N.D.Kuznetsov Scientific and Technical Complex of Samara JSC

GNPO Trud
JSC "N.D. Kuznetsov"
JSC N.D.Kuznetsov STC
JSC N.D. Kuznetsov Company Samara Scientific and Technical Complex (SSTC)
Kuybyshev Engine Design Bureau (KKBM)
Kuznetsov Design Bureau
Kuznetsov Design Bureau in Kuibyshev
Kuznetsov Scientific and Technical Complex of Samara
Kuznetsov SNTK
N.D. Kuznetsov Scientific and Technical Complex of Samara JSC
NPO Trud
Samara Research and Development Complex [SNTK] Kuznetsov 
Samara Science and Technical Complex named after N.O. Kuznetsov
Samara Scientific and Technical Complex 
Samara Scientific Engineering Enterprise "Trud"
Trud State Scientific Production Association

Address  2a S. Lazo Street, 
Samara 443026, Russia  
Tel. No.  +7 (8462) 50 02 28  
Fax No.  +7 (8462) 50 12 11  

N.D.Kuznetsov Scientific and Technical Complex of Samara JSC or Kuznetsov SNTK Samara, is a Russian enterprise, which itself with the development, which production and the selling employ of items of equipment, in particular from gas turbines and transmissions. Emphasis is the air and space industry. The company headquarters is in Samara. At present it is concerned in particular with the development and the production of gas turbines for the industrial application, thus for the employment as compressors for natural gas production.

The enterprise was created 1946 as OKB-276 and led since 1949 by Nikolai Dmitrijewitsch Kuznetsov. On basis of German developments during World War II it turned one to the development of turbo-props, from which the gas turbine Kuznezow NK-12 (MW), carrying out up to 11.000 KW, came out. In 1954 Kuznetsov began work with the NK-6, the first two-current jet engine with afterburner Soviet design.

The victory over Hitler's Germany went to our people at an incredibly high price. In 1945, much of the European part of the USSR was still in ruins, and the country experienced an acute shortage of workers and smart heads, because tens of millions of Soviet people died on the fronts and in the rear. But in Kuibyshev at this time the construction of several new enterprises, including the pilot plant No. 2 in the village of Manager, was planned, where it was planned to organize the production of gas turbine propulsion systems - principally new aircraft engines.

In the fall of 1946, 405 German engineers and workers with families and the necessary equipment were brought to Germany from defeated Germany in this situation in strict secrecy. Earlier, these specialists were employed at the Junkers, BMW and Askania plants, and now they had to apply their knowledge and skills for the rise of the Soviet aviation industry. At first, the pilot factory No. 2 was run solely by the military, but then it was replaced by a young engineer who was not known to anyone, carrying the most common name for our country - Nikolai Kuznetsov.

Previously with a name - Trud - meaning labor or toil, this was for many years the largest engine design and prototype-construction bureau in the USSR. For more than 40 years from 1949 it was headed by Nikolai D Kuznetsov, and in his honor it has reverted to using his initials in its engine designations. The bureau was formed by A.A.Mikulin in Moscow, but in 1941 it was hastily evacuated to Kuibyshyev, 900 km (559 miles) to the east. Kuznetsov qualified as an engineer in the VVA academy in 1938, and by April 1942 he was senior engineer of 239 IAD, with the rank of major, flying a U-2 (Po-2) to the unit's front-line regiments. By 1946 he was one of the first Russians to work on gas turbines, Col-Lt Kuznetsov being Chief Designer of GAZ-26 at Ufa charged with putting the Jumo 004B into production as the RD-10. In October 1946 he was appointed Chief Designer at No 2 experimental GAZ at Kuibyshyev, staffed mainly with German engineers. Via the Jumo 022, he developed the Russian TV-022 and 2TV-2F. Nikolai Dmitrievich Kuznetsov (24 June 1911-30 July 1995) established an aircraft engine design and development bureau in April 1946 at Kuibyschev (now Samara). Kuznetsov headed the company from 1949 to 1994 where he was succeeded by Yevgeniy Gritsenko. Otherwise known as OKB-276, the bureau became Russia's largest producer of aircraft engines and, in the late 1950s, diversified into liquid rocket motors.

Nickolai Dmitrievich Kuznetsov, the General Designer, was an Academician of Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), a lieutenant-general of engineer technical service, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, Lenin prize winner and the USSR Council of Ministers prize winner, an Honorable Citizen of Samara Region, an Eminent Person of Samara Region, and a holder of many orders. A designer who was highly recognized by the scientists of the whole world, he had been at the head of the Scientific and Technical Complex, Samara (former experimental plant), Kuibyshev Scientific Production Enterprise "Trud" for 45 years.

N.D. Kuznetsov used to say: "It is the staff- hundreds of designers and thousands of workers of our plant - they but not me determine the success of the work. Speaking about serial plants which produce our engines I must admit that their staffs which number tens of thousands workers and engineers finally define the level of motor- building development. No General Designer can ever do anything himself personally if he does not rely on his staff. "

Most of the developments of the staff headed by N.D. Kuznetsov were marked by the following characteristics: "the first time in the world" or "the first in the USSR": - the first in the USSR and the most powerful in the world turboprop engine; - the first in the world serial liquid-propellant closed circuit rocket engine of high power; - the first in the world engines operating with liquid hydrogen and liquefied natural gas; - the first in the USSR three-spool by-pass engine.

Kuznetsov's OKB (experimental design bureau) created the remarkable TV-12 turboprop. For the past 50 years this engine has been more than twice as powerful as any other turboprop in use anywhere in the world, and it was redesignated in Kuznetsov's honour as the NK-12. The eight-blade, contra-rotating propellers ran at 750 rpm with a supersonic tip speed, and powered the Tu-95. In the 1980s the NK design team developed and tested an even more powerful turboprop, the NK-62.

N.D. Kuznetsov had experience in working with German jet engines: in 1946 along with Klimov and Brandner, he assimilated production of the Jumo 004 in Ufa. Also, he went to Germany to become familiar with German jet technology. Being an intelligent and sociable man, Kuznetsov immediately was liked by the Germans.

The bureau had been assigned the responsibility for the design and development for engines for Korolev's four-stage N-1 launch vehicle. The Kuybyshev developers had no experience with liquid-propellant rocket engines. They were just learning and were still far from the level of the Khimki specialists at Glushko. Previously the bureau had developed engines planned for use on Korolev's R-9 missile, but politics ensured that the missile used other engines. Began research into long life propellants for extended deep storage of rocket motors and boost stages. After 1976 the company reverted to the development of advanced aircraft engines.

Starting from the year 1959 it was involved in the development by engines for those the projected Soviet booster rocket N1. The NK-33 and NK-43 were developed, could not not convince however in its reliability and were a reason for the failure of the project. Energomash reported to the Russian Space Agency and NK-Engines. reported to the Russian Defence Ministry, the space agency opposed the NK-33.

Into the 1960s the NK-22 was developed particularly for Tupolev Tu-144 to operational readiness. The Company has developed more than 40 types of engines including gas turbine engines for installation into aircraft (Tu 114, Tu 144, Tu 154, Il 62, Il 86, etc.), liquid-propellant rocket engines for space exploration and industrial gas turbine power plants of 6.25 MW power. In 1997 and 1998 NK-33 non-expendable liquid-propellant rocket engine was tested in the USA for installation into US EELV vehicle.

NK-12ST, NK-16ST, NK-36ST gas turbines provide pumping of more than 30% of CIS natural gas. New engines intended for application in aviation - NK-93, for driving gas-pumping station pumps - NK-38, for power generator drive - NK-37 and NK-39 are under development now. Component Strength Development Center with more than 150 test rigs was created.

Kuznetsov offered services in the following fields:

• Designing of gearboxes, gas turbine engines and their elements and other machines.
• Completion of strength, thermal and aerodynamic analyses with application of modern software and hardware.
• Conducting of all types of structural tests including holographic investigations, spin tests of large-sized discs etc.
• Development of techniques and performing of various parts strengthening through surface plastic strain hardening methods, which provides considerable improvement of the parts service life.
• Manufacturing of case hardening machine.
• All kinds of casting from aluminum, magnesium, titanium, heat-resistant alloys and steels including thin-walled casting of large-sized parts as well as directional solidification and monocrystal casting.
• Development of technological processes and manufacturing of complicated shape parts through electrochemical and electro-erosion machining.
• Applying of erosion-resistant, heat-resistant and thermal-barrier ceramic coatings through explosion, plasma spray and electron beam methods.
• Manufacturing of gas-burner modules for separate heating systems, hot water supply to housings and production buildings, bread baking ovens.

The end of the 1980s began the development of the ultra-wide bypass shrouded propfan engine NK-93, which exhibited a bypass ratio of nearly 17:1 and so that is singular in the world. The propfan technology is no longer advanced, however.

In July 1993, Aerojet signed a teaming agreement with N D Kuznetsov SSC to market these engines within the United States. Two NK-33 engines were delivered to Aerojet in 1995. The engines were under consideration to power the first stage of the Atlas-2AR, but they lost out to the Energomash RD-180 engine. This propulsion system was applied to the Atlas 3A, the first of which was launched successfully on 24 May 2000 and to the Atlas 5.

On Oct. 25, 1995 GenCorp's aerospace and defense segment, Aerojet, successfully test fired a Russian NK-33 rocket engine, duplicating the original acceptance test performed over 22 years ago. The 40-second test, conducted at Aerojet's Sacramento, California facility, included power ranges from 77 to 104%, demonstrating the engine's capability to operate at various thrust performance levels. Additional tests over the next several weeks will "benchmark" the engine's capability to provide the propulsion requirements for a variety of launch vehicles. "This test is one in a series to demonstrate that the NK-33 exhibits all the attributes necessary to enable U.S. launch vehicles to be more competitive in the world maketplace. Aerojet, in an agreement with Samara State Scientific and Production Enterprise-NK Engines of Samara, Russia, will initially purchase an existing supply of approximately 70 NK-33 engines and adapt them for use on U.S. launch vehicles.

After the death of N.D. Kuznetsov the Russian government created in Samara in 1996 as superordinate entity the Dvigateli NK Financial and Industrial corporation or Dvigateli NK (English NK Engines - the former Trud Scientific-Production Association), to which was attached Kuznetsov.