Saturn AL-34

The Saturn/Lyulka AL-34 was an unbuilt turboshaft/turboprop engine for rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, proposed by the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. In turboprop form, the engine was offered for light aircraft such as the Sukhoi Su-86 eight-passenger business airplane,[1] the Myasishchev M-101T Gzhel business jet,[2] the ROS-Aeroprogress T-101 Grach nine-passenger aircraft,[3] its derivative T-108 Zolotoy Orel nineteen-passenger aircraft,[4] and the Krunichev T-511 "AIST-M".[5] As a turboshaft, the AL-34 was proposed to power the Mil Mi-54[6] and the Kazan Ansat[7] helicopters. The engine was also considered for unconventional aircraft such as the Mil Mi-30L Vintoplan tiltrotor aircraft,[8] and it was to be an auxiliary engine for powering the boundary layer control system and air cushion on the EKIP flying saucer (a flying wing aircraft).[9]

The AL-34 was one of the few engines to use a recuperator to recover and reuse waste heat from combustion.[10]

The engine came in two versions. The AL-34-1 was an engine that produced 550 horsepower (410 kW) in cruise conditions.[2] It weighed 363 pounds (165 kilograms), which included a compact, 88 lb (40 kg) recuperator. The AL-34-2 was a twin-configuration engine producing 1,100 hp (820 kW), weighing about 1,200 lb (540 kg), and using a common gearbox in a single module.[11]

In October 2000, Saturn/Lyulka confirmed that it was still developing the AL-34 engine in the 1,000 to 1,500 hp (750 to 1,120 kW) power range, and it was working with Kawasaki on stationary powerplant applications.[12] The AL-34 would cost 200-240 thousand dollars, and it would require about 22 million dollars to complete development.[13] As late as January 2004, the engine was still being proposed for the T-511 "AIST-M" derivative of the Krunichev T-411 Aist light utility aircraft.[5] However, the AL-34 never entered production.