The promising Russian aircraft engine PD-35 is much more complex to develop than a space rocket. Work on the power plant is underway, but one should not expect rapid progress in it, aviation expert, editor-in-chief of Avia.ru, Roman Gusarov, explained to "Perviy Technicheskiy".
According to his assessment, the progress on the PD-35 is unlikely to have passed even the equator at the moment.
We still have a long way to go before we see this engine. I don't think it will be in this decade for sure. I mean, under the wing of an airplane.
Gusarov called the PD-35 a super technology and recalled that only two companies in the world produce such units.
Therefore, you should not expect a quick result here. In any case, the PD-35 implies the creation of a family of engines.
It should be noted that only two companies in the world mass-produce high-thrust engines — the American General Electric and the British Rolls-Royce. A new test bench for testing experimental PD-35 engines has already begun to be built in the Perm region. The volume of investments in the project has increased to 3.7 billion rubles.
Aviation engineer and pilot Valery Ageev stated that the PD-35 does not yet live up to the high expectations, delivering a thrust of only about 26 tons instead of the promised 35-40 tons.