MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. Mass production of TV7-117 engines for Mil Mi-38 helicopters has been launched at the United Engine Corporation (UEC, incorporated in the Rostec corporation) to replace engines manufactured in Ukraine, UEC spokeswoman Anastasia Denisova said in an interview with the Izvestia daily on Thursday.

"By the year 2020, it is planned to manufacture at least 200 various modifications (for helicopters and planes). Until today, engines for our civil and military aircraft have been manufactured only in Ukraine. Now, TV7-117 engines are produced from domestically made components," Denisova said.

According to the UEC spokeswoman, the TV7-117 basic engine is ranked among the world’s best of that class in terms of efficiency, reliability and resources. These engines, she said, can boast the use of emergencies regimes of 2,800-3,750 h.p. to ensure flight safety in emergency situations. Turboprop modifications can be used in Ilyushin Il-114 and Il-112V planes. "By 2020, we plan to manufacture more than 200 engines of the TV7-117 family in the turbo-shaft and turboprop modifications," she added.

Key suppliers of components for final assembly at the Klimov Enterprise in St. Petersburg in northwest Russia, the developer of Mi-38 helicopters, will be the Salyut Gas and Turbine-Manufacturing Enterprise, the Chernyshev Moscow Machin-building Enterprise and other enterprises of incorporated in the United Engine Corporation.

Minister of industry, transport and innovation technologies of Russia’s Siberian Omsk region, Viktor Belov, told TASS told earlier that the Omsk-based Baranov Engine-Building Association (an affiliate of Russia’s Salyut Gas and Turbine-Manufacturing Enterprise) will start producing TV7-117 turboprop engines for the advanced Mil Mi-38 helicopter by 2019.

"Manufacturing facilities have been fully prepared. The first engines for the Mi-38 helicopter will be produced by 2019 to replace Ukrainian-made TV3-117 motors manufactured by the Ivchenko Machine-Building Design Bureau Progress," Belov said.