The new VK-650V turboshaft engine, which will replace French Safran engines on light helicopters, has received a type certificate with serious restrictions on its service life and operating modes. However, such characteristics of the power unit will not be a death sentence; over time, its service life will increase, aviation expert Roman Gusarov explained to "Pervy Tekhnichesky".
According to him, when an engine certificate is issued, it always specifies the minimum permissible parameters. Then, the characteristics begin to expand in accordance with the operating hours.
That is, it flew more, they looked, disassembled the engine, made a fixation, looked – everything is fine. They assembled it, the resource will become, for example, not 30 hours, but 60. The certificate will gradually expand. And this is the path of any aviation product.
Earlier it became known that the initial resource of the VK-650V in the certificate is only 74 hours. The continuous operation mode at 590 hp is limited to 20 minutes, while international requirements suggest up to 60 minutes.
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