The Kuznetsov NK-86 is a low bypass turbofan engine used on the

Ilyushin Il-86 The Ilyushin Il-86 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-86; NATO reporting name: Camber) is a short- to medium-range wide-body jet airliner that served as the USSR's first wide-bodied aircraft. Designed and tested by the Ilyushin design bureau in th ...

rated at 13,000 kgf or 28,600 lbf (127 KN) thrust. It is made by the Soviet

Kuznetsov Design Bureau The Kuznetsov Design Bureau (russian: СНТК им. Н. Д. Кузнецова, also known as OKB-276) was a Russian design bureau for aircraft engines, administrated in Soviet times by Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kuznetsov. It was also known as (G)N ...

. It is an upgraded version of the

Kuznetsov NK-8 The NK-8 was a low-bypass turbofan engine built by the Kuznetsov Design Bureau, in the thrust class. It powered production models of the Ilyushin Il-62 and the Tupolev Tu-154A and B models. Variants ;NK-8-2: (Tupolev Tu-154) ;NK-8-2U: (Tupo ...

Design and development

In 1974, the Minister of Aviation Industry P.V.Dementev ordered ND Kuznetsov to start the development of the engine for the first Soviet wide-body passenger aircraft –

. Kuznetsov was by then intensely engaged with the improvement of OKB military engines destined for

Tu-22M The Tupolev Tu-22M (russian: Туполев Ту-22М; NATO reporting name: Backfire) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s. According to some s ...

and did not have the resources available to fulfill the requirements and the strict deadline set for the IL-86 program. Kuznetsov decided not to create a clean sheet turbofan design because of time and resource constraints but rather to try to improve and upgrade the Kuznetsov NK-8 turbofan engine by improving several of its characteristics. However, from the outset the chief designer made it clear to the Minister and warned that the fuel economy and power output delivered by the proposed NK-86 will most certainly fall short of contemporary foreign engines. This was due in part to the low values of the turbine inlet gas temperatures and the pressure ratio attained – both of which were unsatisfactory because of limited production technology at that time. Testing began on the NK-86 engine in April 1979. In 1987, improvements were introduced and designated the model name NK-86A. The modifications and improvements made to the original NK-86 included the addition of monocrystalline rotor blades on the first stage of the turbine, thus improving the turbine inlet temperature to 1280K. The takeoff thrust was also improved to 13.300 kgf (29.260 lbf), while the TBO was increased to 4.000 hrs from the original 3.000 hrs. Also, eight engines were modified to version NK-87 (with corrosion-and heat-resistant coatings, providing reliable operation in the marine environment) which were used to power the Soviet

ground effect vehicle A ground-effect vehicle (GEV), also called a wing-in-ground-effect (WIG), ground-effect craft, wingship, flarecraft or ekranoplan (russian: экранопла́н – "screenglider"), is a vehicle that is able to move over the surface by gainin ...

also known as Ekranoplans. NK-87 was particularly used in powering the

Lun-class ekranoplan The ''Lun''-class ekranoplan (also called Project 903) is the only ground effect vehicle (GEV) to ever be operationally deployed as a warship. designed by Rostislav Alexeyev in 1975 and used by the Soviet and Russian navies from 1987 until ...

which was actively designed as a combat missile launcher.

Specification (NK-86)

References

{{Kuznetsov aeroengines Low-bypass turbofan engines Kuznetsov aircraft engines 1970s turbofan engines