| Rysachove at MAKS '11 airshow | |
| Role | Twin engine utility aircraft |
| National origin | Russia |
| Manufacturer | TSKB Progress, Samara Space Centre |
| Designer | Vyacheslav Kondratyev |
| First flight | 3 December 2010 |
| Number built | Five airframes, two static, by 2011 |
The Progress Rysachok (English: Racehorse) is a general purpose, twin turboprop-powered engined light utility aircraft, designed and built in Russia. Certification is expected 2012; by autumn 2011 three flight pre-production examples had been completed and flown.
The Rysachok programme development began in 2006. It was designed as a twin engine conversion trainer but is now seen more generally as an Antonov An-2 replacement in medical, survey, parachuting, navigator and air engineer training and other light transport rôles.[1]
The Rysachok is a conventionally laid out low wing, twin engine monoplane. Outboard of the engines the wings have constant chord and blunt wing tips; inboard, the chord increases toward the fuselage via sweep on the trailing edge. The starboard aileron carries a trim tab and the wing has two-section flaps. The tailplane, mounted at the top of the fuselage, has constant chord. The fin is straight edged and swept. All the tail surfaces have trim tabs and are horn balanced.[1]
The Rysachok has a flat sided fuselage with, on each side, a cockpit crew door and four square windows. On the port side the rearmost window is in a wide, sliding freight door behind the wing. Nineteen can be carried in an all-passenger configuration; the navigation/engineer training layout allows for up to nine students and instructors with appropriate repeat instrumentation. The Rysachok can carry six stretcher cases and a medical attendant in its medical evacuation form.[1]
Current pre-production aircraft are powered by 580 kW (778 hp) Walter M601F turboprop engines,[1] though later production models will have 596 kW (800 hp) General Electric H80 turboprops. The Rysachok has a tricycle undercarriage with inward retracting single mainwheels and a forward retracting twin nosewheel.[1]
The Rysachok first flew on 3 December 2010.[1] By mid-2011, five pre-production airframes had been completed,[2] funded by a June 2007 $US25 million contract from the Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation School.[3] Two were for static testing, two are at the TsAGI flight research institute and a fifth is undergoing flight trials for certification, expected in 2012.[2] Reports on orders differ: Jane's 2011/12[1] notes a 2008 order for thirty from a "government transport agency" but Flightglobal's[2] more recent account claims "no firm orders" in mid-2011.
Data from All the World's Aircraft[1]
General characteristics
Performance
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