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Kuznetsov (OKB-276) was a Soviet design bureau for aircraft engines, led by Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kuznetsov.

It first became notable for the monstrous NK-12 turboprop engine that powered the Tupolev Tu-95 bomber in 1952. This engine generated 15,000 hp (11.2 MW), far more than any Western turboprop engine, and was also used in the Antonov An-22 military transport aircraft.

Kuznetsov also produced the NK-8 turbofan, in the 20,000 lbf (90 kN) thrust class, which powered the Ilyushin Il-62 and Tupolev Tu-154 airliners. This engine was uprated to produce the 28,000 lbf (125 kN) NK-86 which powered the Ilyushin Il-86. An afterburning turbofan, the NK-144 was also produced which powered early models of the Tupolev Tu-144 SST.

It also produced the NK-87 which was used on the Lun-class ekranoplan.

Its most powerful engine is the NK-321, which powers the Tupolev Tu-160 bomber and the later models of the Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic transport. It produces 55,000 lbf (245 kN) of thrust in maximum afterburner.

It also made the nuclear powered NK-14, which powers the Tupolev Tu-119 nuclear powered aircraft;a modified version of the Tu-95 bomber. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the bureau became the NK Engines Company.

In 1959, Sergey Korolev asked Kuznetsov to build rocket engines. The NK-9 was one of the first staged combustion rocket engines built, designed to power the orbiting nuclear platform GR-1. The larger version, NK-15, was designed for the Soviet N-1 moon rocket. Improved versions of these engines, the NK-33 and NK-43, claim to be the highest performance engines ever built.

[edit] See also

• NK Engines Company

v • d • e Kuznetsov aircraft engines Turbofans NK-8 · NK-25 · NK-32 · NK-86 · NK-87 · NK-144 Turboprops NK-12 Experimental NK-14

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