Rostec to Produce 10 VK-650V Helicopter Engines for Testing by Year-end

Rostec’s United Engine Corporation (UEC) will produce ten prototypes of the latest VK-650V helicopter engine by the end of this year.

Four of them will be involved in flight tests as part of the Ansat helicopter. In 2024, certification of the power plant is expected.

At the moment, engineering tests of the VK-650V have been successfully completed, the design of the product has been determined, and the main technical parameters of the engine have been achieved. Together with CIAM them. P.I. Baranov, autonomous tests of power plant components were completed.

“The new engine will outperform Western models in terms of performance. For example, compared to foreign counterparts, the VK-650V will have greater takeoff power and better specific characteristics. Its design allows, with minimal modifications, to be used as part of various drones, as well as for use as part of a hybrid power plant. In addition, the issue of using the engine on the Yak-152 aircraft is currently being worked out. We plan to obtain a type certificate for this motor in 2024,” Yevgeny Prodanov, director of the VK-650 program at the UEC-Klimov enterprise, said in an official Rostec statement.

VK-650V is designed for domestic multipurpose and special helicopters with a takeoff weight of up to 4 tons. In addition, potential objects of application are foreign-made helicopters.

Engines are manufactured by UEC-Klimov in close cooperation with other enterprises of the UEC. In particular, parts and assemblies of the compressor group and the shaft of the free turbine of the VK-650V engine are manufactured by the Moscow enterprise MMP named after V.V. Chernyshev, and the hot end units, in turn, are traditionally produced at the Ufa UEC-UMPO.

A full-size model of the VK-650V was presented by the United Engine Corporation at the HeliRussia-2023 exhibition.