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Jubilee for Tupolev
Last month the Tupolev design bureau, which is officially called "Aviation Scientific Technical Complex named after Tupolev" (Tupolev ANTK), celebrated its 75th anniversary. The company traces its history back to the Commission for designing of all-metal aircraft established in October 1922 as a branch of TsAGI, the Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute. Andrei Tupolev, from whom the company takes its name, headed the design bureau from its foundation until his death in 1972. As though trying to get younger for the jubilee, Tupolev ANTK changed its leadership two months ago. The new team is headed by 44-year-old Igor Shevchuk, who replaced Valentin Klimov as General Director on 5 August. Shevchuk says that his primary task today is to help the enterprise regain its control on restructuring into a smaller commercially-viable business. Tupolev ANTK does not have its own mass-production factories, earning money on selling documentation to the manufacturing plants and up-grading series-built airframes bearing the "Tu" label. In the past the biggest part of the income used to come in the form of state or military orders for new airplanes. In all, 80 Tupolev designs were built in metal, out of which 35 entered mass production. Among these were Tu-104, Tu- 114, Tu-134, Tu-154 airliners, as well as Tu-2, Tu-16, Tu- 22, Tu-22M, Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers. "ANTK now lives its hardest years," Igor Shevchuk says. "We've got very serious financial problems, but my colleagues and I remain optimistic about our future," he adds. The new team hopes "to pull Tupolev out of spin and resume level flight" by the end of the next year. To achieve financial stability, the new leaders have already made some radical steps aimed at reducing company's expenses. One of the first steps was "freezing" the company's debt to its employees (which accounts for 5-6% of all Tupolev's debts). The overdue salaries have been turned into a sort of promissory notes. This allowed Tupolev to pay salaries for August, September and October fully and timely. Separately, debts to commercial banks have been "re-structured" into long-term loans. Shevchuk refuses to give the exact figure of Tupolev's debt to commercial banks, just saying that "luckily, it is not big in comparison with our real estate base." Finding first anti-crisis measures successful, Shevchuk says that "it is very early to talk about financial stability at Tupolev" and that "everything will depend on how we will manage to deal with our debts." As of today, the company has no debts to the Federal Budget, but owes Rbs 9bn to local budgets and the Pensions Fund. Shevchuk says that Tupolev is about to reach an agreement with the federal and local authorities on postponement of the payments. This would help the company along the process of obtaining financial stability. As of today, Tupolev ANTK is a joint-stock company in which the state holds 40% of shares and employees another 44%, with the rest is in the hands of commercial structures. To pay off its debts, Tupolev plans a new emission of shares. It will take place after a re-assessment of the company's real estate. Shevchuk says that before the financial situation is stabilised, it is important to keep talented engineers and workers in place. Today, Tupolev ANTK employs 8,000 people in all of its branches, which is 25% less than in 1990. Seeing changes at Tupolev, in September and October 150 former employees applied to the company for a job. In an attempt to lower the average age of its personnel, Tupolev is going to give job places to 200 students graduating this year. At the same time, Shevchuk says, the number employed in the design office should be reduced from 2,500 people currently down to the "optimal figure" of 1,600-1,800. He believes that in the long run the company should be integrated into a large merger that would unite the developer with mass-production factories. There is no opposition to this idea - the problem is how to do it. Integration process in the Russian aerospace industry is now at the center of attention for the Ministry for Economics. Shevchuk proposes that the integration should start around commercially-viable projects, like the Tu-204 and Tu-334 airliners. These types are in the top four projects given highest priority. The Tu-204 airliner with 210 seats (in the case of all-economy layout) is considered the most promising in terms of sales potential. On 15 June the Tu-204-120 with Rolls-Royce engines obtained its airworthiness certificate. In the very near future Tupolev plans to fly the Tu-204-300 with a smaller number of seats (150-160 in all-economy layout), but greater range (up to nine thousand km). Shevchuk says the Tu-204 is gradually becoming a good commercial product. In November the first series-built airplane with Rolls-Royce engines (out of ten ordered) will enter operational service with KrasAir airline based in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. Two Tu-204s in cargo version are ordered by Volga-Dnepr. In the middle of November Vnukovo Airlines should get its first Tu-204 with Perm Motors PS-90s via Moscow Aviation International leasing company. Aeroflot - Russian International Airlines has on order four Tu-214s, which are distinguished by a slightly higher take-off weight. In October Armenian Airlines signed a letter of intent for five Tu-204s. Among other foreigners interested in acquiring the Tu-204 are Chinese, Iranian and Egyptian operators. Basing on the Tu-204, Tupolev prepares documentation on the Tu-330 freighter for middle-range routes. According to Shevchuk, Tupolev has almost finished transfer of the design documentation on the aircraft to Gorbunov's KAPO factory in Kazan. The third in the top four, the 100-seat Tu-334 jet, is less lucky. The plane continues to suffer from extensive delays with funding. "I am very sad to say that the first flight is again delayed due to financial problems," Igor Shevchuk says. Now, Tupolev plans to put the first prototype to the air in the beginning of the next year. There are three factories assigned for production of this airplane - in Taganrog, Samara and Kiev. Several versions are planned, including one with Rolls-Royce/BMW engines and Western avionics. With heavy support from the Tatarstan government, the Tu-324 is progressing quicker than the others. Its production line is being set at the factory in the Tatar capital, Kazan. The plane is a twin-jet for 50 passengers or eight VIPs. Documentation on the first prototype is nearly completed. In shaping this airplane, Tupolev engineers are tasked to use only certified sub-components. Shevchuk believes that this measure will reduce the cost of design work and time needed for setting up mass production. In addition to the four major projects, Tupolev continues working on using liquid natural gas as aviation fuel, and on future supersonic airliner technologies. The Tu-144LL, a unique supersonic flying laboratory, is employed in the joint US/Russian scientific research program being carried out under the supervision of US vice president Al Gore and Russian prime minister Victor Chernomyrdin. After outfitting with missing test equipment (such as over 300 sensors on its wings and fuselage), the plane resumed flying on 8 October. Despite being ready to work flat out, the Tu-144LL had to wait for good weather until 29 October. That day, the airplane accelerated to Mach 2.0. According to Tu-144LL chief designer Leonid Pukhov, this flight was a great success. US and Russian scientists now have a realistic picture of temperature and air pressure distribution over the Tu-144LL's surface, in other words the information this project is all about. Work on the Tu-156-series experimental airplanes consuming liquid gas instead of kerosene now goes on under agreement with RAO GAZPROM, a large corporation responsible for 22% of the world's output of natural gas. "Our goal today is to make a move from experimental vehicles to commercial airplanes running on cryogenic fuel," Shevchuk says. The biggest problem here is to create appropriate infrastructure at airports, such as facilities for keeping liquid gas and pumping it into the tanks of airplanes. Tupolev claims it has solved all technical problems in this field. The company has a unique gas facility for the Tu-156 at the aerodrome of Gromov's Flight Test and Research Institute in Zhukovsky. Despite a steady decline in financing for military programs, these are still alive. The Russian Air Force, which is low on money nowadays, does not fund radically-new designs, concentrating instead on modernisation of types already in service. Shevchuk understands this new approach, saying that such powerful combat machines like the Tu-160 Blackjack supersonic intercontinental bomber and Tu-22M Eurostrategic bomber have a big potential for further development on the ways of improving their weaponry and avionics. Shevchuk says the factory in Kazan is finishing work on a newly-built Tu-160. This plane is ordered by the Russian Air Force, which operates six airframes of the type from its air base in Engels. The Service also funds development of a new version of the Tu-95 turboprop strategic bomber, the next one after the Tu-95MS armed with X-55 long-range cruise missiles. This new version will have the same airframe with the Tu-95MS, but new flight-control and weapons-management systems. The Defence Ministry has recently awarded Tupolev a contract on development of a new maritime patrol aircraft based on the Tu-204 airliner. The project is called Tu-204P (P for "Patrol"). Despite this new order, the share of the Defence Ministry in financing Tupolev continues to decline. Shevchuk says that in 1996 and first half of 1997 military orders brought the company about 20% of its income. At MAKS'97 [Moscow Air Show] in August, Airbus Industrie and Russia's Ministry for Economics made public their decision to join forces on the A-3XX super-jumbo airliner. Tupolev is one of the major players in this project from the Russian side. Shevchuk says that his company is responsible for designing the wingbox and landing gear, which then will be manufactured at the Aviastar factory in Ulyanovsk and Agregat in Samara. Shevchuk says that the joint project with Airbus gave a boost to the integration process within the Russian aerospace industry. To handle the Russian part in the A-3XX, the Ministry for Economics plans to establish a unitary enterprise with Tupolev, Aviastar, TsAGI (Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute) and Agregat amongst its members.
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