Progress D-236

However, the engine didn't fly until it was mounted on an Ilyushin Il-76 testbed in 1987.[3] By June 1989, it had accumulated 50 hours of flight tests on the Il-76, now traveling at speeds up to Mach 0.75 with good efficiency.[2] A model of the propfan testbed aircraft was displayed at the Paris Air Show that month.[7] The Ilyushin Il-76 with the D-236 engine was also flown to the Hannover ILA 90 airshow, with the engine now having eight blades on the front propeller and six blades on the back propeller. The Soviets claimed the D-236 had a true aerodynamic efficiency of 28 percent and a fuel savings of 30 percent over an equivalent turboprop. In addition, the Soviets revealed that the D-236 was intended for an unidentified four-propfan aircraft.[8] (This aircraft was probably the An-70, which in 1990 was altered to use four Progress D-27 engines instead of the previous quad-engine D-236 configuration.) In total, the D-236 flew 36 times for a total of 70 flight test hours on the Il-76.[7]

The D-236 engine also was tested in flight on a Yakovlev Yak-42E-LL starting on March 15, 1991. The engine now had a diameter of 4.2 m (14 ft; 420 cm; 170 in), a takeoff thrust of 10.5–11 tonnes-force (103–108 kilonewtons; 23,000–24,000 pounds-force), and an output power of 8,900 kW (12,000 hp), although it was limited to 7,050 kW (9,450 hp) on this testbed.[9] The Yak-42E-LL testbed aircraft was flown to the 1991 Paris Air Show as a demonstration for the planned Yak-46 aircraft with twin propfan engines.[10] The Yak-46 would have a base capacity of 150 seats, a range of 1,900 nautical miles (3,500 km; 2,200 mi), and a cruise speed of Mach 0.75[11] (460 kn, 850 km/h, 530 mph, 240 m/s, 780 ft/s).[12] The D-236 finished testing on the Yak-42E-LL testbed before the end of 1991.[13]

In addition, the Soviet Union considered using D-236 propfan engines on these publicly proposed aircraft:

• The Tupolev Tu-334, a 126-seat aircraft that can travel 1,860 nmi (3,450 km; 2,140 mi) with 11,430 kg payload (25,200 lb; 11.43 t; 12.60-short-ton), which would be powered by two Progress (also known as Lotarev) D-236 propfans[14] with a specific fuel burn of 0.46 kg/kg-thrust/hour, a cruise thrust of 1.6 tonnes-force (16 kN; 3,500 lbf), and a static thrust of 8 to 9 tf (78 to 88 kN; 18,000 to 20,000 lbf)[15]
• The Ilyushin Il-88, a successor to the four-turboprop Antonov An-12 Cub tactical transporter that would be powered by two 8,200 kW (11,000 hp) Progress D-236 propfans[16]
• The Ilyushin Il-118, an upgrade to the four-turboprop Ilyushin Il-18 airliner; proposed in 1984, the aircraft would instead be powered by two D-236 propfans, with the eight-bladed front propeller on each engine rotating at a speed of 1,100 rpm and the six-bladed back propeller turning at 1,000 rpm to lower noise and vibration[17]

Although in November 1991, the Hamilton Standard propeller manufacturing division (and inventor of the propfan concept in the 1970s) of United Technologies was to meet with a Soviet aerospace delegation to discuss involvement in the D-236 project,[18] the engine never made it into service. Only the Tu-334 was built, but it was produced with D-436 turbofan engines instead of propfans. The breakup of the Soviet Union plunged the successor states into financial troubles, which prevented further development of the D-236 and aircraft that would use that powerplant. One post-Soviet aircraft would eventually enter service with propfans, but the Antonov An-70 aircraft would instead use the Progress D-27, which was a larger, more powerful, and more advanced propfan engine.