The Russian aircraft engine NK-93, which was withdrawn from testing almost 20 years ago, could be brought back to life. The power plant still has a chance for serial production, said Sergey Isakov, former head of the Russian Aviation Consortium.
According to him, it will not take years of development to return to testing. Several copies of the engine have been preserved in warehouses.
One or two months will be enough to complete the tests. General Electric and SNECMA will still make the same engine, but not now, but in 5–7 years. And we have it now.
Isakov believes that the test program can be completed even by the end of October. Among the possible carriers, he named the long-haul wide-body Il-96.
The publication "Tekhnosfera Russia" noted that the NK-93 was actually completely frozen in 2011. At that time, there was not even a typical design, and the mass of the prototype exceeded the technical specifications by 24% – 6.3 tons instead of 5.1 tons.
However, even at that time, the theoretical fuel efficiency of the NK-93 was ahead of the serial PS-90A by about 7–8%. The engine was planned to be installed on long-haul Il-96 liners and narrow-body Tu-204s in the future.