Global flight: Russia doubles production of aircraft engines

Russia is one of the five leaders in the production and development of rocket and aircraft engines in the world, Vladimir Putin said at a meeting on engine construction in Samara on September 5. In the last four years alone, the number of aircraft engines delivered has doubled. And all this against the background of sanctions. The Russian Federation, for example, has already completed the import substitution of VK-650V and PD-8 engines for the Ansat multipurpose helicopter and the Sukhoi Superjet aircraft. According to the President, they meet the best international standards. Russia also holds a leading position in space exploration.

How did Putin's week-long business trip end?

Vladimir Putin's Far Eastern tour has come to an end: during this time, the president has worked in two countries, held dozens of talks, changed the time zone four times and spent a total of about 20 hours in flight. After a busy plenary session at the WEF-2025, where the head of state spoke about the need to switch to mass production of domestic aircraft, Vladimir Putin unexpectedly went to the once capital of aircraft industry, the former city of Kuibyshev, and now Samara, on September 5. At half past ten in the evening, he arrived at the ODK-Kuznetsov plant, which is part of the Rostec United Engine Corporation. The company specializes in the development, production, repair and service of gas turbine and rocket engines.

Here he was presented with a range of power plants that are already in use or are being prepared for operation on domestic aircraft. For example, the president was shown huge PS-90 engines. They are being installed on cargo Il-76 and passenger IL-96, which, by the way, was used by the Russian delegation this week. The TV7-117 was also presented for the IL-114 transporter and the largest PD-14, which is currently being tested together with the Russian MS-21 airliner. They are all from different regions: Perm, St. Petersburg, Samara, Ufa.

— And this one (PD-8) is from Rybinsk. Rybinsk Saturn Plant. Do you know such planes as the Sukhoi Superjet? When everything happened, the French left, and that was it. There were Russian-French SaM-146 aircraft engines. PD-8 is currently undergoing its final stages. Everything is domestic, usually they were made in 10-12 years, we created it for six. The production capacity is 72 engines per year," Viktor Polyakov, Managing Director of PJSC UEC—Saturn, told Izvestia.

The first flight of the SJ-100 with PD-8 was made on March 17: the aircraft spent 40 minutes in the air at a speed of 500 km/ h and an altitude of 3,000 m. Here, the president was told that the first SJ-100 aircraft, which is equipped with Russian PD-8 engines, had already successfully completed an hour-long flight in Komsomolsk- on Amur. It was carried out by the flight test complex crew. The Head of State listened to the reports with interest and was obviously glad to see the engineers, as he knew many of them personally. So, they have known Viktor Polyakov for a long time: Vladimir Putin awarded the title of Hero of Labor of the Russian Federation to the managing director of PJSC UEC-Saturn in the Kremlin back in 2022.

— I'm from Rybinsk, graduated from the Rybinsk Aviation Technological Institute. I came there as a young man, an assembler, it's not even an engineering profession. And so — "hard worker". And so on and on (in his career — Ed.). I just went to work, that's all. And I've been working here for 50 years now," Viktor Polyakov shared.

— So you have a Golden wedding with the company!, — I remarked.

"The main thing is that love is still the same," he replied proudly.

How the Russian Federation coped with sanctions in the aircraft industry

The head of state decided to discuss what he saw immediately after the inspection: the president gathered representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers and the industry at a meeting to talk about the development of the engine industry. First of all, he thanked the UEC holding's workforce for the results achieved and their contribution to strengthening Russia's industrial and defense potential. The state and development of this industry remains one of the key indicators of the country's technological development, the president recalled. Moreover, we are talking about both civilian and defense significance.

— Both in Soviet times and today, Russia is one of the five world leaders in the development and production of aircraft and rocket engines. Over the past four years alone, the number of aircraft engines supplied has increased by more than 50%, from 791 to 1,227 units," Vladimir Putin noted.

Now it is necessary, as they say, to keep the bar high: further improve the engines of the modern generation, design new products, improve their reliability and environmental friendliness, as well as apply innovative solutions and attract young talented specialists to enterprises. This is especially important against the background of the sanctions in force against the Russian Federation.

— This year, the import substitution of engines on Ansat helicopters and Sukhoi Superjet aircraft has been completed. Now we've seen it all, it's been shown. Accordingly, the latest VK-650V gas turbine engine and PD-8 turbojet engine are installed there, which meet the best international standards," Putin said.

In addition, under the conditions of sanctions, the industry was able to develop a number of innovative engines for energy in a short time: they are actively used, for example, in the gas transportation infrastructure. So this will definitely be useful at least for those big plans for gasification of Russian regions via new export routes, including the recently concluded Power of Siberia-2 project between Russia, China and Mongolia.

For these purposes, the President instructed to increase the production of such high-power gas turbine engines GTD-110M. This engine is in demand and in demand by the domestic fuel and energy complex, and it is in no way inferior to, and in some respects surpasses, its foreign counterparts.

Such positive dynamics in the industry creates conditions for strengthening the country's industrial and technological sovereignty, including for the renewal of transport, energy and, in general, for economic growth. Putin also called for the rapid completion of the development and serial production of the PD-26 turbojet engine, the first high—thrust aircraft engine developed in Russia.

"The implementation of this project will allow us to modernize not only military transport aircraft, but also open up prospects for the construction of a new—generation wide-body civilian airliner. And we know that cooperation is possible here, and our potential partners are also showing great, increased interest in this," he stressed.

Other topics include space exploration. Russia has been and remains one of the world leaders in its development, therefore, the need to upgrade production facilities for the production of engines for launch vehicles was also raised. Moreover, we must not only meet our own current and future needs, but also actively enter global markets, Vladimir Putin concluded.