First flight of the Tu-160M bomber with new NK-32 srs 02 engines
On 3 November 2020, the first flight of the upgraded Tu-160M strategic bomber with new engines of the NK-32-02 type took place at the airfield of the Kazan Aviation Plant (KAZ), a branch of Tupolev PJSC (part of PJSC UAC of Rostec State Corporation). The flight lasted for 140 minutes and the bomber crew led by test pilot Anri Naskidyants took the aircraft to an altitude of 6,000 m.
During the flight, the necessary checks were performed on the upgraded aircraft systems and new avionics suite installed as part of a modernization of the aircraft, but the main focus was set on the performance of the new NK-32 series 02 engine. According to the crew's data, the flight proceeded normally and the systems and equipment worked without any major glitches.
The aircraft in question was the first prototype of the modernized Tu-160M strategic bomber converted from a standard Tupolev Tu-160, registration RF-94103 (serial 4-05), Bort No. 14 Red, named "Igor Sikorsky". The upgrade to Tu-160M standard was completed at the KAZ plant in February 2020, but at a later moment the new engines were installed for testing.
It is interesting to note that the aircraft was equipped with a pilot batch of four NK-32 series 02 engines developed and manufactured by the United Engine Corporation (part of the State Corporation Rostec), assembled in the Kuznetsov workshop in Samara.
The NK-32 srs 02 (NK-32-02) engines are a modernized version of the standard NK-32 and are supposed to replace the basic powerplant on all Tu-160 combat bombers upgraded to the Tu-160M version (a total of 15 aircraft). They also will be installed on the new-built Tu-160M2 bombers of which 10 aircraft have been contracted thus far, with the first example expected to fly at the Kazan Aviation Plant in 2021. The new engines have significantly improved characteristics over the classic NK-32, especially improved SFC (Specific Fuel Consumption) which allows to increase the flight range of the Tu-160M/M2 by additional 1,000 km.
Series production of the NK-32 engines was carried out from 1983 to 1993 at the NPP Trud in Kuybyshev. In 1991, the city was renamed back to Samara and the plant is now called PJSC Kuznetsov (a part of the United Engine Corporation). Since 2013, works have been carried out to restart production of the NK-32, this time in the modernized version of the "second series".
According to the first contract in 2016, Kuznetsov PJSC was supposed to deliver the first batch of the NK-32-02 engines by the end of 2018. The delays in the development, testing and assembly of the powerplants lead to their official acceptance one and half year later, in August 2020. In spite of all this, PJSC Kuznetsov received a State contract for the manufacture of an additional 22 NK-32-02 engines intended for the first four modernized Tu-160M, as well as the first prototype the Tu-160M2, including two spares.