Metal Shavings: Test Pilot Recounts Incident During Testing of the First Version of the MC-21-300 Aircraft

The first MC-21-300 aircraft were equipped with American-made Pratt & Whitney engines

Leading test pilot, Hero of the Russian Federation, Oleg Mutovin, shared information about an incident that occurred during the testing of the first prototype of the MC-21 aircraft.

During the testing of the first version of the MC-21-300 in the fall of 2021, before taking off from Perm, one of my Pratt & Whitney engines suddenly failed — it started producing metal shavings. I had to stay and wait three days for a new one to be brought in and replaced. It occurred to me then that flying to the center of Russian engine manufacturing on American engines was a mental error.
Oleg Mutovin, test pilot

It should be noted that the first MC-21-300 aircraft were equipped with American-made Pratt & Whitney engines.

  PW1431G Pratt & Whitney  
PW1431G Pratt & Whitney

The Irkut Corporation made this decision at the time because the American engines were ready for installation and testing earlier than the Russian PD-14 engines. This allowed the aircraft to be certified on schedule.

Earlier, www1.ru reported that a new method of rotary welding for PD-8 and SaM146 engines has been introduced at the UEC-Saturn engine-building enterprise.

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