as an experimental, disposable,” says Dmitry Savelyev. “Now it is being made once and for all, for a series.
Test benches
To test systems, assemblies and equipment, confirm their characteristics, and ensure the safety of the aircraft, 22 stands are being created. Ten of them are stands of the first flight, without them it is impossible to lift the first flight model of the Il-112V into the air. Five stands are located in the IL company, the rest are located at the co-executors.
One of the stands located in the IL company is a KSU stand or a control system stand. The Experimental Machine-Building Plant named after V. I. VM Myasishchev and OKB "Aerospace systems" in Dubna. It is planned to begin testing on it by the end of the year. Another stand associated with the control system is the flap rolling stand. It works out the release and harvesting of mechanization. Another "Ilyushin" stand is a BUR for testing the emergency recorder. It is used to test the "black box", all of its parameters, which it will register from takeoff to landing.
“The SES stand is being made by our colleagues in Dubna,” says Dmitry Savelyev. - All blocks of the power supply system will stand on it. Before lifting the aircraft, this stand will work out all the main parameters of electrical loading, the main processes, schedules for turning on and off systems and equipment so that there are no overloads and overheating of the circuits.
In cooperation with the Center for Scientific and Technical Services "Dynamics" in Zhukovsky, technical training aids (TCO) are being created, among which, at the first stage, an experimental model-stand should be built for testing and testing, including the flight characteristics of the Il-112V aircraft … The center makes technical training aids for the IL-112V: a procedural simulator, an integrated simulator and a training class. Training aids must be supplied with the aircraft to retrain the flight crews of the operators.
… and aerodynamic models
According to the program for the creation of the Il-112V aircraft, the aerodynamic models were purged according to the list agreed with TsAGI. 6 models were produced. The first complete aerodynamic model of the aircraft, numbered 108, the so-called preliminary, was manufactured at VASO in a scale of 1:24. Upon completion of the purges of this model, TsAGI's recommendations on improving the aerodynamic layout of the aircraft to ensure the achievement of the declared aerodynamic quality were taken into account, the model was modified at the Ilyushin production. The modified 108 model was re-tested at the first design stage and the results obtained confirmed that the level of aerodynamic quality had been achieved. After the defense of the technical project, when the configuration of the aircraft was "frozen", the model became executive and fully corresponds to the Il-112V aircraft. Further, the purging of the executive model, which is the main one, was completed in December 2015.
In the course of this work, all aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft were determined and confirmed, including the efficiency of wing mechanization and controls, as well as the effect of propellers blowing over the wing.
The obtained data were combined into a bank of aerodynamic characteristics, which is an integral part of the mathematical model of the aircraft movement (not to be confused with the 3D model of the aircraft) and presented to the Customer. After that, the stability and controllability characteristics of the aircraft were calculated in all expected operating conditions, and the developed mathematical model was installed on the TsAGI flight stand. The IL pilots performed flights and highly appreciated the flight characteristics of the future aircraft.
In April of this year, the purges of the isolated "tail" and the isolated "half wing" were completed, on which the hinge moments of the elevator, ailerons and rudder were determined, including in icing conditions. The results of the blowdowns confirmed that the control efforts on the control levers were within the normalized range.
Also in April, the corkscrew model and the propeller model were purged. It has been shown that the aircraft is reluctant to go into and out of a spin by the standard method, which will ensure flight safety when tested at high angles of attack. The aircraft tends to lower the nose, so most likely we will not deploy the anti-propeller parachute.
“The corkscrew model is blown through without fail,” says Olga Kruglyakova. - Her number is 2408. She makes it clear how quickly the plane goes into a tailspin, and by what methods it can be taken out of there. These blowdowns gave us a rather favorable result - the Il-112V is very reluctant to go into a spin and get out of it by the standard method. Therefore, most likely, we will do without an anti-spin parachute during flight tests."
The semi-natural AV-112 propeller was also blown through to confirm the calculated thrust, which was guaranteed by the Aerosila company. This work was completed at the end of April 2016. The flutter model developed by the strength specialists of the IL company was also tested.
Project vertical
For VASO, mastering a new product became a kind of exam. During its long history, the enterprise will once again consolidate the status of a finalist plant and will join the number of air vehicles that have come down from the Voronezh slipways in different years. In connection with the change in the structure of the UAC, at present, a number of innovations are being introduced at VASO to improve the project management system. In June 2016, the president of UAC, Yuri Slyusar, approved a new structure of the corporation, in which the project orientation is clearly expressed. In practice, this means that vice-presidents are now responsible for the implementation of UAC programs, in whose subordination are the directorates for program management.
The IL-112V program at the UAC is supervised by Vladislav Masalov, Vice President for Civil and Transport Aviation. The corporation has formed a directorate for the Il-112V program, and Sergey Artyukhov has been appointed its director. At each enterprise of industrial cooperation, starting with the head developer of the aircraft - the Il company, in turn, working groups or directorates have been created. Along this vertical, the entire IL-112V program will be controlled through the UAC directorate. Each of the levels - UAC, subsidiary or dependent company - will receive its own sector of responsibility and authority to make decisions aimed at adjusting the timing and budget.
“Without false modesty, it should be said that in this regard, VASO is slightly ahead of colleagues,” says Alexander Bykov, director of the project management department at VASO. - For the implementation of this area of work, we have the entire infrastructure ready. A project office has been formed, the composition of the working group has been approved, on the basis of which a directorate for the management of the IL-112V program can be created. Still not having the UAC normative documents, VASO, nevertheless, has already begun to work out the mechanisms of interaction between the management company, co-operatives for the Il-112V project - the companies KAPO-Composite and Aviastar-SP. The residents of Voronezh have developed a unified end-to-end schedule and started the procedures for transferring reports to the aircraft customer.
The Il-112V project has become a new challenge for the designers and technologists of VASO. About half of the total array of design documentation is in the form of electronic models, the rest is drawings on paper and mathematical models for them. “The wing, empennage, engine nacelle were received in electronic form,” says Vyacheslav Belyakin, deputy technical director for the Il-112V project. - Documentation for the fuselage, some of the systems were received in traditional paper form. When the serial production of the machine begins, the specialists of the IL company will have to submit to us all the design documentation in electronic form."
Of course, VASO already had experience in digital, since the production of units for the MC-21 project was carried out on the basis of 3D models. The difficulties arose purely psychological: development, launch, design, manufacturing - all these processes were based not on drawings, but on the basis of computer models of components and assemblies. If earlier the technologist made up the technical process using drawings, now, due to the lack of paper media, he needs to prepare sketch maps and measurement maps for the process. In addition, there were not enough specialists. In addition, certain difficulties arose when working with digital models in the Teamcenter system.
The budget provided funds for the expansion of the staff in a timely manner. And purposeful work to attract the IL-112V to the project is already yielding results: since the beginning of 2016, 62 new employees have been hired by the chief technologist's department. The ranks of technologists were joined by both novice specialists who came from the university bench and experienced workers.
Today the Il-112V aircraft is given priority attention in all VASO shops involved in the project. Where necessary, work is organized in two or three shifts. Preparation of production is working at full capacity. After the wing production was assigned to VASO in 2015, the localization of production at the Voronezh site was 86.88 percent. For VASO, the volumes for the manufacture of fuselage compartments, wings, empennage, engine nacelle, docking of units, final assembly, painting and a set of tests are assigned.
Cooperation
“More than 50 organizations are participating in the cooperation on the Il-112V. About 80 contracts have been concluded with them for the experimental product alone. The aircraft is completely Russian, with full import substitution,”says Dmitry Savelyev, director of the Il-112V program at the Il company.
VASO has two main co-operatives for the Il-112V project - Aviastar-SP and KAPO-Composite. The citizens of Kazan are assigned to supply brake flaps, spoilers, flap rail fairings, wing tail panels, aileron panels, elevator trims and rudders. And with Ulyanovsk, who supply VASO with fuselage panels, hatches and doors, the Voronezh aircraft builders are already in close industrial relations. The first set of fuselage panels for the first aircraft has been received from Ulyanovsk. The assembly of the F-3 compartment has finished, the F-2 and F-1 compartments are being assembled. Delivery of hatches and doors is scheduled for September 2016.
“The assembly of the first cars, as a rule, is more difficult than the serial ones,” says Vyacheslav Belyakin. - And there were questions about the first units we received from Ulyanovsk. I must say that the residents of Ulyanovsk reacted promptly. Specialists arrived at VASO, eliminated all our comments. I think that the aggregates for the following machines will not raise any quality issues. In order to coordinate the work of cooperators, to quickly resolve all emerging issues, specialists were hired in Kazan and Ulyanovsk. They supervise the production process on the spot, and, if necessary, provide advice to VASO employees.
Another of the important cooperators of the Il-112V project is one of the leading Russian developers of gas turbine engines, the St. Petersburg company "Klimov". It develops the TV7-117ST engine for the aircraft. “The engine for the Il-112V is from the TV7-117 engine family,” says Sergey Lyashenko. - This line was originally created for both aircraft and helicopters. At first, they began to make an aircraft modification at Klimovo, but the helicopter was the first to appear. Now, under the terms of reference for the Il-112V, a new aircraft version is being made using the developments obtained during the creation of the helicopter version of the engine. We have signed a contract for the engine. There, too, there will be a step-by-step achievement of the required characteristics. Their terms are linked to ours."
At the start of the series
The result of the efforts of hundreds of specialists is now concentrated in the stocks of VASO. It's a hot season for factory aggregators. “A total of twenty people are currently working on the assembly of all the compartments,” says Yu. N. Shestakov. "As the volume of work increases, the number will increase accordingly." Of course, the assembly is not complete without the difficulties inevitable at the stage of mastering a new product. For example, there are questions with the molding of the lower wing panel at the Voronezh mechanical plant. They are considered and solved jointly by the technologists and designers of VASO and Il.“The difficulty, I would say, is only in one thing: the plane is experimental, and the term of its production is serial,” Shestakov believes. - But nothing, we are coping, and we will try to do everything right and on time. By the end of the year, we have to make the airplane frame - the fuselage and the wing, and transfer it to the pre-assembly shop. At the same time, we have many young people who are still gaining experience. Young girls-technologists, guys-craftsmen, of whom there are now more than half of the same workshop # 38. But their eyes are burning, they are interested. They have never launched new products before. When the first pylon for the MS-21 was made, both workers and engineering specialists came out. It felt like they were proud of what they had done. One can only imagine their feelings when we make the Il-112V."
The birth of the aircraft and VASO specialists, who are capable of essentially reaching the level of modern tasks facing the domestic aviation industry, is happening simultaneously today. This is difficult, but also gives hope that the Voronezh Aviation Plant, as in previous years, will produce the latest aviation equipment for various purposes and maintain its worthy position in the industry.
Great prospects
Under the contract for development work, two aircraft will be built at VASO. The first one will be used in flight tests. The second aircraft will be a resource for testing at TsAGI. “According to the rules, the first aircraft should be manufactured for static tests, the second - for flight, and the third - for service life,” says Sergey Lyashenko. - But due to limited funds and tight deadlines, we will give preload on the first flight to allow flying. The second, resource aircraft is also combined. It will first "pump up" a resource that allows the first aircraft to fly off 2,500 hours of testing. After that, the same instance will be converted into a static one, and it will be “broken”. But the question is that these two prototypes, manufactured within the framework of the ROC contract, do not allow to carry out all tests in full within the specified time frame. Therefore, it is proposed to transfer the first two aircraft from the pilot batch to IL for use in tests. At the moment, negotiations are underway with the customer on this issue."
The Il-112V project has attracted close attention of both the future operator - the Russian Ministry of Defense, and federal departments, in particular, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade. This was stated by the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia Yuri Borisov during a meeting in Voronezh. He also announced the plans of the Russian Ministry of Defense for the Il-112V - the Russian military department intends to sign a contract for the serial production of 48 transport aircraft in 2017. “Under this contract,” says A. I. Bykov, - two serial aircraft with serial numbers 0103 and 0104 will be used in development work from 2019.
This is done to reduce the time frame for the implementation of the ROC. Thus, four aircraft will be involved in carrying out the entire complex of ground and flight tests scheduled for 2020, taking into account those that have already been laid in the slipway at VASO."
The release of a batch of experimental machines, and then the IL-112V series, is based on the improvement of all links of the production chain: organizational, technological, intellectual. Information about the new transport aircraft is already spreading around the world. Potential customers began to take an interest in him. “For the first time, supplies under the state order within the country are being considered,” says Sergey Lyashenko. - All An-26, including special versions, their operators want to replace. Only in the Air Force there are about one and a half hundred. It is also the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the border service of the FSB, the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Everyone needs a business plane. A private company recently contacted us. He also wants to replace about 10-12 of its aircraft. Therefore, the Il-112V, I hope, has great prospects."
Personal file: IL-112V
The Il-112V light military transport aircraft is designed to transport a wide range of cargoes, including various types of weapons, military equipment and personnel, as well as to carry them out. The Il-112 will replace the An-26 aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The possibility of an automatic approach to categorized aerodromes at a minimum of ICAO Category II and a manual approach to poorly equipped and radio-unequipped aerodromes is provided.
The length of the aircraft will be 24, 15 m, height 8, 89 m, wingspan 27, 6 m, fuselage diameter 3, 29 m. Two TV7-117ST engines with a maximum power of 3,500 hp will be used as a power plant. with., equipped with AV-112 propellers. The maximum take-off weight of the aircraft will be 21 tons, the maximum payload is 5 tons. The Il-112V will develop a cruising speed of 450-500 km / h. Its maximum flight altitude is 7,600 m, and its flight range with a payload of 3, 5 tons is 2,400 km.
The Il-112V was developed by the Aviation Complex named after V. I. S. V. Ilyushin, the final assembly of air vehicles will be carried out at VASO. In December 2014, VASO began preparations for the production of prototypes of the Il-112V aircraft.
