OREANDA-NEWS. July 23, 2010. Russian State Corporation Rosoboronexport has signed an agreement with Italian company Avio, world leader in aerospace propulsion, for the follow-up of an innovative dual-use research programme relative to high-powered aeroengine turbines. The agreement, signed today in Farnborough by Rosoboronexport Deputy Director General Alexander Micheev and Avio CEO Orazio Ragni, in the presence of the Russian Technologies State Corporation Deputy Director General Dmitry Shugaev, is aimed at evaluating the possibility of obtaining low-pressure turbine modules with high-powered aerodynamic profiles to be produced through the use of new engine technologies that will be more compact, lighter, more efficient and less noisy.

The turbine research proposal follows the success of the previous Italian-Russian research programme between 2004 and 2008, relative to the design methodologies and technologies for high-powered turbine airfoils, technological cooling systems and the technologies of monocrystal materials. This program was led by Avio, together with the Russian federal state unitary enterprises – Central Institute of Aviation Motors, named after P.I. Baranov, and run by Professor V. A. Skibin, and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Aviation Materials, run by Academic Professor E. N. Kablov.

Moreover, this new research programme, with an expected duration of four years, was set up with the support of the Italian Ministry of Defence through the Secretariat General of Defence and National Armaments Directorate.

The technological research, developed on the basis of the new agreement, will be concentrated on three overriding matters: the design concept for the definition of a high-powered and robust low-pressure turbine; the experimental data analyses, numerical analyses and assessment of noise emissions of a low-pressure turbine; and the study of new intermetallic materials with directional solidification or monocrystal structures to be used in the hottest stages of the low-pressure turbine.

“This new research programme,” said Avio CEO, Mr. Orazio Ragni, “will bring about important benefits for both Avio and the bodies represented by Rosoboronexport. Through the sharing of the best technologies available today, and the knowledge matured in different sectors, it will be possible to accomplish an important step forward towards the development of future propulsion systems.”