Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/davida...tealth-fighter-factory-spins-up/#2cdd9add5e0c
It’s one thing to design a warplane. And other thing to build it. That’s a truism Russian fighter-maker Sukhoi is learning—or relearning—as it tries to fill the Kremlin’s order for 76 Su-57 stealth fighters.
Sukhoi builds the twin-engine Su-57 at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft plant in the Russian Far East. The factory previously built the non-stealthy Su-35—and learned some hard lessons.
Now, several years after building the Su-35, managers at Komsomolsk-on-Amur are setting up Su-57 production in the plant’s Shop 45.
The stealthy Su-57 first flew in 2010. But development was painfully slow. As of early 2018, the 10 Su-57 prototypes possessed “inadequate and incomplete sensors, incomplete fire-control systems and self-protection suites, no operational integrated avionics and ... unreliable engines,” aviation expert Tom Cooper said.
In 2018 and again in 2019, the Kremlin deployed pairs of Su-57s to Syria for what it claimed were combat trials, but there’s no evidence the fighters actually flew front-line missions.
Shortly following the 2018 deployment, the Kremlin canceled production of the Su-57 after the 28th copy, effectively canceling the program. But Russian president Vladimir Putin in mid-2019 dramatically revived the program, announcing a plan to buy an additional 48 copies.
Sukhoi originally planned to hand over the first two production-standard Su-57s in late 2019 and two more in 2020. But the December 2019 crash of one of the jets compelled the company to halt work on the program.
Now it appears the company aims to hand over all four of the fighters in 2020. That’s easier said than done. "These are challenging tasks that will truly mobilize us,” Sergey Chemezov, CEO of Sukhoi’s umbrella company, told state media in late 2019.
While building the Su-35, workers at Sukhoi sensed bottlenecks. “They turned out to be the sections for assembling the bow and under-cockpit compartments, assembling the fuselage, adjusting and handing over the product,” the factory’s in-house magazine reported.
Managers modernized the docking ramps and upgraded the rigs for building air-intakes and engine nacelles. They also shifted airframe work from Shop No. 7 to Shop No. 45, placing as much as possible of the Su-57 assembly in one space. “Before that, there were colossal losses of time,” said Artem Oshchepkov, the Shop No. 45 supervisor.
Sukhoi workers are optimistic they can build the intricate Su-57s on time. “The new aircraft is complex,” deputy workshop head Viktor Passar said, citing “composite sheathing, the latest technologies, the highest quality requirements.”
“But we also have highly qualified personnel in our workshop,” Passar added.
When it comes to building fighter jets, factory processes matter. The twin-engine F-15EX that Boeing BA -2.4% is building for the U.S. Air Force, generally speaking, is a 50-year-old design. But Boeing is using the latest manufacturing processes to assemble the F-15EX.
On the outside, the F-15EX’s airframe is identical to that of older F-15s. But Boeing’s vice president for F-15 programs Prat Kumar told Air & Space reporter Preston Lerner it will be better-built. “The biggest challenge, as always, will be getting all the components—400,000 individual parts sourced from 400 vendors spanning the globe—to fit together seamlessly,” Lerner said.
Boeing digitized components so they could be machined by computer-numeric-controlled mills, or CNCs. The parts coming out of the CNCs are so finely-made that Boeing has instituted a new process for aligning and joining them by machine. No manual manipulation.
“We assemble them in Lego-like fashion,” Kumar said. “This adds speed and agility to the process. It makes the airplane more affordable. It makes it more maintainable.”
Sukhoi clearly is hoping its new Su-57s meet the same high standard.
It’s one thing to design a warplane. And other thing to build it. That’s a truism Russian fighter-maker Sukhoi is learning—or relearning—as it tries to fill the Kremlin’s order for 76 Su-57 stealth fighters.
Sukhoi builds the twin-engine Su-57 at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft plant in the Russian Far East. The factory previously built the non-stealthy Su-35—and learned some hard lessons.
Now, several years after building the Su-35, managers at Komsomolsk-on-Amur are setting up Su-57 production in the plant’s Shop 45.
The stealthy Su-57 first flew in 2010. But development was painfully slow. As of early 2018, the 10 Su-57 prototypes possessed “inadequate and incomplete sensors, incomplete fire-control systems and self-protection suites, no operational integrated avionics and ... unreliable engines,” aviation expert Tom Cooper said.
In 2018 and again in 2019, the Kremlin deployed pairs of Su-57s to Syria for what it claimed were combat trials, but there’s no evidence the fighters actually flew front-line missions.
Shortly following the 2018 deployment, the Kremlin canceled production of the Su-57 after the 28th copy, effectively canceling the program. But Russian president Vladimir Putin in mid-2019 dramatically revived the program, announcing a plan to buy an additional 48 copies.
Sukhoi originally planned to hand over the first two production-standard Su-57s in late 2019 and two more in 2020. But the December 2019 crash of one of the jets compelled the company to halt work on the program.
Now it appears the company aims to hand over all four of the fighters in 2020. That’s easier said than done. "These are challenging tasks that will truly mobilize us,” Sergey Chemezov, CEO of Sukhoi’s umbrella company, told state media in late 2019.
While building the Su-35, workers at Sukhoi sensed bottlenecks. “They turned out to be the sections for assembling the bow and under-cockpit compartments, assembling the fuselage, adjusting and handing over the product,” the factory’s in-house magazine reported.
Managers modernized the docking ramps and upgraded the rigs for building air-intakes and engine nacelles. They also shifted airframe work from Shop No. 7 to Shop No. 45, placing as much as possible of the Su-57 assembly in one space. “Before that, there were colossal losses of time,” said Artem Oshchepkov, the Shop No. 45 supervisor.
Sukhoi workers are optimistic they can build the intricate Su-57s on time. “The new aircraft is complex,” deputy workshop head Viktor Passar said, citing “composite sheathing, the latest technologies, the highest quality requirements.”
“But we also have highly qualified personnel in our workshop,” Passar added.
When it comes to building fighter jets, factory processes matter. The twin-engine F-15EX that Boeing BA -2.4% is building for the U.S. Air Force, generally speaking, is a 50-year-old design. But Boeing is using the latest manufacturing processes to assemble the F-15EX.
On the outside, the F-15EX’s airframe is identical to that of older F-15s. But Boeing’s vice president for F-15 programs Prat Kumar told Air & Space reporter Preston Lerner it will be better-built. “The biggest challenge, as always, will be getting all the components—400,000 individual parts sourced from 400 vendors spanning the globe—to fit together seamlessly,” Lerner said.
Boeing digitized components so they could be machined by computer-numeric-controlled mills, or CNCs. The parts coming out of the CNCs are so finely-made that Boeing has instituted a new process for aligning and joining them by machine. No manual manipulation.
“We assemble them in Lego-like fashion,” Kumar said. “This adds speed and agility to the process. It makes the airplane more affordable. It makes it more maintainable.”
Sukhoi clearly is hoping its new Su-57s meet the same high standard.
