The Il-100 12 seat turboprop replacement for the An-2 revealed by the Ilyushin
bureau in February 2000, has according to Deputy Chief Designer Yury Yegorov,
completed its initial design stage and is now subject to intensive market research
to establish a market for the aircraft .
According to Yerov, the first aircraft is planned to be produced by the Lukhovitsky
Mechanical Plant (LMZ) part of RSK MiG and will be designed to be competitive
with the $1.2m Cessna Caravan in terms of performance and pricing with a cost
of between $0.8-$1.9m. Ilyushin also say the cost of getting the twin engined
high wing utility aircraft underway will be in the region of $20-30m. The price
however, still be significantly above that of an An-2, which can be bought for
under $100,000 with reasonable lives or the refitted An-3 with turboprop, the
exact cost of which has not been publicised, but is probably under $400,000-$500,000.
The Il-100 however, will offer consider operational economy over the conventional
An-2 with a fuel consumption planned to be 0.4kg/km in comparison with 0.72
for the An-2.
The concept of Ilyushin General Designer Genrikh Novozhilov, the Il-100 was
seen as a product to play in an increasingly large if illiquid market as aging
An-2s with high repair and operating costs, cease to operate. The design bureau
therefore set out to develop a twin turboprop aircraft, in contrast to the single
engined An-2 and the other intended replacements, capable of emulating the An-2
workhorse range of 1000 km and lifting capacity of 1500 kg, with a frame life
of 60,000 hours at a rate of 2500 hours a year.
Currently one of the main problems for the aircraft's development is the lack
of a Russian engine in the 450-500 shp class, which has led to the possibility
of a foreign engine being used initially. Candidates for the initial phase being
potentially the US produced 450shp Rolls Royce 250-B17F (formerly Allison) or
the 680 shp Canadian P&WC PT-6A. P&WC have already been approached and are considering
making a proposal for the aircraft with a version of the PT6A (a 550 shp already
existing for the Beech C90 designated -21) they are however, unwilling to state
the range of pricing for such a power plant other than it is not their most
expensive engine. This does however, suggest that the price range predicted
by Ilyushin may be too low and will grow considerably if the experience of the
fitting one of the other An-2 would be replacements the T-101Grach is anything
to go by.
Ilyushin are currently reviewing the Russian engine option and are in discussions
with design bureau Samara based SNTK Dvigateli NK concerning the development
of such an engine from their planned NK-123VR, although reports have suggested
that the initial discussions had indicated the costs for developing and launching
the engine, could potentially make the product prohibitively expensive. A 550
shp engine is part of the Aviation development programme through 2015 and the
Russian Aerospace Agency is reported to be organising a tender for its development
although there will be no confirmation until 2001 as to who the producer will
be. It appears however, to win the tender that the agency requires the bureaux
to go further than the normal sketch of an engine, but produce a working example
at their own expense. A tough requirement for those cash strapped producers
seeking state support. Despite these terms however, a number of producers have
expressed interest including Motor Sich and Klimov; with Dvigateli NK building
the prototype jointly with the Design Bureau of Chemical Automatic Control,
Voronezh Engines but the lion's share of the work being by Dvigateli NK.
The 600 shp NK-123VR is due to be produce in 2001 given the design work is
completed and is expected by the bureau to be certified by 2004, roughly corresponding
with the Il-100 certification programme. According to Valentin Osipov, Deputy
Chief Designer, the cost of the new engine will be below the $200,000, which
they report as the cost of an equivalent Allison. The bureau also has other
applications for the engines particularly the Ka-115 currently planned to use
the P&WC 206D. Ilyushin's other civil programmes the Il-214 and the freighter
the Il-112V appear to be largely on the back burner with little revealed on
their progress recently.
