According to Mikhail Kovalchuk, “Americans are buying our RD-180 rocket engines”
Mikhail Kovalchuk, President of the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, gave a lecture this week at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU), where he made a rather interesting statement.
Firstly, according to him, the Americans continue to purchase RD-180 rocket engines, although Dmitry Rogozin also stated that in response to Western sanctions, Russia stopped deliveries of RD-180 and RD-181 to the United States . Secondly, Mikhail Kovalchuk said that the Americans allegedly tried to unravel the “alloy recipe” RD-180, but they did not succeed.
the Americans tried to unravel the “recipe” for the RD-180 rocket engine alloy, but failed
“ Until now, the Americans are buying our RD-180 rocket engines, we have been selling them for many years. They disassemble it [the engine] , assemble it, disassemble it, assemble it, but they cannot make metal ,” he said.
“ You, sitting in an airplane at the wing, never think that a turbine is spinning nearby. The turbine consists of many metal blades, it is such a small piece of metal. He, firstly, experiences the wildest mechanical loads, (because) he spins at great speed, and spins in hot gas at a temperature of more than two thousand degrees. If one blade comes off, the plane will crash or fall apart. But (a turbine blade) spins for many thousands of hours, an airplane flies for many years, and why – because you can make an alloy. So, few people can do it today ,” Mikhail Kovalchuk added.
