Wikipedia

JSC Kuznetsov

(Redirected from NK Engines Company)
This article is about the joint stock company. For the design bureau which is one of its predecessors, see Kuznetsov Design Bureau.

JSC Kuznetsov (Russian: ПАО «Кузнецов») is one of the leading Russian producers of aircraft engines, liquid-propellant rocket engines as well as aeroderivative gas turbines and modular stations.

JSC Kuznetsov
Company typeJoint-stock company
IndustryEngineering
Founded1912; 112 years ago (1912)
Headquarters
Samara
,
Russia
ProductsAircraft engines, rocket engines, turbines
Revenue$141 million[1] (2016)
$1.94 million[1] (2016)
−$28.9 million[1] (2016)
Total assets$367 million[1] (2016)
Total equity−$15.1 million[1] (2016)
ParentUnited Engine Corporation
Websitekuznetsov-motors.ru

The current joint-stock company was established through the consolidation of several Samara-based aerospace engine companies, including JSC N.D. Kuznetsov SNTK, JSC Samara Design Bureau of Machine Building and JSC NPO Povolzhskiy AviTI.

History

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The company was established in 1912 as the Gnome Factory of Moscow, after the French aircraft engine company Gnome et Rhône which supplied the engine parts assembled by the plant.[2] In 1925 it was renamed 'Frunze Factory No. 24', after Bolshevik leader Mikhail Frunze.[2] The factory was evacuated to its current location in Samara in 1941.[2]

The Samara Frunze Engine-Building Production Association was one of the principal aerospace engine production complexes in Russia, with six plants and 25,000 employees in the early 1990s. It has produced turbojet and turboprop engines for military and civil use, including Blackjack and Backfire bombers and Tu-154 transports. The NK-12M engine produced by Frunze is the most powerful turboprop in the world. Samara Frunze also produced engines for the Salyut spacecraft and for the Mir space station.[3]

Re-established as the joint-stock company Motorostroitel in 1994, it retained this denomination until 2010, when it was merged with several other Samara-based engine plants on the verge of bankruptcy.[2] It then took the name of one of new its subsidiaries, Kuznetsov Design Bureau.[4]

Products

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NK-33

The current production range of JSC Kuznetsov includes the NK-33 rocket engine, the Kuznetsov NK-32 aviation engine and the NK-37ST industrial engine.[5] In 2016 the company announced plans to produce a modernized version of its NK-32 engine by the end of the year.[citation needed]

Aircraft engines

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The Kuznetzov Bureau first became notable for producing the monstrous Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprop engine that powered the Tupolev Tu-95 bomber beginning in 1952 as a development of the Junkers 0022 engine. The new engine eventually generated about 15,000 horsepower (11.2 megawatts), far more than any Western turboprop engine of its time, and it was also used in the large Antonov An-22 Soviet Air Force transport.

Kuznetsov also produced the Kuznetsov NK-8 turbofan engine in the 90 kN (20,000 lbf) class that powered the Ilyushin Il-62 and Tupolev Tu-154 airliners. This engine was next upgraded to become the about 125 kN (28,000 lbf) Kuznetsov NK-86 engine that powered the Ilyushin Il-86 aircraft. This Bureau also produced the Kuznetsov NK-144 afterburning turbofan engine. This engine powered the early models of the Tupolev Tu-144 SST.

The Kuznetsov Design Bureau also produced the Kuznetsov NK-87 turbofan engine that was used on the Lun-class ekranoplan. (Only one such aircraft has ever been produced.)

Kuznetsov's most powerful aviation engine is the Kuznetsov NK-321 that propels the Tupolev Tu-160 bomber and was formerly used in the later models of the Tu-144 supersonic transport (an SST that is now obsolete and no longer flown). The NK-321 produced a maximum of about 245 kN (55,000 lbf) of thrust.

Kuznetsov aircraft engines include:

NK-321 (136 kN cruise [6] 245 kN, NK321M 280 to 300/350 kN (max 386)
NK-32-02 for An-124 Tu-160 and PAK DA

Industrial gas turbines

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Kuznetsov industrial gas turbines include:

  • NK-12ST. Derivative of NK-12 turboprop. Serial production started in 1974. The engine is designed for gas pipelines.
  • NK-16ST. Derivative of NK-8 turbofan. Serial production started in 1982. Used in gas compressor stations.
  • NK-17ST/NK-18ST. Uprated versions of NK-16ST.
  • NK-36ST. (25 MW) Derivative of NK-32 turbofan. Development tests conducted in 1990.
  • NK-37. (25 MW) Modification of NK36ST
  • NK-38ST. (16 MW) Derivative of NK-93 propfan (never flown). Development tests conducted in 1995. Serial production started in 1998.

Rocket engines

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In 1959, Sergey Korolev ordered a new design of rocket engine from the Kuznetzov Bureau for the Global Rocket 1 (GR-1) Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS)[citation needed] intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which was developed but never deployed. The result was the NK-9, one of the first staged-combustion cycle rocket engines. The design was developed by Kuznetsov into the NK-15 and NK-33 engines in the 1960s, and claimed them to be the highest-performance rocket engines ever built, which were to propel the N1 lunar rocket—one that was never successfully launched.[7] As of 2011, the aging NK-33 remains the most efficient (in terms of thrust-to-mass ratio) LOX/Kerosene rocket engine ever created.[8]

The Orbital Sciences Antares light-to-medium-lift launcher has two modified NK-33 in its first stage, a solid second stage and a hypergolic orbit stage.[9] The NK-33s are first imported from Russia to the United States and then modified into Aerojet AJ26s, which involves removing some harnessing, adding U.S. electronics, qualifying it for U.S. propellants, and modifying the steering system.[10]

The Antares rocket was successfully launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on April 21, 2013. This marked the first successful launch of the NK-33 heritage engines built in early 1970s.[11]

Kuznetsov rocket engines include:

  • Kuznetsov oxygen-rich stage-combustion RP1/LOX rocket engine family. Including NK-9, NK-15, NK-19, NK-21, NK-33, NK-39, NK-43. The original version was designed to power an ICBM. In the 1970s some improved versions were built for the ill-fated Soviet Lunar mission. More than 150 NK-33 engines were produced and stored in a warehouse ever since, with 36 engines having been sold to Aerojet general in the 1990s. Two NK-33 derived engines (Aerojet AJ-26) are used in the first stage of the Antares rocket developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation. The Antares rocket was successfully launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on April 21, 2013. This marked the first successful launch of the NK-33 heritage engines built in the early 1970s.[11] TsSKB-Progress also uses the stockpile NK-33 as the first-stage engine of the lightweight version of the Soyuz rocket family, the Soyuz-2-1v.[12]
  • RD-107A rocket engine. Powers the boosters of the R-7 family including the Soyuz-FG and Soyuz-2.[13]
  • RD-108A rocket engine. Powers the core stage of the R-7 family including the Soyuz-FG and Soyuz-2.[13]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e http://www.kuznetsov-motors.ru/sites/default/files/otcheti/konsolidirovannaya_finansovaya_otchetnost_za_2016_god.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d "The Historical Chronicles of Kuznetsov JSC". Kuznetsov-motors.ru. Archived from the original on 17 April 2016. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  3. ^ "Russian Defense Business Directory". Federation of American Scientists. US Department of Commerce Bureau of Export Administration. May 1995. Retrieved 21 July 2017.[permanent dead link‍]   This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ^ "ОАО "Моторостроитель" переименован в ОАО "Кузнецов"". АвиаПорт.Ru (in Russian). Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  5. ^ "Products". Kuznetsov-motors.ru. Archived from the original on 20 May 2016. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  6. ^ "Турбореактивный двухконтурный двигатель с форсажной камерой НК-321".
  7. ^ Lindroos, Marcus. THE SOVIET MANNED LUNAR PROGRAM MIT. Accessed: 4 October 2011.
  8. ^ "NK-33 and NK-43 Rocket Engines". 20 July 2016.
  9. ^ "Antares". Orbital.
  10. ^ Clark, Stephen (March 15, 2010). "Aerojet confirms Russian engine is ready for duty". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 2010-03-18.
  11. ^ a b Bill Chappell (21 April 2013). "Antares Rocket Launch Is A Success, In Test Of Orbital Supply Vehicle". NPR.
  12. ^ Zak, Anatoly. "The Soyuz-1 rocket". Russian Space Web. Retrieved 7 March 2010. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  13. ^ a b "RD-107, RD-108". JSC Kuznetsov. Archived from the original on 2015-07-21. Retrieved 2015-07-17.
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