NPO Saturn
The need and inevitability of restructuring the Russian aircraft engine industry has been talked and written about for a long time, but real success in industry overhaul has been scarce. The Saturn scientific and production association, better known by its Russian name NPO Saturn, has been one of the first companies to take on this complex and painful task both in word and in deed. The company has integrated within a single viable entity two leading national developers - the Rybinsk-based KBM design bureau and Lyulka-Saturn design bureau in Moscow, both having large experimental and production facilities (an experimental factory in Rybinsk and the Lytkarinsky machinebuilding plant in the Moscow Region) as well as two large industrial facilities in Rybinsk.
Saturn NPO OAO (JSC NPO Saturn) is a Russia-based company involved in the designing, manufacturing and providing services of gas turbine technology. The Company specializes in the production and repairing of military motors, civil aviation engines and energy products. The Company sells its products mainly in the high-technologies market. It sells its products in the domestic market, as well as exports them to Belarus, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, China, India, Algeria, Cuba, Iran, Bulgaria, Korea, United Arab Emirates and others. The Company is a member of the International Association of Union aviation structure of engines (ASSAD). The Company is a stakeholder in 28 companies. It has three branches and 15 subsidiaries.
Saturn NPO JSC was established on July 5, 2001 through the merger of Rybinsk Motors JSC and A. Lyulka-Saturn, a leading Russian aircraft engine design bureau. The Rybinsk Motors serial engine plant had merged with the Rybinsk Engine-Building Design Bureau in 1997 and acquired the production facilities of the Volga Engineering Plant - a major facility of the Atomic Energy Ministry - in 1999. As of 2004 NPO Saturn employed over 4,000 skilled designers, with the company being the industry’s leader in terms of using information technologies for designing engines. The corporation employed about 18,000 personnel, with its production facilities totalling an area of roughly 1,000,000 sq.m.
The design bureaus and serial plants have always formed a single production chain; therefore it was natural to vertically integrate designers and end product manufacturers. Before the appearance of Saturn NPO, Rybinsk Motors successfully aligned with the Rybinsk Engine-Building Design Bureau and acquired the production capacities of a major machine-building plant of the Atomic Energy Ministry. This allowed the company to significantly enhance its scientific and industrial potential, expand the range of output. But still, it was not enough for carrying out strategic tasks of the industry, the most important of them being the development of a fighter of the fifth generation. The merger of Rybinsk Motors serial plant with the leading designer of military and civilian gas turbine equipment A. Lyulka-Saturn became a logical step. Saturn NPO appeared despite the resistance of minority shareholders. The shareholder meetings of Lyulka-Saturn and Rybinsk Motors approved the merger agreement and the transfer deed. The Saturn Board of Directors was elected, the company charter was approved and registered.
NPO Saturn engines power the world famous Sukhoi Su-27/30 family of fighters. The AL-31FP engine powers the Su-30MKI multirole fighter. The new 117S engine is intended for powering Sukhoi Su-35 advanced multirole fighter and other up-to-date versions of the Su-27/30 aircraft. NPO Saturn activities in military aviation also include 36/37 engines for tactical and cruise missiles, as well as AL-55 family of engines for trainer and light combat aircraft.
NPO Saturn civil engines D-30KU/KP power commercial aircraft, which are the most prevailing in Russia and the CIS countries: TU-154, IL-62 and IL-76. More than 4,000 D-30KU/KP commercial engines are operated in Russia, CIS, Middle East and Asia-pacific regions, and have logged over 45 million flight-hours, a unique track record among Russian engine manufacturers.
The PowerJet joint venture was established in 2004 by NPO Saturn (Russia) and Snecma (France) within the scope of the program of the SaM146 advanced engine development for new-generation regional jets. PowerJet is a 50/50 joint company owned by Snecma and NPO Saturn. It is in charge of the SaM146 program management tasks, including: design, production, marketing, sales and customer support, with equal finance and risk sharing in each of the above-listed directions. Snecma and NPO Saturn decided to team up on a new regional jet engine in 2002. This move reflected both confidence in the market (estimated at a potential of 5,000 aircraft in the 70-100 seat category over the next 20 years), and long-standing mutual trust between the two partners. In April 2003, the SaM146 was selected by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC) for the Superjet 100 regional aircraft, which will be the first application for the SaM146. For the previous 10 years NPO Saturn had collaborated with Snecma as a subcontractor for production of CFM56 engine parts.
As of 2001 the NP Saturn board of directors featured representatives of the Gazprom oil and gas giant, International Congress of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Ministry of Property Relations, Russian Armed Forces, Russian Aviation and Space Agency, Raduga machine-building design bureau, Tekhnokom company, Sistema corporation and Yaroslavl region administration. Also on the board were Rybinskie Motory Director General Yuri Lastochkin and Lyulka Saturn Constructor General Igor Seleznyov.
In December, 2002, Saturn NPO JSC revaluated its fixed assets, and its charter capital is now appraised at 4 billion rubles (about $125 mln). The management is probably the controlling shareholder, while the government retains a 37% stake. According to the Saturn NPO JSC web-site, the Board of Directors includes Deputy State Property Minister N.A. Gusev, Deputy Chief of Armaments of the Russian Armed Forces V.G. Mikheev and Deputy General Director of the Russian Aerospace Agency S.Yu. Rynkevich.
Most of the company's income comes from repairs and production of D-30KP engines (for Il-76T/TD/MD, Il-78, A-50 and A-40 aircraft), D-30KU (for Il-62M) and D-30KU-154 (for Tu-154M). According to General Director Yuri Lastochkin, Saturn annually repairs 400-500 engines (up from 200-300 in Soviet times) and builds 30-50 new ones (down from 600-700 in Soviet times).
