Why did Russia stop building aircraft while buying Boeings?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

A legendary man, the last of the Mohicans, an outstanding aircraft designer, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, Lenin Prize laureate Genrikh Novozhilov, is 90 years old. Together with Sergei Ilyushin, he lifted the Il-18 and Il-62 planes into the sky. Then, under his leadership, such aircraft as Il-76, Il-86, Il-96-300, Il-114 were created.

And today, in spite of his age, Genrikh Novozhilov continues to work at JSC "S. V. Ilyushina", doing everything possible to ensure that the aviation status of Russia remains high, not only in words.

The current state of the country's aviation industry is the unceasing pain of the legendary aircraft designer. On the eve of his jubilee, he shared it, while still not being able to answer the question: why Russian-made aircraft did not need Russia?

Every time, meeting with Genrikh Vasilievich, I never cease to be amazed how he manages to maintain not only a youthful appearance, but also a sharp mind and reliable memory. When communicating, he easily quotes books, names dozens of names of people with whom he worked, exact dates of aircraft release … When I asked how he succeeds, he smiles:

In our conversation, I would also like to have some spice. You are entitled to it. Therefore, I will ask right away: are you not offended that by the next round date you have another book of memoirs, and not a new plane? Why doesn't Russia have its own planes?

- We have planes.

And where are they?

- Where is the next question … For example, there was a Tu-334. And where is he now? And where are the Il-114, Tu-204, Tu-204SM, Tu-214 … Let's take the Tu-204SM, which was built in Ulyanovsk. Quite a decent plane. But for some reason no one was going to order it from us. But an Egyptian millionaire bought a Tu-204-120 cargo truck powered by Rolls-Royce engines. These machines were used to deliver DHL mail, and flew in Europe even at night, as they were considered the quietest. The question is: why have they not found application in our country?

Or the wide-body Il-96-300. Do we have it? There is. More precisely, it was. Or Il-96T, which in the passenger version can carry 420 people. Rather, it could, if it turned out to be needed by someone. There was an experienced Il-96MO with American Pratt & Whitney engines and Rockwell Collins equipment. We worked on it for nine years together with the Americans, although now it’s not fashionable to think about it. Received a certificate of airworthiness for it. In 1998 - Russian, in 1999 - American. Although for this it was necessary to make it cargo.

Why?

- Our design bureau did not have the strength to create a new interior for the passenger version. Now in Voronezh it is being converted into some kind of special version.

The special version is a piece, but where is the serial production?

- I often hear: what, they say, for mass production, if they produce five aircraft a year? But I will say this: you cannot make a single aircraft without putting it into mass production. This is always the preparation of rigging, slipways, equipment - everything that the aircraft can do. The factory first makes the tooling. Then there may be a second, third - it all depends on the number of orders. But this means that the plant is ready for batch production. It turns out that the question is different: either there are few orders, or something in the organization of production is wrong.

What, for example?

- Today there is a shortage of specialists and skilled workers.

And why are specialists if there are no orders?

- Everything is relative. I will not say exactly how many IL-96-300s have been ordered now, but I know that they are all in the special squad. But Aeroflot in 2013 delivered six such planes to the fence.

- Here you have to be objective: in 1993 we handed over for operation 6 aircraft that did not fully meet the airline's requirements: they had the 1st landing category, but the 3rd was needed, there were difficulties in terms of engine and equipment due to their novelty. But we did not have a prototype aircraft to bring the car to mind - the general designer had nothing to carry out tests on! Then we restored one plane, leased it to the airline, and the money we received began to be spent on upgrading the equipment.

At first, we were seriously worn out with Perm engines, but now they are already quite decent engines. Then they got the 2nd landing category, and now the plane already has the 3rd one, then they brought it up in terms of resource …

I always thought: let the equipment be a little simpler, but its own. The Il-96-300 had only one imported system - inertial navigation, we did not have time to make our own.

As for the economy, I remember how you once were already interested in one document. I'll give it to you now. This is a letter from the operator to the chief designer of the IL-96-300 dated 02.08.2011. It says: "… the operation of IL-96-300 aircraft at Aeroflot JSC in competition with foreign-made long-haul aircraft proves its commercial attractiveness both in terms of loading and regularity of departure on a flight." In this letter, Aeroflot asks to increase the list of minimum equipment and the time at which they could fly with a large number of failed units.

Just? It turns out that the rest of the Il-96-300 suited them?

- Yes, and these are formalities. The aircraft has been repeatedly reserved. The failure of any of its systems does not lead to a situation higher than just the complication of piloting conditions.

But all the same, the Il-96-300 is not ordered. They buy Boeings and Airbuses, although the foreign currency payments for their leasing are now too high - airlines are going bankrupt on them. Why is this happening? How did it happen that Russia, accustomed to considering itself a major aviation power, gave the niche of long-range aircraft to Western companies without a fight?

- Ask Comrade Khristenko about this. It was he who said that we would not make wide-body aircraft. But the Il-96 at that time was already in serial production. IL-96T without any problems, only by making the interior, could be turned into a passenger for 380-400 seats. It is the same size as the Boeing 777. The Il-96 could have two built-in ladders, like the Il-86, so that it could fly and land at any airports.

So why don't you do it now, when everyone is shouting about import substitution?

- Not a question for me.

* * *

Well, well, when Khristenko put an end to our long-haul aircraft, did he somehow justify this?

- Who, on what put an end to - everything is debatable. Here I recently read in the press: we will build a wide-body aircraft with the Chinese. I, of course, was surprised that in Russia someone swung at such a project, and who - I don't even know. It seems that such airplanes have always been made in the Ilyushin Design Bureau under the leadership of Novozhilov. And now?

I'm starting to find out at the KLA. They say to me: yes, they decided to make an airplane with China for 300 seats. I ask: which wing? Answer: black, made of composite materials. I am interested: what year of release? It turns out to be 2025. Theoretically, I could be 100 years old by that time.

At the same time, I know that the Chinese wanted to make the Il-96T in a passenger version, but it seems they changed their minds, since the Boeing company will soon build their plant for them.

Oh-oh-oh, big greetings from Beijing to both the Il-96T and the plane, which was planned to be done by 2025

- I do not know. I have nothing to do with this.

And in my opinion, when such dates are called - 2025 - everything is very clear. It's like Khoja Nasreddin's: by that time either the donkey or the padishah will be gone. But under these grandiose plans, it is already possible to open two budget taps, from which state money will flow. Officials in China will draw from one, from the other - in Russia. And the real benefit from this will be Boeing

- I will not comment on your words, I will only tell you how once Sergei Vladimirovich Ilyushin flew to the Il-14 to have a rest in Sochi … Then he returned, gathered us and said: “I looked who uses aviation: either business travelers or wealthy people. And we must make an airplane that would be accessible to the broad masses of the Soviet people."

It was 1955. And in 1956, a decree was issued on the creation of the Il-18 aircraft. On July 4, 1957, it took off. And on April 20, 1959, the IL-18 began regular flights on flights Moscow-Adler and Moscow-Alma-Ata. And tickets for it were no more expensive than travel in a train compartment.

Or, for example, our Il-76. At the end of 1967, a decree was issued on its creation. In March 1971, it took off, and in 1975 it was put into service. Further: Il-86 took off in 1976, passengers began to carry on April 26, 1980. The Il-96-300 took off in December 1988, and went on the line in 1993.

These are quite foreseeable terms. Now it is twenty years. Is it possible that the longer you build, the more the state feeds you? Maybe the problem is something else: technologies, composite materials, with which we have a problem?

- Perhaps … But we managed to make a fuselage compartment from composite materials for our regional Il-114. He did research institutes in Khotkovo, near Moscow. The Americans trampled a deep path around that compartment, which still stands there now, before taking up their Boeing-787.

They have taken up their own, and your fuselage made of composites is in Khotkovo

“You all want me to be criticized. And I'm just stating: Russia has its own planes! First of all, the military. Our fighters for example. They are not inferior to the Western ones, but in many respects surpass them.

We have a wonderful Su-25 attack aircraft, I know him well, since we were going to compete with him - we had such an Il-102 project. In Syria, the Su-25 is now playing a very important role. But they did it when the term "attack aircraft" was generally banned. Khrushchev said: what other assault aircraft, if we solve all problems with missiles? And when high authorities came to the firm, the Su-25 was hidden, covering it with a tarpaulin.

But the designers still brought it to mind. And I am very pleased to see how the Su-25 is now working in Syria. Our Il-76 also flies there. This was my first plane. Sergei Vladimirovich Ilyushin was still working then, although he was already feeling very bad. The Il-76 was built by the entire Union - several serial plants at once: the wing - Tashkent, the plumage - Kiev, the doors - Kharkov … It was a tremendous cooperation.

At first, we produced 20 cars a year. Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov came to the Tashkent plant, looked and said: “No, this will not work. We need to produce 70 aircraft annually”. For this, we immediately built new buildings, installed additional equipment, and we began to make 5 cars a month. This is what the customer wants to get cars!

Now, after all, the production of the Il-76 has begun again. But this is a deeply modernized Il-76 MD 90A. How many pieces do they make?

- Although they say that this is a deep modernization, there is no depth there. Only the wing was made using more modern technology and the electronics were installed. And so, the same plane of mine on which General Margelov and I practiced the landing. Why is it so loved and made anew? Yes, because those for whom it was built put their souls into it.

As for the quantity, the new Il-76 MD90A was restarted in 2006. In 2013, he flew. Less than 10 pieces have been made today. True, there is an order for 39 cars until 2020.

Again ten-year horizons …

“I don’t solve this… I only understand: everything that we once created turned out to be great. After all, now it is not only my Il-76 that they have begun to make anew, they are going to restart the Tu-22M3, the Tu-160, and the An-124 Ruslan. All this was done by my contemporaries.

* * *

Why, throughout our conversation, as soon as I ask you why we are now not building our own planes, you immediately answer: I am not deciding, not for me the question?

- Because after I made an airplane and received a type certificate for it, it becomes a commodity.

… and the notorious corruption component immediately sticks to it?

- I don’t know what is glued there, I’m just stating a fact. And here's an example: in July last year, President Putin came to a plant in Samara, where the An-140 is being made - a good plane, slightly smaller than our Il-114. In Samara, the president is told: because of the events in Ukraine, interaction on the An-140 with the Antonovites has stopped, so we want to make an Il-114. We need 5-6 billion rubles. The president answers: for such a car, this is not the price of the issue.

So what?

- Further - a long story … But in short, the Samara plant is a private business. Someone did not want to support him with budget money. They said: we will build in Kazan. There is a wonderful plant, but now it is engaged in the military Tu-22M3 and Tu-160. And now more than a year has passed, and there has been no decision on the Il-114.

Il-114 could not become a commodity? Where is the exit?

- You know, back in 1998, in an interview, I said that Karl Marx has a formula “commodity-money-commodity”. Please note: goods come first, then money, then goods again. Today another formula is in use: “money-commodity-money”. Moreover, the goods are not Russian, but foreign. And money, which only partially remains in Russia. Therefore, the domestic industry, and aviation in particular, in its own state found itself in the role of a stepdaughter and was forced to twist in every way in order to survive and at least somehow produce goods.

It turns out that nothing has changed in the aviation industry since 1998 …

- Then I said that we need to seriously think about benefits for those who will take part in the implementation of projects important for the state. Again, I return to the "commodity-money-commodity" formula. If it is not profitable for a bank to invest in production, then it will never do it. And you won't achieve anything here by a strong-willed decision. It is necessary to create such rules of the game when investing in production becomes no less interesting than scrolling money through trade operations.

Now I understand why you are repeating: it is not my question … It turns out, speak - do not speak, but you are still not heard. Almost 20 years

- They do not hear not only me. (Laughs.) I still have the best relationship with the outstanding Boeing designer Joe Sutr, who made the first wide-body Boeing 747. We've known him since 1965. Now Joe, like me, an advisor at his firm, loves to play golf. I ask him: "Joe, do you often come to Boeing?" He replies: “Henry, you know, I sometimes come, criticize something, tell them something … But then they still do it in their own way. So it's better to play golf."

… But I just can't. All the same, honestly, every day at 9.00 here, at the workplace.

So you hope for something else

- I hope … I've been an optimist all my life. It is impossible to exterminate aviation in Russia. One way or another - it will break through. Only it will take time. And sorry for him.

Recently I saw a TV report: a pensioner built an airplane himself, flew on it, fell and broke his leg. In a country where even pensioners build planes, it is impossible to kill aviation. She has always been our favorite child. By the fact whether a country can build airplanes, they always judged at what level of technical development it is, since aviation pulls metallurgy, chemistry, other sciences, technologies … And we have always built airplanes. And they sold them.

“Now they are trying to build and sell by“effective managers”. And you, with your experience and intelligence, are an advisor. Why?

- When the company was corporatized, the general designer, who had previously been the responsible head of the enterprise, lost his authority. He became subordinate to the CEO. And solving technical strategic issues without the right to sign a financial document is like a "immaculate conception". Fighting for power has become useless, especially when you are already 80 years old.

As long as a person has a sharp mind and allows health, fighting for power is not a sin. I think there would be people who supported you

- No … I had to fight earlier. There are errors that cannot be corrected later. They affect all subsequent events. I understand that now.

… But what, apparently, I will never be able to understand, is why Russian-made aircraft are not needed by Russia?