Excessive problems

On March 30, the new Russian military transport aircraft IL-112V made the first test flight. Just a few days later, on April 4, the TASS agency reported that the Director General of AK named after Ilyushin and at the same time vice-president of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) Alexei Rogozin leaves both his posts in the aviation industry. Rogozin Jr. himself, the son of the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, refused to comment on his resignation to reporters.

Liner IL-112V under the management of the Hero of Russia Nikolai Kimov, on March 30, he developed a speed of about 250 kilometers per hour, made three circles over the airfield of the Voronezh aircraft factory, the main enterprise of the Ilyushin concern, And after half an hour, he successfully landed-a significant event, given that the IL-112V is only the third large aircraft intended for serial production in the interests of the military, created in modern Russia.

The dismissal of Alexei Rogozin is probably not least connected with the IL-112V project: on the one hand, the test flight was successful, on the other-the experimental machine in the current form does not correspond to the technical task of the Ministry of Defense and will require serious improvement-despite the fact that the deadlines for the work under the IL-112V program (and on another aircraft, a difficult transporter IL-76MD-90A) and so many times broke. Back in mid-March, the sources of Interfax said that the decision to dismiss Alexei Rogozin was already made by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation, Yuri Borisov (by the way, that replaced the Sr. Rogozin) and the resignation should take place regardless of the Il-112V test results.

The first flight IL-112V

According to the Kommersant newspaper, the position of vice president of the UAC, which is held by Alexei Rogozin, is planned to be abolished in connection with the upcoming entry of the corporation into Rostec. The dismissal of Rogozin Jr. also confirmed the sources of the publication.

A plane of complex fate

The future IL-112V began to be developed almost 20 years ago as a replacement of the An-26 aircraft of the Soviet (now Ukrainian) KB named after Antonova. According to an aviation expert, the editor -in -chief of the Avia.ru site Roman Gusarov , this type of aircraft is designed to deliver goods as close as possible to the line of contact with the enemy in conditions of military operations, “in fact, the battlefield of the battlefield”. Hence the characteristics of the technical specifications: the ability to take on board 5-6 tons of cargo and deliver it to a distance of 1-2 thousand kilometers, while the machine should be able to sit on unequipped or poorly equipped airfields, including soil ones.

Already in the early 2000s, it was obvious to the Russian military that the An-26 would demand replacements morally and physically outdated, and in 2004 IL-112V won the competition of light military transport aircraft organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Customers hoped that the first copy would rise into the air in 2006, but the financing of the project was reduced. “There were a lot of incomprehensible in relations with the Ukrainian GP“ Antonov ”, which in the Soviet Union and now is developing similar aircraft in this class. Therefore, there was still a hope that there would be some kind of cooperation with Ukraine, and it is not clear whether Russia should do such a plane,” Gusarov explains. As a result, in 2011, Anatoly Serdyukov, who headed the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation at that moment, decided to finally close the project, and instead of his development, to purchase Ukrainian An-140 freight modification.

However, Serdyukov, at the head of the ministry, soon replaced Sergei Shoigu, and already at the beginning of 2013 the idea of building IL-112V was reanimated. By the end of 2014, the development of the Russian aircraft was resumed, and very soon it became clear that cooperation with the Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer in any case would hardly be possible for political reasons.

It was assumed that the IL-112V flight tests would begin almost in 2015, but the deadlines for the creation of experimental specimens were constantly delayed, even 1.5 billion rubles allocated by the Voronezh Aviation Plant to modernize production were not enough to comply with the schedule. In the end, between the victory of the project in the competition and the first flight of IL-112V, not two years passed, but as long as 15 years.

Heavy and unreliable?

According to the sources of Interfax, who made the first flight on March 30 the prototype IL-112V did not arrange the customer-the Russian Ministry of Defense. The main problem is too much the weight of the new car, due to which the IL-112V does not meet the requirements for the carrying capacity (5 tons) and range (1200 km). According to the expert, the overload amounted to 1.5 tons, although some experts also wrote about 3.5 tons of excess mass - and this with their own empty weight of the machine is less than 15 tons.

However, Roman Gusarov notes that the problem of overload is typical for new models of aircraft. “It has always been, and in the USSR, too, the first copies were quite heavy, then they were slowly faced in the process of bringing to the series, removed excessive structures, changed materials and brought, thus, to those parameters that allow you to carry out the technical specifications. That is, it still cannot fly over the necessary distances, take the required amount of fuel for this, take the required amount of cargo, just because it itself is several in itself. It is heavy. The design will have to be finalized, which can take for about a year.

IL-112V

Another possible problem of the new aircraft is engines-gas turbine TV7-117 development of KB Klimova. According to the expert, they turned out to be, firstly, not powerful enough, because of which it was even necessary to reduce the carrying capacity of IL-112V from 6 to 5 tons in the technical task. And secondly, not reliable enough: according to journalists, during the first tests of the new aircraft on the runway, cases of vibration and even destruction of the screws were recorded.

Roman Gusarov explains that it was precisely with the development of engines that the delay of the first flight test was partly connected: “The process of creating the engine, the period of the engine is usually even longer than the creation of the aircraft, because the engine is a more complex design, an aviation engine”. According to Gusarov, in stand tests, the engine showed the necessary characteristics, but “on the wing”, that is, after installing on the aircraft, problems were revealed. “It turned out that there are some aerodynamic regimes on which there is a load on the screws. Although to say that screws are not able to do in Russia, this, of course, is not true, we have an excellent school of creating combat aircraft, there are excellent developers, but it turned out that a little their geometry in combination with the wing causes certain problems in certain modes. Therefore, as far as I heard again, the screws must be finished, and then many problems are finalized, and then many problems are worn out and then many problems They will be removed with the engine, ”said Gusarov.

Nikolai Talikov, the chief designer of Ila, recognized the deficiencies in the design of the new aircraft in December 2018. “Yes, we reached the aircraft. There are objective reasons-in the aviation industry there was a change of generation of designers. The replenishment was weak, technical universities have lost popularity,” Talikov said in an interview , adding that adequate salaries are required to hold young specialists, for example, while the IL-112 project was frozen in the early 2010s, from the Il concern, from the IL concerns “The five departments stood up and switched to Irkut ( developer of the passenger aircraft MS-21.-RS )-they paid almost three times more.

Roman Gusarov agrees that the personnel problem is one of the main in Russian aviation: “The older generation has experience, but does not know how to work in modern technologies, and youth still has no experience in building airplanes. As they say in aircraft industry, your first aircraft is always a school, on the second plane you are correcting the mistakes of the first aircraft, but when you make your third aircraft, this is already your entire experience, and you are your entire experience, and you are you You make a really good plane for youth IL-112V-a pen of a pen, they still make a lot of childhood mistakes, which then have to be finalized for a very long time. ”

But the restriction on the supply of imported dual -use technologies to Russia, the expert assures, did not reflect at work on the new military transporter. If the passenger Sukhoi Superjet is more than half of imported components , then IL-112V, according to the requirements of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, is completely Russian, from materials to software.

Smaching director

Alexei Dmitrievich Rogozin began his professional activities in the early 2000s as the head of the Rodina party, but already in 2010 ended up in the chair of the director of the weapons concern Promtechnology, then headed the chemical plant, and in 2016 he was settled by the deputy department of property relations of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. A year later, Rogozin Jr. was appointed Vice President of the UAC, and in April 2017 he simultaneously became the director of the Ilyushin Aviation Complex. Thus, Rogozin worked exactly two years in high positions in the aircraft industry.

He, in general, is not a specialist, and by and large, he was probably appointed in connection with his family ties, and not the competencies with which he possesses

Roman Gusarov says that it was difficult to judge the qualities of Alexei Rogozin as a leader - he practically did not communicate with reporters and experts. “But at the same time, according to the reviews of the people who work at this enterprise, we can say that he is not bad, not good, as they say, no, that is, he didn’t show himself anything,” says Gusarov. “And this is probably the most correct solution in his position, because he, in general, is not a specialist, and by and large, he was probably appointed due to his family ties, and not the competencies that he possesses. Judging by the only interview that he once gave literally immediately after his appointment, he very poorly imagined what aircraft building is, and in Soviet times, outstanding designers were not always at the head of the design bureau, many were simply very good organizers, very good managers, but, unfortunately, Alexei Rogozin did not show himself in this capacity. ”

Alexey Rogozin

Although Roscosmos under Dmitry Rogozin has already expanded at the expense of some defense missile enterprises, the former Deputy Prime Minister will not be able to obtain control over the aircraft industry: it is already known that the UAC will be part of Rostec Corporation, which Gusarov calls more effective compared to Roscosmos “largely due to successful personnel policy”.

“At the very least, despite the current difficult situation of the Russian aircraft industry, it is producing more than 100 civil and military aircraft aircraft a year. Aircraft construction in Russia lives, not on the scale we would like, but the school and enterprises are preserved,” the expert assures.