Russia has built the perfect engine for training aircraft and UAVs

Russia has delivered to India the first two AL-55I engines with an increased resource, as the United Engine Corporation reported the day before. Despite the fact that this news was not widely disseminated by large domestic media, for our country the above event is important.

Let's start with the fact that the AL-55I aircraft engine was originally created for use on training aircraft. Its length is 4 times less than that of the AL-31F (installed on the Su-27 and its modifications), its diameter is twice, and its mass is almost five times. At the same time, the traction of the "baby", per kg of its own weight, turned out to be 40% more than that of the "older brother".



In general, thanks to the efforts of our engineers, not just an aircraft engine for training aircraft was created, but a universal platform AL-55, which can also be adapted for light attack aircraft or UAVs. For example, the AL-55F version received an afterburner, which allows to increase thrust even more, and the AL-55I is the same “F”, but with a variable thrust vector nozzle, which provides the aircraft with high maneuverability.

Not surprisingly, foreign customers were immediately interested in the new product. In India, our engine easily bypassed the French competitor Larzac, on which the French-German training Alphajets fly en masse.

The thing is that the Russian power plant is simpler in terms of maintenance and almost half the price of foreign counterparts. In addition, its service life has been increased from 1000 to 1200 flight hours, which is 200 hours more than that of the "Frenchman".

Thus, our AL-55I has a huge export potential. However, it will definitely come in handy for our training aircraft and UAVs.