FARNBOROUGH MC-21

18in diameter seat found in the A320’s six- “Airlines in emerging markets , the MC-21 enjoys a structurally lower abreast row, while also widening the aisle by cost-base than American and European rivals. nearly 4in. The 24in (0.61m)-wide aisle is in- may find it much easier to The lower price does appear to come at the tended to allow passengers enough room to lease/buy and operate a new expense of innovation. As a clean-sheet de- slide by the service trolley on the way to the sign, Irkut had more options for inserting new lavatory on a long flight. The concept echoes or used 737 or A320 than take technology than Airbus and Boeing. Fly-by- Boeing’s original response to the A320 in the a new Russian jet” wire is a good example. Replacing mechani- late 1980s. The short-lived 7J7 project, which Richard Evans cal linkages from the control stick to the con- was cancelled in 1989 over concerns about Senior consultant, Ascend trol surfaces with electronic signals is not new the maturity of the unducted fan engines, fea- to the single-aisle sector. Airbus introduced tured a fuselage with a diameter of 4.17m, fly-by-wire to commercial with the bridging the gap between a sub-4m diameter the first certificated with a composite A320 in 1988. Boeing is adding an electronic- for a narrowbody fuselage and the 5.06m di- wing made in an oven at atmospheric pres- controlled actuation for the spoilers of the 737 ameter of the widebody 767 fuselage. sure. The decision is also critical to achieving Max, although the ailerons, rudders and ele- While a wider fuselage offers more room in another of Irkut’s objectives in the MC-21 pro- vators remain mechanically actuated. the cabin, the additional size usually comes gramme: lowering costs. Irkut chief executive with the trade-off of a higher empty weight Oleg Demchenko has estimated that oven- WINNING FACTORS and increased drag, which reduces fuel effi- curing reduces production costs by an order Irkut is also installing a full fly-by-wire sys- ciency. However, Irkut launched the MC-21 of magnitude compared to an autoclave. tem in the MC-21, but the design takes the in 2008, or 24 years after Airbus started to de- Irkut has set the list price of the MC-21-300 technology one step further in commercial sign the A320. Structural design has ad- at about $78 million, or about 15% less than airliners. The Rockwell Collins-supplied vanced significantly in the last three decades. the A320 and almost 25% lower than the flight control computer takes inputs from the A321, says Kirill Budaev, Irkut’s vice-president pilots’ sidestick controllers in the MC-21 LOWER PRICE of sales and marketing for the MC-21 family. cockpit. Airbus still uses a passive control Irkut has not yet published the design empty Avoiding the costly complexity of an auto- stick, meaning the two controllers are de-cou- weight for the MC-21, but the information has clave is one way for Irkut to hit that price pled and provide no tactile feedback to the been released to customers. Finance point. Another factor keeping costs low is the pilot. Active sidesticks have only recently en- (IFC) is an aircraft lessor that, like Irkut, is value of the Russian rouble. With the struc- tered the production stage, with BAE Systems owned by United Aircraft (UAC). In addition tures, one of two engine options, half of the supplying coupled sidestick controllers with to ordering 50 MC-21-300s, IFC was so inten- installed avionics and final assembly based in positive feedback in the cockpits of the Gulf- sively involved in the aircraft’s design that stream G500 business jet, Embraer KC-390 chief executive Alexander Rubtsov takes military transport and Bell Helicopter 525 su- credit for Irkut’s decision more than a decade per-medium helicopter. Irkut selected a simi- ago to widen the fuselage by 10cm to 4.06m. lar technology developed by French supplier “That was my personal, small contribution Ratier-Figeac, now a subsidiary of United to this project,” Rubtsov says. “It makes it a Technologies Systems. widebody in a narrowbody [shape].” Another innovation the MC-21 brings to the According to Rubtsov, Irkut has designed single-aisle sector is the air management sys- the MC-21 with an empty weight that is tem in the cabin. Boeing introduced a 6,000ft 3,600kg (8,000lb) lighter than the A320, de- altitude pressure in the cabin of the widebody spite carrying 30 more seats in a longer and 787-8, offering passengers more comfortable wider fuselage. He attributes a quarter of the and denser air than the 8,000ft pressurisation reduction to a lighter-weight electronics pack- of the A320 and 737. Despite relying on a me- age. Most of the remaining savings come from tallic fuselage, Irkut is matching the 787’s cabin Production costs are an Irkut trump card

one of the boldest and riskiest innovations BillyPix pressurisation in the MC-21. ❯❯ that Irkut is introducing on the MC-21: a com- posite wing. While the re-engined versions of the A320 and 737 feature standard metallic wings, some manufacturers with new clean-sheet de- signs have opted for composite materials. The Bombardier CSeries wing, for example, is made by laying up carbonfibre tape, which is then infused inside a heated and pressurised autoclave with a strengthening resin. Irkut’s wing supplier, UAC-owned AeroComposite, crafts the wing of the MC-21 by laying up dry carbonfibre, which is then infused with a Cy- tec-supplied resin inside a large oven instead of an autoclave. In its MC-21, Irkut Choosing an out-of-autoclave process to revived and updated make the composite wing is one of the riskiest the Yak-242 concept bets that Irkut has made on the MC-21 pro- of the early 1990s

gramme. If it works, the MC-21 will become BillyPix

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❯❯ BillyPix Though the jet looks good on paper, performance remains unknown and Irkut faces political and logistical hurdles on international markets

❯❯ Tallying up the MC-21’s strengths — a MC-21 can be traced to the Yakovlev Design With the aircraft’s low acquisition cost and longer and wider fuselage, uniquely crafted Bureau concept for the Yak-242 that first competitive performance, the MC-21 is most composite wings, fly-by-wire with active side- emerged in the early 1990s, when Irkut was likely to appeal to markets in regions such as stick controllers and a 787-like air manage- simply a production house for Yakovlev train- Asia, Latin America and Africa, Budaev says. ment system — offers a compelling narrative. ers and ’s two-seat fighters. A decade Combined with the Pratt & Whitney later, Irkut revived and redesigned the Yak-242 GLOBAL NETWORK PW1400G geared turbofans — or slightly infe- with a wider fuselage, composite wings and a A global customer base would require Irkut to rior, Russian-made Perm PD-14 engines — the modern cockpit. It was also rebranded as the support that fleet, but its philosophy is focused MC-21-300 is the logical next step in single- Irkut MC-21 for development and production. on limiting upfront investment and relying on aisle aircraft design, exceeding the A320 and Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russia’s state- international and third-party suppliers. Irkut 737 in several key areas. owned defence industry, has called for Irkut to has signed a memorandum of understanding revert to the Yak-242 designation when the with Lufthansa Technik, for example, to pro- MODEST GOALS MC-21 enters service, but Irkut has shown no vide a range of maintenance services. Despite its strengths on paper, the MC-21 has interest in making that change. “They have quite a wide network. We modest sales objectives. Last year, Demchen- So far, Irkut has focused on selling to an ef- could rely on such a big player and then if air- ko said he would be delighted if the MC-21 fectively captive market of state-controlled lines say we’re used to working with another family claimed 10% of the single-aisle mar- airlines within Russia and former Soviet MRO provider we could authorise them,” Bu- ket. But Irkut has sized the MC-21 supply states. Ten customers have placed more than daev says. “We don’t need to build our own chain to be capable of building 72 aircraft per 175 orders, including the 100 split between infrastructure for [the] MC-21.” year at peak rate. If Airbus and Boeing suc- Aeroflot and IFC. Irkut also plans to rely on international sup- ceed in raising single-aisle output to 60 air- Foreign sales will be pursued after type cer- plier networks like P&W, Collins and auxiliary craft per month each, Irkut’s supply chain is tification, but will not come easily. The power unit maker Honeywell, he says. sized to deliver only 5% as many aircraft. world’s fastest-growing market in China al- In order for that element of the plan to For all of its technical merit, the MC-21’s ready has a competing, state-controlled sin- work, however, Irkut must thwart growing actual performance remains unproven. The gle-aisle with the Comac C919. Other large pressure within Russia to replace Western wings fabricated by AeroComposite have yet markets in the USA and Europe face political suppliers. Aircraft electronics specialist Kret, to enter a round of full-scale static testing. The obstacles to completing deals. for example, is developing an integrated avi- first assembled MC-21-300 rolled out on 8 Irkut currently builds the fuselage and as- onics suite to replace the partially Western- June in . The performance of the sembles the completed aircraft in a factory sourced system now installed on the MC-21. PW1400G engines installed under the wings shared with assembly lines for the Su-30 “We are trying to keep a balance,” Budaev is well-known, but the reliability of its many fighter and Yak-130 military trainer. It is un- says. “We need to satisfy our Russian aviation advanced systems is still unknown even to derstood that US and European regulators industry because we need to force them to de- Irkut. The company has only recently com- will not certificate a civilian aircraft assem- velop and we expect that sooner or later local missioned an iron bird to check out electronic bled in the same bays as combat aircraft. Irkut Russian manufacturers will be at least at the components and software at a system level. plans to transfer Su-30 and Yak-130 assembly same level as other ones. But it’s very early to Irkut is also an unfamiliar entity on the glob- to another location eventually, but until then say. We will start with a set of suppliers that we al commercial aircraft market. The roots of the the foreign market will be limited. chose, then let’s see what the markets say.” ■

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