Russia’s United Engine Company (Stand J39, Chalet CS48) expects to engage in high-level talks with partners in the PD-14 turbofan here in Singapore a month after signing a contract with MC-21 airframe maker Irkut calling for first delivery of the Russian-made engine late this year.

Plans call for flight trials of the PD-14-powered version of the MC-21 to start in 2019 and continue until certified in 2021. Now in flight tests with Pratt & Whitney PW1400Gs, the MC-21 recently drew a firm order with Aeroflot covering 50 airplanes to be leased from UEC parent company Rostec. The contract calls for the Pratt engines to power the first 25 airplanes and contains an option for Aeroflot to opt for PD-14s to power the second half of the order. Aeroflot expects to take first delivery in the first quarter of 2020.

From 2015 to 2017, the first and second stages of the PD-14 flight trials took place on an Il-76 testbed at the Gromov Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky, just outside Moscow. The third stage of testing, which began last December, involves the participation of representatives from certification bodies who must confirm the results of the first two stages. UEC expects the PD-14 to have received certification by Russian authority Rosaviatsiya by the time its Perm Motors subsidiary delivers the first example to Irkut this year. It expects EASA approval in 2019.

Technical characteristics include wide-chord hollow titanium fan blades created using 3D design methods; titanium alloy blisks in stages 1, 2 and 5; new-generation nickel alloy in stages 6 to 8 in the high-pressure compressor; heat-resistant intermetallic alloys in the combustion chamber’s combustion zone; monocrystal alloys in the high-pressure turbine’s working and nozzle blades; and hollow working and nozzle blades in stages 1 to 6 in the low-pressure turbine. Meanwhile, the nacelle design incorporates a latticed thrust reverser and composite materials that account for 65 percent of its total mass.