Information has appeared online claiming that the Chinese CJ-2000, a competitor to the promising Russian PD-35 engine, allegedly confirmed its projected thrust of 35.2 tf during ground tests. The General Director of the Russian Union of Aircraft Manufacturers, Aleksei Rogozin, explained why the domestic industry should remain calm about such rumors and why, in its current state, the development by engineers from China is still unlikely to reach the market in this class of powerplants anytime soon.
According to him, an engine of this class is intended for the COMAC C929 wide-body airliner, a project that Russia and China initially planned to implement jointly. In Russia, the PD-35 is being developed in the same thrust class.
The project is moving forward, but it is still a long way from completing development, let alone reaching a serial product. Formally, the CJ-2000, based on its declared thrust, falls into the same class as the GE GEnx and Rolls-Royce Trent 1000. All reports use the wording \"ground tests have been completed\", \"projected thrust has been achieved\". At the same time, there is no official release from the developer, no indication of a specific test stand, operating modes, test conditions, dates, or the list of responsible organizations.
Rogozin recalled that truly significant milestones are always accompanied by dry, boring, but reproducible details. In the case of the Chinese unit, the fact remains simple: as of today, neither China nor Russia has a ready serial engine in this class. Both the PD-35 and the CJ-2000 are at the stage of demonstrators and bench testing of individual components.
Reality is calmer than the headlines. China is steadily building its own school of large engine manufacturing and accumulating experience. Russia is rebuilding and developing its own. The outcome will be determined not by news spikes, but by the technical result. By whoever brings the project to a reliable serial product.
The head of Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, stated that the state corporation expects to receive type certification for the PD-35 within two to three years.
A few days ago, it became known that the developer of the PD-35, \"ODK-Aviadvigatel\", began searching for a specialist with 1 to 3 years of work experience for a software engineer position with a take-home salary of 60,000 rubles.
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