At the Department of Aircraft Engineering and Operation of Aviation Equipment of Irkutsk National Research Technical University (IRNITU), a series of final qualification thesis defenses has begun in the field of "Aircraft and Helicopter Engineering." One of the first to receive an "excellent" grade was Valentina Martynova, who presented an innovative approach to manufacturing the main rotor blade fairing for the Mi-8 helicopter.
The idea for the project emerged during an internship at the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant (U-UAZ), where the student was studying under a targeted training contract. The traditional method of manufacturing the fairing — stamping with a drop hammer using lead-zinc tooling — is associated with a number of serious drawbacks: the release of toxic lead fumes, the need for manual finishing, low tool wear resistance, and unstable quality of finished products.
In her work, Valentina Martynova proposed replacing the outdated technology with elastoforming using steel tooling. According to her calculations, this approach not only eliminates harmful emissions and improves production accuracy, but also ensures significant tool durability.
Special attention in the project was given to economic efficiency: with an annual production program of 1,200 parts, the use of expensive but reliable steel tooling quickly pays for itself by reducing maintenance costs, defects, and remanufacturing.