Western aviation bloggers from the YouTube channel Altitude Addicts were surprised by the introduction of rotary friction welding in the production of the PD-35 engine. In their assessment, the use of a machine for joining heat-resistant alloys with diameters of up to 400 mm has become a serious step in the program's development.
The new machine makes it possible to join high-pressure compressor rotor parts without melting the metal. The process takes place in the solid state, which reduces the risk of defects.
Now the operation takes seconds instead of hours as with electron-beam welding. The method improves joint uniformity and reduces the weight of the structure, the channel's analysts said. This directly affects fuel consumption and engine service life. Composites reduce the weight of individual components by hundreds of kilograms.
The emergence of domestic equipment reduces the PD-35's dependence on imported components and gives Russia a technological advantage.
Let us recall that the United Engine Corporation has been developing the PD-35 turbofan engine since 2017. In 2025, a prototype passed bench tests and confirmed the declared characteristics.
However, on the global market the project will have to compete with products from Rolls-Royce, General Electric Aviation, and Pratt & Whitney. Rostec head Sergey Chemezov stated that the state corporation expects to receive a type certificate for the PD-35 within two to three years.
Read more materials on the topic:
- Spending on the PD-35 raised major questions: there is still no aircraft for it
- Engineers made the PD-35 engine lighter by dozens of percent: less fuel and more thrust
- ODK patented thousands of inventions: PD-8, PD-14, and PD-35 have a great future ahead
