TsAGI Scientific Director Sergei Chernyshev on the supersonic technology demonstrator and breakthrough developments in domestic aviation
A demonstrator of supersonic aircraft technologies is being created in Russia. It will help to develop flight modes for a passenger airliner that will cover the distance from Moscow to Vladivostok in two to three hours. In addition, scientists have patented the design of a helicopter that turns into an airplane in the air. This was reported in an exclusive interview with Izvestia by the scientific director of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after Professor N.E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI), vice-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician Sergei Chernyshev. He also spoke about a “flying wing,” electric engines, plasma aerodynamics, and other breakthrough developments in domestic aviation.
A supersonic aircraft is being created - a technology demonstrator"
— Sergey Leonidovich, when will our country catch up with world leaders in flight intensity?
— It should be said that the number of flights in Russia has increased in recent years. According to the Russian Ministry of Transport, Russian airlines carried 105 million passengers in 2023. New air routes are emerging, new airports are put into operation every year, and domestic tourism is developing. Cargo transportation is also growing, which is due to the popularity of marketplaces.
The development of air transport in our country is being decided at the level of national projects. At the same time, it is important to ensure aviation mobility of people in the most remote corners of the country. The industry enterprises are actively working in this direction.
— One of TsAGI's projects is the development of a new generation supersonic passenger aircraft. At what stage is the project?
— Currently, this is a comprehensive scientific and technical project, which is being implemented with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade as part of a cooperation of scientific and educational organizations, where the NRC “N.E. Zhukovsky Institute” plays an integrating and leading role in relation to all project participants, including TsAGI.
It is assumed that the civil supersonic aircraft will fly at a cruising speed corresponding to Mach 1.8, which at an altitude of 14–16 km will be about 2,200 km/h. Most of the technologies within the project have been developed at the level of digital modeling and ground experiments. Including by blowing reduced models of the aircraft in wind tunnels.
"The Russian scientific school in the field of control processes and AI is one of the strongest in the world"
— Tell us what projects can provide technological leadership?
— Today's tasks do not cancel out work for the future. At the same time, the domestic aviation scientific and engineering school takes into account global trends in its work. This is primarily about flight safety and eliminating the human factor as a cause of aviation accidents due to deep automation of processes on board the aircraft and the use of highly intelligent control systems. I would like to note that the Russian scientific school in the field of control processes and artificial intelligence is one of the strongest in the world.
Another direction is the reduction of engine emissions due to optimal fuel consumption, reduction of jet noise and airframe noise, increase in the aerodynamic efficiency of the aircraft, reduction in the specific weight of the structure, optimal integration of the engine and airframe of the aircraft and a number of other directions.
Improving the aerodynamics of an aircraft, in turn, can be achieved through the use of non-traditional aerodynamic configurations (such as a “flying wing”), optimal integration of engines and airframe, control of the flow around the aircraft, the use of distributed power plants, etc.
— Can you give examples of breakthrough developments?
— Innovative research projects have been launched in all the above-mentioned areas. They should provide a whole range of technological solutions, some of which have no analogues in the world.
I will give an example from the field of non-traditional methods of flow laminarization by using "cold" plasma. The physics of this process can be explained as follows: jets of ionized gas, which are formed by the action of high-frequency low-power electrical discharges, are directed into the zone of the wall thin boundary layer to impart a laminar character to the flow. This, in turn, leads to a decrease in air flow friction on the streamlined surface.
That is, artificially created jets of ionized gas somehow correct the flow movement in the boundary layer and reduce resistance by a quarter. This effect has been confirmed experimentally in studies by TsAGI and the Institute of Electrophysics and Electric Power Engineering of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This is still a fundamental result, but the use of "cold" plasma can give rise to a new technological direction - plasma aerodynamics.
— Are hybrid engine systems promising?
For small aircraft, both in Russia and around the world, systems are being studied that combine thermal (for example, turbojet) and electric engines. The former also recharge batteries during operation. Then the accumulated energy is directed to electric engines, which are switched on both in the takeoff-climb mode and in cruising flight. A large number of electric engines (up to ten) allows solving the problem of safe failure of one or more of them during flight.
The advantage of a multi-engine design is that when designing an aircraft, the designer can optimally fit the engines into the airframe to minimize drag. The implementation of these projects is currently hampered by the lack of compact and lightweight batteries. But work is underway in this direction, and in the near future, the use of electric propulsion principles in aviation will become commonplace.
