Gazprom absent from gas-turbine engine backers (309 words)

Published: 3/15/2001

According to press reports, OAO Tupolev is continuing work on the gas-powered Tu-156 and has allocated roughly Rb7.5m in 2001 for development of the dual fuel (LNG and aviation fuel) NK-89 engines. This financing will be used, according to Tupolev, for bench testing the NK-89 and subsequently installing it on the Tu-155, replacing the NK-89 predecessor, the NK-88, so changing it to the Tu-156. The latter, originally planned in M1 and M2 configuration, being solely powered by LNG. Tupolev sources indicated that the programme was scheduled to last until 2005 and would be funded to the tune of Rb200m - 70% funded by the Russian Aerospace Agency (RAKA), with the remaining 30% provided by OAO Tupolev and Dvigateli NK (named after Kuznetsov, the engine's designer). The Tupolev cryogenic programme has been in existence for sometime, with the original Tu-155 with NK-88s flying for the first time in the late 1980s. Unfortunately the projected completion date of 1998 for the Tu-156 slipped with the announcement, in February 1999, that the aircraft could be expected to fly early in 2001. The programme's primary provider of finance, historically, has been gas giant Gazprom, spurred on by the belief that an LNG-powered aircraft could take advantage of the plentiful supplies of the fuel source in certain areas where aviation fuel was either in short supply or too expensive. It seems however, on the back of recent reports that Gazprom has withdrawn after a reportedly substantial investment, which in the first half of 1998 was believed to be $14m. For Tupolev, widely accepted as leader in this field, the number of aircraft applications for the technology appear limitless, with a number of versions of the gas-powered aircraft under discussion, including a gas-powered Tu-204, called the Tu-206, using a derivative of the PS-90 (the PS-92).

Article ID: 2422