Engines for domestic drones: past, present and future

The article provides an analytical overview of previously created engines, those in operational service and engines being developed for unmanned military-purpose aerial vehicles. The current state of the engine fleet, modern problems of development and production of domestic engines are described. It is shown that modern unmanned military-purpose aerial vehicles use a variety of types of power plants, for which their main technical characteristics, design and layout schemes are given. Some projects carried out under the program of import substitution are disclosed. The results of work conducted at the Department of Aircraft Engines of the Air Force Academy named after Professor N.E. Zhukovsky and Y.A. Gagarin are presented. The article outlines critical technologies for creating full-size gas turbine engines for the most complex and expensive class of heavy unmanned combat air vehicles with a take-off weight of more than 10 tons, designed to solve a wide range of tasks, including strategic ones. On the basis of the analysis of the existing unmanned systems conclusions were drawn as to the choice of the type of engine depending on their take-off weight. The basic directions of further development of power plants for one of the most dynamically developing branches of aviation – unmanned air vehicles - were forecast.