NPO Kurganpribor, AO, and Kurgan State University are developing a new small turbojet engine unparalleled in Russia. It is one of the priority projects of the Advanced Production Technologies and Materials Ural Interregional Research and Education Center.
The main advantage of the engine is its very low weight, only 5 kilograms for an engine with a diameter of 175 millimeters, which provides a high thrust-to-weight ratio of about 10–12. The new small-sized turbojet engine will be used in unmanned aerial vehicles for various purposes.
‘The creation of a cheap serial small-sized turbojet engine opens great opportunities to further increase the share of civilian products manufactured by NPO Kurganpribo, AO. Drones are particularly useful for the needs of agriculture, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, for collecting various geo-information, and for use in remote regions of Siberia and the Far North. The new turbojet engine will provide unmanned aerial vehicles with internationally competitive characteristics. At the same time, the cost of the engine will be ₽1.5–2 million, while foreign analogs cost ₽6–10 million. According to the developers, import phase-out is one of the goals of the project.’
NPO Kurganpribor, AO, has already completed the design documentation for a prototype of a small-sized turbojet engine. Currently, the company is developing a technology for manufacturing the prototypes.
Together with the New Production Technologies Center for National Technological Initiative at Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University, Kurgan State University is working on the Digital Twin engine.
Digital Twin is a mathematical model of a high level of adequacy that helps describe the behavior of any object with a high degree of accuracy in all situations and stages of the product life cycle.
The technology used to produce turbojet engines is very complex, requiring ten years to proceed from development to mass production. Digital Twins technologies and virtual testing make it possible to significantly reduce the implementation time for such a large-scale project. The designers and technologists of NPO Kurganpribor, AO, are to complete the project in 2024.
To date, the project is being implemented exclusively at the expense of NPO Kurganpribo, AO. Investments in the project have already amounted to about ₽100 million. Mastering the mass production of small-sized turbojet engines for unmanned vehicles will create many new high-tech jobs in Kurgan.
Reference
NPO Kurganpribor, AO, is a Russian enterprise that produces a wide range of products for the defense complex. They are cartridge cases and guided missiles, fuses for tank rounds, land and naval artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, anti-aircraft missile systems, guided and unguided aircraft missiles, and air-bombs.