The news reason for organizing the press tour was the opening of the newly built workshop No. 227. The number of personnel is 163 people, investments in construction and equipment amounted to 2.9 billion rubles. The building houses 9 automated, 5 mechanized lines and 4 manual galvanic lines, a complex of closed-cycle treatment facilities, modern ventilation equipment of 286 systems. The manufactory will start full-fledged work next year. The start of the new electroplating plant became the next stage of the extensive program of technical renovation of UEC-Kuznetsov, within the framework of which a total of 18 projects are being implemented that are at various stages of modernization or construction.

Previously, on the site of the new building of the electroplating production, there was a vacant lot and hangars for storing components. Construction began back in 2011, but was completed later than planned - the suppliers failed. Today workshop No. 227 is the largest electroplating production in the Samara region and one of the largest in the country. The covered area is 11 thousand square meters, throughput - 350 thousand square meters of coatings per year. Technological processes: cadmium plating, chemical nickel plating, brass plating, tin-lead plating, silver plating, etching, zinc plating, phosphating, anodizing, electro-chemical polishing, chrome plating, removal of special coatings, nickel plating, oxidation, copper plating. Nomenclature of processed products - 73 thousand units. Potential volume - up to 3 million units per year. According to the head of the shop, "he will fully meet the needs of the plant and work throughout the entire UEC."

Origins

"ODK-Kuznetsov" traces its history back to 1912, when a mechanical plant of the French Society of Gnome motors was opened in Moscow. After a number of expansions and acquisitions, the enterprise became known as Plant No. 24 named after M.V. Frunze. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, it produced M-62/63 aircraft engines designed by Shvetsov and AM-35A designed by Mikulin for completing the I-153 and MiG-3 fighters produced by the Moscow aircraft building plant No. 1. By order of the USSR State Defense Committee, in the fall of 1941, both enterprises were evacuated to Kuibyshev (Samara) and concentrated their efforts on the production of armoured Il-2 attack aircraft and AM-38 engines for them.

The most important events of the fifties were the beginning of the work in Kuibyshev of the experimental design bureau N.D. Kuznetsov, and the introduction into the series of the NK-12 turboprop aircraft engine developed by him, and in parallel with this - the RD-107/108 rocket engines designed by V.P. Glushko. The latter turned out to be so successful that to this day they are present in the products of the Samara production site.

The site itself has repeatedly changed its structure and names, moreover, the organizational and personnel reshuffling, which continued in the post-Soviet era against the background of a systemic crisis in the entire domestic defense-industrial complex, stopped only eleven years ago. In 2009, a number of Samara enterprises came under the management of United Engine Corporation JSC, which operates in the structure of Rostec State Corporation. The extraordinary meeting of shareholders of PJSC Kuznetsov on April 9, 2020 decided to rename it to PJSC UEC - Kuznetsov, thereby bringing the new name to the current internal corporate standard.

Today "UEC - Kuznetsov" is an integrated structure in which all phases of the technological chain of the engine development are concentrated. The enterprise includes three key components: a design bureau, a serial production plant for engines, and a unique testing facility.

Among the tasks solved by the company's team, the following stand out:

- Production of new power plants for Tu-160 strategic missile carriers.

- Repair and modernization of NK aircraft engines used on the aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

- Serial production of engines for carrier rockets of the Soyuz type.

- Production and service of industrial turbines.

- Creation of new engines, including in the interests of the PAK DA program.

Factory Museum

Our acquaintance with "UEC - Kuznetsov" began with the factory museum, which displays full-scale samples and large-scale copies of aircraft engines of the Soviet period. The central place of the exposition is occupied by the AM-38F engine from the Il-2 attack aircraft shot down in the spring of 1943, discovered almost thirty years later at Lake Orijärvi. The aircraft under the number 1872932 was assembled in Kuibyshev at the plant number 18, and its engine at the plant number 24 in Kuibyshev. The remains of the winged machine returned to their hometown, serving as the basis for the monument at the intersection of Moskovskoye Highway and Kirov Avenue. Today it is one of the symbols of Samara.

According to museum materials, in 1941 the collective of Plant No. 24 in just sixty days prepared the experimental AM-38 for testing on the Il-2, for which on August 23 the enterprise received a government award - the Order of Lenin. A month and a half later, an order was received from the State Defense Committee to evacuate to Kuibyshev, to the territory set aside on the eve of the war for the construction of three military factories with a readiness period of the end of 1942. By that time, an engineering site had already been prepared, where the machines and specialists who arrived from the capital by rail were housed.

The first AM-38F produced here were assembled and handed over for testing in December 1941, and in 1943 the Red Army received up to fifty attack aircraft with similar engines every day. Employees of Plant No. 24 not only made aircraft engines, but also personally helped the Red Army Air Force to keep them in good condition, for which they worked as part of brigades directly in military units, providing repair and maintenance of equipment. More than a thousand factory workers were awarded the medal "For the Defense of Moscow". All in all, during the war years, 3912 employees of the enterprise's labor collective were presented to orders and medals.

Engines of Nikolai Kuznetsov

Most of the museum's exposition is dedicated to engines of the NK brand. Shown here are the prepared NK-12, the NK-33 model and the reduced copy of the NK-93. They were created under the leadership of the general designer of aviation, industrial and rocket engines, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolai Dmitrievich Kuznetsov (years of life 1911 - 1995).

In total, his design bureau developed 57 original and modified aircraft, rocket and ground engines. Thanks to them, over 150 world records have been set. A special place in this series is occupied by the most powerful and economical turboprop engine in the world, the NK-12, which is still in operation on the An-22 Antey military transport aircraft, Tu-142 anti-submarine missiles and Tu-95 strategic missile carriers.

The program of creating a power plant for the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft Tu-144 was going on with difficulty. On the basis of the initial NK-144, the Kuznetsov Design Bureau has consistently developed options with the indexes "A" (produced in 1973-1978) and "B" with additional compressor stages, which is reflected in a decrease in fuel consumption in cruising mode by 22%, and an increase in resource from 50 to 300 hours.

The development of this line continued in relation to power units for Tu-22M (NK-144-22, NK-22, NK-23), Tu-22M3 (NK-25) bombers and, then, Tu-160 (NK-32, produced since 1983) and Tu-160M2 (NK-32-02). The rate of pressure increase doubled, and the temperature of the gases increased by more than 20%. By the way, the Samara School of Aviation Motors, in the period from 1963 to the present, has produced several generations of cruise power plants for heavy-class supersonic aircraft.

And today the aircraft Tu-22M3 with the NK-25 engine, Tu-95MS with the NK-12MP engine and the Tu-160 with the NK-32-01 engine are in operation. Tests of the prototype Tu-160M2 with NK-32-02 of the second series began. The latter is characterised as a "multi-mode, dual-circuit, turbofan engine with a self-similar nozzle and digital electronic surge control and protection system".

For his enormous contribution to the development of science and technology, Nikolai Kuznetsov was twice awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, was a holder of five Orders of Lenin, Orders of the October Revolution and the Red Banner, two Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, two Orders of the Red Star, and a holder of 15 medals.

Speaking at the anniversary event in honor of the founder of the OKB, Deputy General Director - Managing Director of PJSC UEC-Kuznetsov Alexei Sobolev said: “The personality of Nikolai Dmitrievich is unique and multifaceted. They speak of him as an outstanding scientist and talented leader, a modest and benevolent person. We, the new generation of the company's employees, did not know him personally, but he left us a brand that is easy to work with, but very responsibly, because engines with the NK marking are still trusted. NK products will be in operation for many more years, on their basis the young generation of designers of the Kuznetsov school create new motors. Our task is to maintain this trust".

Space program

Among the unique developments of Nikolai Dmitrievich is the NK-33 liquid-propellant rocket engine, created within the framework of the Soviet lunar program. This is a single-chamber engine operating in a closed cycle on oxygen-kerosene steam by after-burning oxidizing gas. The NK-33 provides a high thrust-to-weight ratio and improved fuel efficiency, which has been confirmed by bench tests.

However, the Soviet lunar program suffered a setback: all four launches of the N-1 carrier rocket in the period 1969-1972. were unsuccessful, and it was closed after the American landing on the moon. One and a half hundred NK-33s manufactured by that time were to be destroyed, but Kuznetsov, who had high authority in the highest echelons of power, managed to convince the country's leadership. Instead of recycling, they were mothballed "until better times." During the perestroika, the engines saved in this way attracted the interest of Aerojet, which found them suitable for the American space program. The United States purchased 37 copies, and after being modified into the AJ-26 version, it was used on Antares carrier rockets, with five launches in 2013-2014.

Since the reactivated and modified NK-33s showed their efficiency, it was decided to install them on the domestic Soyuz-2.1v light-class carrier rockets. Adaptation of the updated NK-33A as a first stage engine began ten years ago. The first launch took place on December 28, 2013, and the fifth, completing within the LKI, on July 10, 2019. The sixth launch four months later was the first commercial.

“Last year, the Soyuz-2.1v flight design test program (LKI) was completed in the version with the NK-33A engine, and normal operation of the product began to place the payload into a given orbit,” says Alexey Sobolev.

Journalists asked whether it is possible to buy back the engines previously supplied to the United States for their subsequent use under the domestic space program? “The remaining reserve for NK-33 will cover for the next decade all the need indicated by the main customer. - answered Sobolev. - Therefore, the issue of buying out engines previously exported is not on the agenda today. The quantity that is at the enterprise can be put into operation, if there is a corresponding order, and adapted to the needs of the customer. "

Glushko engines

In addition to engines from the Kuznetsov design bureau, since 1958, the Kuibyshev engine builders have been producing rocket engines and academician Valentin Petrovich Glushko (years of life 1908-1989). Today, the work of this famous designer is continued by the OKB in Khimki near Moscow, known as JSC NPO Energomash, and its Privolzhsky branch is located on the territory of UEC-Kuznetsov. Of the nearly eleven thousand engines for space programs that have been produced by the enterprise to date, the overwhelming majority (over 10.5 thousand propulsion and steering engines) belong to the RD-107 / RD-108 family.

For the first time, they were used on a ballistic missile of the R-7 type. Then, on its basis, launch vehicles appeared for launching manned spacecraft Vostok into orbit, including the flight of the first cosmonaut of the planet Yuri Gagarin, Voskhod and Soyuz, as well as cargo Progress and automatic research stations. In 1963, the first cosmonaut in the history of mankind visited the plant, met with the team and thanked the plant workers for their reliable engines.

Today, UEC-Kuznetsov is the country's only manufacturer of stage I and II engines for Soyuz space rockets. This includes improved modifications of the RD-107A and RD-108A, created under the "Rus" program. Statistical reliability of products of 99.9% is confirmed by thousands of tests and launches. In recent years, Soyuz has been providing all manned and up to 80% of cargo launches.

For example, in 2019, Samara-assembled rocket engines provided 18 successful launches of carrier rockets (including sixteen at RD-107A / RD-108A, and two at NK-33A), and in 2018 - fifteen, from the Baikonur cosmodrome, Plesetsk, Vostochny and Kuru.

Thanks to its long-standing specialization, "UEC-Kuznetsov" has fully mastered all the necessary technologies for the manufacture of rocket engines, worked them out throughout the cycle. Products undergo a three-stage quality control. The company's service center specialists accompany all launches of carrier rockets from all four of the above-mentioned cosmodromes.

The rocket engines assembled on the Samara land are tested on the bench base of the enterprise, built according to the specifications of S.P. Korolev in 1961. Recently, this site has been equipped with automated process control systems. Here, each rocket engine produced by UEC-Kuznetsov undergoes mandatory fire tests before being sent to the customer.

Stand No. 1, which is called "vertical" due to the location of the engine "like on a rocket", was turned on on March 22, 2020 for the seven thousandth time. The stand is universal, RD-107A / RD-108A and NK-33 are tested on it. For almost 60 years of operation, the systems of stand No. 1 have been modernized many times. At present, the control panel has been completely re-equipped, it is equipped with modern electronic systems, which automatically record all engine parameters with high accuracy during testing. However, the stand design itself remains unchanged due to its reliability, safety and convenience.

By-pass turbojet engines

Despite its immense importance, space products are only one of the components of UEC-Kuznetsov's activities. The share of sales of products for space has been stable for several years and amounts to about 40% of the total revenue of the enterprise. The main financial receipts today come from the production, development and repair of gas turbine engines for aviation and the manufacture of gas turbines, including those for ground use.

The most important priority area of ​​work is associated with the program of the Tu-160 strategic bomber - the largest combat aircraft (maximum take-off weight of 275 tons) in the history of world aviation. Its power plant includes four NK-32 engines designed and manufactured by UEC-Kuznetsov. And it is the most powerful afterburner turbojet engine in the world ever used in a combat aircraft. The mass-dimensional parameters of the product are impressive: weight - 3650 kg, length 7.45 m, diameter 1.7 m.

To date, 35 Tu-160 bombers have been built. Of these, 16 remain in service with the Russian Aerospace Forces at the moment, and four more are under testing, revision and storage. Engines of the first series were produced for them in Samara from 1984 to 1993

While visiting the Kazan aircraft plant five years ago, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced the plans of his department to order a series of fifty modernized Tu-160M2s from the enterprise. The implementation of the corresponding program promises a huge amount of work, both for Kazan and Samara.

At the international military-technical forum "Army-2020", the United Engine Corporation announced the transfer to PJSC "Tupolev" of an installation batch of NK-32 series 02 engines produced by PJSC "UEC-Kuznetsov" with improved characteristics for the Tu-160M2 missile carrier. The next important event under this program was the first flight of the Tu-160M ​​with engines of the second series NK-32-02, which took place on November 3rd this year.

Ten days later, an informational message appeared on the UEC-Kuznetsov website, which, in particular, says that “the plant has begun regular deliveries of new engines - within the framework of the state contract with PJSC Tupolev and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, two more serial motor NK-32-02, assembled entirely from domestic materials".

Thus, UEC-Kuznetsov managed to regain the status of a serial manufacturer of gas turbine engines for aviation, which was practically lost in 1993. "The plant supplying such equipment has prospects for many decades, which is not only a guarantee of stability for employees, but also gives them the opportunity to develop by participating in promising projects," stressed Alexey Sobolev.

Press conference

The topic of NK-32 was also raised at the UEC press conference in Samara on December 14 this year. Opening the event, the Deputy General Director - Managing Director of UEC-Kuznetsov said: “In fact, the enterprise is experiencing a rebirth today. For the first time in 27 years, this year we have shipped the NK-32 of the second series to the customer, and our engines are already on the wing. The first tests with a new power plant of the modernized Tu-160M ​​bomber have been completed".

“Now our task is simple - to reach systematic deliveries. The first shipments took place back in August. We dispatched six engines during the IMTF Army 2020. The next two are in mid-October. The next engines in metal are now being tested before being handed over to the customer. We will transmit them at the turn of December - January. The production is organized in such a way that systematically, we will supply the customer with more and more new products".

Further in his speech, Alexey Sobolev mentioned another important program - the Perspective Aviation Complex of Long-Range Aviation. In its interests, Samara specialists have developed a new product on the basis of the NK-32-02 gas generator - it has been assigned the “RF” index. “The first engine in iron has been manufactured, it is being assembled, and by the end of the year it will be assembled to start bench tests,” Sobolev said.

Thus, the UEC-Kuznetsov product line has been replenished with one more promising product, the serial production of which will provide the company with orders for many years to come. And one more news - the design bureau of the enterprise and the Samara National Research University named after S.P. Korolev began designing a next-generation gas generator for a gas turbine engine in the 25 ton thrust class. All this suggests that the production site in Samara and its motor-building school are developing, and today they create a technological reserve for the coming decades.