Russia’s United Engine Corporation, part of state-run ROSTEC, said the service life of AL-55I engine for India’s HJT-36 Sitara trainer jet has been increased

Under the project undertaken by UEC-Saturn, service life of the engine was gradually increased from 100 hours to 1200 hours. During this time, AL-55I engines have operated more than 5,000 gas hours at the stands, and have also gone through 4,500 cycles of equivalent cyclic tests.

“Today we saw the result of successful interaction with colleagues from India. The AL-55I power plant installed on the HJT-36 meets all the latest requirements for safety, reliability and performance, which is extremely important when training cadets. Now we have come close to the completion of the R&D project, and will soon hand over to the customer several products for the final stage of the aircraft certification. It remains for the engine to confirm its service life during the leading operation, after which its serial licensed assembly will begin,” said Viktor Kladov, Director for International Cooperation and Regional Policy of ROSTEC State Corporation.

The power plant has a number of advantages, in particular, its modular design ensures high manufacturability and low operating cost, and a modern digital control system - piloting safety and ease of maintenance. The engine has a maximum thrust rate of 1760 kgf.

The power plants passed, among other things, performance tests when foreign objects (birds, hail, etc.) hit them, as well as many special checks to confirm the calculations. The performance of the engine has been confirmed under various weather conditions.