DART-450 aircraft with Ukrainian engine will be exhibited at the Air Show in Farnborough
A DART-450 twin-engine aircraft manufactured by Austrian company Diamond with a Ukrainian AI-450S engine has been successfully tested and will be exhibited at the Air Show in Farnborough. The announcement was made by the press-service of public joint-stock company FED (Kharkiv), a participant of the AI-450S engine project reported.
“The DART-450 aircraft will be exhibited at the International Air Show in Farnborough that will take place in July 2016. The certification procedure will be finished by the end of this year,” the press service quoted Viktor Popov as saying. According to him, the aircraft marks the first use of a gas-turbine engine in aircraft of that type. Earlier, the use of gas-turbine engines was considered unreasonable because that type of engine consumes more fuel than diesel and petrol engines.
“A major work on calculation and building an evidence base for applying gas-turbine engines to such aircraft was carried out by Ivchenko-Progress, FED and Kharkiv Aviation Institute. FED produced the engine’s fuel control system. When these calculations were presented to Diamond’s managers, they agreed to implement the project. An appropriate AI-450S engine was designed and manufactured in a very short time. Last year, a single-engine aircraft (DA-20 with petrol engine) was tested and this year it was the twin-engine (DA-42 with diesel engines). This is the first use of gas-turbine engines in aircraft of that type,” Viktor Popov said.
Popov asserted that the certification of the aircraft with a Ukrainian engine by EU standards will allow its fast entry into the growing Asian aviation market. “Today, the negotiations on licensed production of the AI-450S engine to China are actively being held. That’s why the prospects of this project look encouraging. The segment for light aviation with gas turbine engines is not less than 50% of the total number of manufactured light aircraft,” Popov stated.
The press service of the enterprise noted that the total price amount of the contract hasn’t been disclosed yet but the preliminary prices have been agreed on. The shares of each participant of the project are also fixed.
As an aerobatic aircraft it has a maximum take-off power of 500hp. The DART is equipped with the AI-450S engine, a 5-blade MT propeller and a CARMIN avionics system.