Yuri Slyusar: On the most important things in the aviation industry over the past year

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Homepage »Aviation » Interview Yuri Slyusar: On the most important things in the aviation industry over the past year Saturday December 30, 2023 19:54 MSK / AVIA.RU On the eve of the New Year, Yuri Borisovich Slyusar, General Director of the United Aircraft Corporation, spoke about the results of the outgoing year and plans for the future. - Yuri Borisovich, hello. The year 2023 is an important year for the Superjet-100. First of all, 15 years ago, the first flight took place. And this year is the first flight of the Superjet New. Tell us when the certification process will be completed in a fully Russian form. - The Superjet New program is actively developing. This is the year when we made a flight with fully Russian systems. And let me remind you, we actually replaced the aircraft completely. We took the airframe, shoved all the imported systems out of it and put in Russian systems. As for the main system, the PD-8 engine, which was launched into development by our colleagues in a short time, in record time, we are now waiting for permission for the first flight from our esteemed colleagues at UEC (United Engines Corporation). The engines have already been installed on our prototype aircraft. And as soon as we receive this authorization, we will even conduct ground testing in the remaining days of this year. And at the beginning of next year we will expect the first flight. And the whole next year provides for an intensive program of flight tests. Here, of course, the speed of testing and the quality of the results obtained should not affect safety and the requirements that are imposed. After all, this is a passenger airplane. Therefore, the program is large. The requirements are high. We work in cooperation with our colleagues from Rosaviatsia, from certification centers, from United Aircraft Corporation, from our main cooperators. Our task is to conduct tests, to complete them, and in 2024 to hand over 20 Superjet airplanes to airlines. This is the number of airplanes that are now produced at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Enterprise, which makes these airplanes, along with combat aircraft. And 20 airplanes are waiting, they are in demand. The airplanes, those in the current face are flying intensively. The flight hours compared to 2019 docovision year, everybody is now comparing, like they used to compare to 1914, now they're comparing to 2019. We have nearly doubled our flying hours. At the same time, let's say the flight time of the Superjet fleet is twice as high as the flight time of the rest of the fleet of Russian airlines while to a small extent it is foreign companies. The airplane is reliable, the airplane flies a lot. This is economy and safety, well, and promising programs. - How long will the certification process approximately take. How do you expect serial deliveries to begin, in what quarter of next year. - I think it will be the end of the year. Because the testing program is quite extensive. We will make airplanes, we will staff the airplanes. We will make preparations for delivery. But the delivery to the airline, after we get the approval of the main change, which we will receive from Rosaviatsia, is done after the whole program of ground and flight tests is completed and all the necessary documents are received. - MC-21. Here what are your plans for 2024. Do you confirm your previous forecasts. - Yes, 2024 is the year of the beginning of serial deliveries for this program. It is true that there is a smaller number. We have not produced them before. For the first time, they will be transferred from the Irkutsk plant to airlines. The situation is somewhat simpler there, because the tests with the Russian PD-14 engine, which replaced Pratt&Whitney, and with the Russian composite wing, which replaced our foreign suppliers, have already taken place. As early as last year, we received all the certificates. We still have to finish testing the rest of the systems, which are also pilot produced for these airplanes. The testing program is quite extensive, but we hope to complete it in 2024. And 6 airplanes will be handed over to Aeroflot at the end of 2024. - On PD-8 engines. If and when the certification process is completed successfully, are there any plans to swap the Russian-French engine for a fully Russian engine on the Superjet-100 airplanes that are already flying? - The idea of remotorization is being discussed. There are two components here. Two nuances that need to be kept in mind. The first. This is the production capacity of fellow engine builders. After all, it is necessary to roll out serial production of PD-8s primarily to equip new vehicles. And if we make 20-30 cars, this is a serious enough volume, a serious series for the Rybinsk plant, where these engines will be produced. And the second point is economics. Now, let me remind you, we produce about 200 airplanes, of which 160 Superjet airplanes are in active operation. They are flying and we need to economically calculate how expedient it is to replace the Russian-French engine with the PD-8. Now we are on the way to support the serviceability of the current SaM-46 engine. Last year we mastered about 59 components. This year another 178. What we repair, what we maintain. And about 226 will be replaced with Russian analogs. So far, the strategy is that we have to maintain Superjet airplanes with Russian-French engines as long as possible. - There is an expert opinion that the entire industry is waiting for the MC-21. And the Tu-214 is some kind of a backup. That there are allegedly no contracts for it. Tell us what the situation is. - There are contracts. What we don't have is intrigue within the corporation, and in the dialog with airlines, which airplane is better or worse. After all, we position these products not as substitutes, but as complementary to each other. MC-21 and Tu-214 are airplanes of different classes and of different generations for different tasks. Tu-214 in addition to delivery to airlines, and we have signed a contract for 40 machines only with the leasing company Kapital-Service, in total, the comprehensive program for the development of civil aviation provides for the delivery of 115 machines until 20230. So in addition to this number, a significant number of Tu-214 airplanes will be delivered as special airplanes. There are a lot of such customers. - Are we talking about firm contracts? - Yes, these are signed contracts. Or negotiations to a high degree, the advancement of which we consider almost as established orders for our production program. And of course, especially recently, after the problems with foreign airplanes were not only in civil, but also in commercial aviation, these airplanes have a certain demand as a base for business jets. On the basis of the Tu-214 we have a good business jet. We have buyers, a considerable number of them, who would like to see the airplane exactly in this form. - What are your production plans? - Our production plan is defined by the government's comprehensive civil aviation program. It is envisaged to deliver more than 1000 airplanes by 2030. Of these, what is produced by our corporation, it is envisaged to deliver about 210 MC-21 aircraft, about 140 Superjet aircraft, about 115 Tu-214 aircraft, and 70 IL-114 aircraft. This is another aircraft in UAC's line of civil aircraft, which we are currently testing and assembling at our Lukhovitsky plant. Accordingly, we also expect deliveries of this aircraft in the amount of 70 units by 2030. - If we are talking about the prospect of using Russian aircraft, what do you think of the idea that has recently been voiced that after a while it will be necessary to introduce a legionnaire rule so that Russian airlines can buy a certain proportion of Russian aircraft. So that the more we fly, the more we identify any rough edges, the more we bring them to the manufacturer, the better our airplanes become. Your attitude to this idea. - It seems to me that this rule of legionnaires would not have hurt the Russian aviation industry in the 90s, when a historic decision was made that all airlines stop buying domestic airplanes and start buying foreign ones. And we were ready to produce and supply them at that time. And it caused further stoppage of the process of work of civilian plants, unlike military ones. It caused some systemic problems in the industry. Now, in my opinion, it makes no sense at all. Foreign airplanes are not sold to us as it is, and if they are sold, then only those that are already in operation. And the process is quite organic, when foreign airplanes will be replaced by Russian airplanes as they are in operation. For us now it is both a chance and a challenge that these hundreds of airplanes that are flying now, Boeing and Airbus, must be replaced by Russian ones. And in a fairly short period of time. - Are you planning to localize production abroad? - We have had several directions abroad and still do. In my opinion, if we talk about self-reliance and the idea of technological sovereignty, the partner we can rely on to the fullest extent is the Republic of Belarus and those aircraft manufacturing enterprises that remained there as part of a certain common industrial complex inherited from the Soviet Union. Just like the Ukrainian complex, with which we also worked intensively. This is the partner we rely on now, and there are a number of joint projects that are quite interesting in civil aviation, which we are implementing together. - Expansion of Russian civil aircraft, it is too early to talk about that. Or are you already calculating what the options might be. - If we are talking specifically about deliveries in the next few years, of course it is too early. For the simple reason that we need to replace foreign airplanes on the domestic market. And this 1000 airplanes that need to be made by 2030, they actually overlap the capacity of our plants and there is no free slot left to consider delivery of these airplanes abroad. But at the same time, the airplanes that we make, the projects that we promote, they are initially focused on the global market. They must meet all the requirements that are now imposed on new-generation airplanes. And of course, we are not taking off the agenda the promotion of our civil and military aircraft to other countries, believing that this is promising. This is the very high-tech export, which we will actively develop. We are aiming at it. But for the next few years, of course, the goal is Russian airlines and Russian passengers. - In the context of the state defense order, the corporation is approaching the end of 2023 with what results. - We have fulfilled the state defense order. Everything that was stipulated by signed contracts and schedule plans was delivered on time. Sometimes even some plants are ahead of schedule. I would like to express my gratitude to the staff of the plants. Because it was not an easy year. Our orders have increased at all plants. Some of them quite significantly. For new airplanes twice as much. For the Su-57 airplane, which is a complex airplane. And it is complex in itself in manufacturing, in cooperation, in development. And we handled this work with honor. The Ministry of Defense has received all the aircraft it ordered. For 2024, the order is even bigger, and there is even more work to be done. But we hope that we will cope with this task as well. In addition, it is extremely important for us not just to supply new aircraft, but also to service and maintain in good condition under conditions of such serious high intensity operation the aircraft that are operated in the line of the Air Defense Forces. We keep our brigades in all locations. Everywhere the equipment coming from the battle, immediately comes for maintenance, for repair, for preparation of flight missions. And what is separately important for us, the feedback system is of special value. Because the aircraft not only confirm their flight characteristics while performing combat missions, but also set new tasks for us to modernize, to increase their functionality, sometimes to change their functionality. And this task must be solved practically online, without going into lengthy development work. And now often on the spot, receiving the requirements, to change the systems to change these or those approaches under the new tasks that the Ministry of Defense sets before us. We promptly respond to this. For us, of course, this is invaluable experience. It is important for the airplanes themselves, because they become more in demand, more competitive. Because they have been tested in real combat conditions. And of course, you have to ask the customer, but it seems to me that Russian aircraft now meet the needs of the Russian Air Force as a whole of the Ministry of Defense and solve those tasks that the Air Force of any country faces. - At the SMO (Special military operation), probably, transport planes are also used. The modernized IL-76 aroused great interest at the international exhibition in Dubai. Tell us what is going on in this segment in general, including how they are used in the course of air defense. - In the course of SMO, it is the main vehicle that provides logistics, cargo delivery. Flight hours have also increased significantly across the fleet. It is also a separate task to keep a large number of Defense Ministry aircraft in good working order. But the main thing for us is the production of new IL-76 airplanes. The old ones were produced in Tashkent. The new airplanes are a new version, a new generation. We have changed about 70 systems on these airplanes. These are airplanes with new engines, with new payload, with new functionality, with a new composition of onboard equipment. And this is one of the most promising projects in the corporation's portfolio as a whole. The Ministry of Defense will need a huge number of these new aircraft in the coming years. The plan is to produce at least 18 airplanes a year in Ulyanovsk. This year, 6 have been delivered. But this is also expensive. Because the Ulyanovsk plant is one of those plants that in hard times did not produce serial equipment, unlike some other plants. Of course, it was important for it to accelerate and join the team, the family of serial plants. And I would also like to congratulate the staff of the plant on the fact that this year we delivered 6 vehicles to the Ministry of Defense almost ahead of schedule. This is a great job, thank them very much for it. Additional jobs - next year alone, about 2,500 people will need to be hired to fulfill the production program. This is the technical re-equipment program that we are implementing at the Ulyanovsk plant. This is a large purchase of technical equipment, including modern lines, including automatic ones. And everything in general should give a busy plant that fulfills the program. In my opinion, the Ulyanovsk plant will have enough work for the next 10-15 years to supply all potential and current customers with IL-76 aircraft. - The new direction is UAVs. What results can be summarized here.* - UAVs are a relatively new direction for us, for the corporation. Now we have in our portfolio those projects that are military in nature. There are several directions, starting from air-launched drones and ending with an airfield-based heavy strike drone. Here, under the contracts signed with customers, we act in accordance with the schedules. We are producing flight models, conducting tests, preparing production, and starting production of the installation batch. But we hope that UAC products will take their rightful place in the lineup of all our attack and reconnaissance drones. - Do you have any plans for 2024 in terms of drones? - The civilian sector is getting involved. We have established a joint venture with Gloria Air, one of the players in this market. - Any news in the past six months? - We have several products in the works. One of them was recently tested in the Irkutsk region for delivery from 2 to 12 kg. Aerodrome-free, ease of use, cheapness, especially in the conditions of the far north, where it will be operated in the future, this is what emphasizes the importance of the drone for the realization of this function. We will continue to work and, realizing the full potential of drones, including the civilian component, we will expand our portfolio of orders. But the main thing for us, of course, remains mainline airplanes.