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Su-38 agricultural aircraft

The Su-38 an agricultural aircraft developed in the Design Bureau P.O.Sukhoi. The Su-38L is a light agricultural aircraft designed for spraying liquid and bulk chemicals during aviation agrochemical operations. In July 2001, test pilot Evgeny Frolov first tested the aircraft in the air. Just note that a specialized aircraft for farmers was created for the first time in all the years of domestic aircraft construction.

Until now, agricultural aviation has used a special modification of one of the most versatile aircraft in the world - the An-2. To date, most of the An-2 have already been decommissioned. In addition, the An-2 is effective only when processing large tracts of land from the air, and its cabin is not sealed. Recently, motorized hang gliders have begun to be used in the pollination of small fields from the air, but they cannot work with toxic chemicals.

Visually, the Su-38 is superficially indistiguishable from the American Air Tractor AT-400 series. The Air Tractor AT-400 series of agricultural aircraft manufactured by the American company Air Tractor ("Air Tractor"). The first flight in September 1979. Type certification obtained from FAA in April 1980. Piston monoplane with a low wing and a three-point landing gear with ankle strut. Equipped with a device for spraying fertilizers and pesticides. But the Su-38 is a bit smaller, with a wingspan 11.53 meters versus 13.75 meters for the AT-401, and much lighter, with a maximum take-off weight of 2,100 kg versus 4080 kg for the AT-401. The chemical tank volume is correspondingly reduced, with 1050 liters for the Su38 versus 1510 liters for the AT-401.

The low wing, the single-seat single-wing monoplane Su-38L houses traditional attachments for spraying chemicals of the American company Transland. In the future, it is planned to replace it with a domestic one that compares favorably with the overseas in its simplicity, reliability and significantly lower cost. Sukhoi Design Bureau is developing it together with Russian partners. For uniform spraying of chemicals on the wingtips placed vertical aerodynamic surfaces. The narrow specialization of the aircraft predetermined the possibility of the Su-38L based in the field on sites with earthen surface.

As a power plant, the Su-38L uses an air cooling engine M337A of the Czech company "LOM Prague" with a capacity of 235 hp with three-blade variable pitch propeller. He has Russian and international certificates. The resource is 3000 hours and before the first repair - 1200 hours, which will allow to operate it for 3-4 years, reducing maintenance to replacing candles and simple adjustments. The most important advantage of the M337A is that it works on a mixture of motor gasoline A-76 and A-92 in a ratio of 1: 2. Both brands of fuel are available in rural areas in sufficient quantities and also much cheaper than gasoline.

Since aerochemistry works are often carried out using highly toxic poisons, the cockpit is sealed. It has a boost system with excess pressure, eliminating the ingress of toxic reagents into the pilot's body. External air is pre-filtered, and a special evaporator inside the cockpit creates comfortable conditions for the pilot.

The technical parameters of the Su-38L distinguish it from foreign machines of a similar purpose and allow for the efficient processing of agricultural land. When working at the optimum flight altitude for soil cultivation (1.5-2 m), and pollination time 45-60 minutes the performance of the Su-38L is 80-90 ha / h. Agricultural land is cultivated using the technology of small-volume small-droplet spraying of chemicals, which significantly improves the quality of work with real savings in the applied drugs. Application rates are 5-30 L of liquid chemicals per hectare.

Until the mid-1980s in the Soviet Union, over 100 million hectares of farmland were cultivated from the air, half of which was in the RSFSR. Thousands of An-2 biplanes, popularly known as "corn dumplings," worked. In addition, in neighboring countries, our aviators fought mainly with locusts on an area of over 1 million hectares.

Since the second half of the eighties, the picture has changed dramatically. State support is being curtailed (preferential tariffs, subsidies for jet fuel), and agricultural producers in the conditions of the crisis have no money, not only for the very expensive pollination of fields from the air, but also for the purchase of fertilizers. The result - in recent years, aerochemistry has been carried out on an area of about 4.9 million hectares, which is more than 10 times less than in previous times. At the same time, scientific developments show that the need for agriculture in Russia in aviation processing is estimated at 38-41 million hectares annually. At the same time, up to 20-30% of the volume of aviation chemical work can be effectively performed by light and ultralight aircraft of the new generation. The Su-38L is just the first.

The estimated price of the Su-38L (as of August 2001) is 120 thousand US dollars. In the USA, a plane of this type costs about $ 300-320 thousand. By 2004 the first three experimental aircraft of this type were in a state of airworthiness. At the end of 2003, factory flight tests of the aircraft were successfully completed with approximately 300 flights. The third flight instance of the Su-38L aircraft is somewhat improved compared to the first two flight machines. For example, its weight is reduced by 100 kg. After completion of the factory (flight design) tests, the developers of the aircraft faced the task of conducting certification flight tests. However, significant difficulties arose in connection with the specialization of its use - in agricultural aviation. Many specific requirements for the aircraft do not have a legal framework.