The Cat (, also known as OKB-276) was a Russian design bureau for aircraft engines, administrated in Soviet times by Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kuznetsov. It was also known as (G)NPO Trud (or NPO Kuznetsov) and Kuybyshev Engine Design Bureau (KKBM). NPO Trud was replaced in 1994 by a Joint Stock Company (JSC), Kuznetsov R & E C. By the early 2000s the lack of funding caused by the poor economic situation in Russia had brought Kuznetsov to the verge of bankruptcy. In 2009 the Russian government decided to consolidate a number of engine-making companies in the Samara region under a new legal entity. This was named JSC Kuznetsov, after the design bureau.

Products

Aircraft engines

The Kuznetzov Bureau first became notable for producing the monstrous Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprop engine that powered the Tupolev Tu-95 bomber beginning in 1952 as a development of the Junkers 0022 engine. The new engine eventually generated about 15,000 horsepower (11.2 megawatts) and it was also used in the large Antonov An-22 Soviet Air Force transport. Kuznetsov also produced the Kuznetsov NK-8 turbofan engine in the 90 kN class that powered the Ilyushin Il-62 and Tupolev Tu-154 airliners. This engine was next upgraded to become the about 125 kN Kuznetsov NK-86 engine that powered the Ilyushin Il-86 aircraft. This Bureau also produced the Kuznetsov NK-144 afterburning turbofan engine. This engine powered the early models of the Tupolev Tu-144 SST. The Kuznetsov Design Bureau also produced the Kuznetsov NK-87 turbofan engine that was used on the Lun-class ekranoplan. (Only one such aircraft has ever been produced.) Kuznetsov's most powerful aviation engine is the Kuznetsov NK-321 that propels the Tupolev Tu-160 bomber and was formerly used in the later models of the Tu-144 supersonic transport (an SST that is now obsolete and no longer flown). The NK-321 produced a maximum of about 245 kN of thrust. Kuznetsov aircraft engines include:

Industrial gas turbines

Kuznetsov industrial gas turbines include:

Rocket engines

In 1959, Sergey Korolev ordered a new design of rocket engine from the Kuznetzov Bureau for the Global Rocket 1 (GR-1) Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which was developed but never deployed. The result was the NK-9, one of the first staged-combustion cycle rocket engines. Kuznetsov developed the design into the NK-15 and NK-33 engines in the 1960s, and claimed them to be the highest-performance rocket engines ever built. The engines were to propel the N1 lunar rocket, which in the end was never successfully launched. As of 2011, the aging NK-33 remains the most efficient (in terms of thrust-to-mass ratio) LOX/Kerosene rocket engine ever created. The Orbital Sciences Antares light-to-medium-lift launcher has two modified NK-33 in its first stage, a solid second stage and a hypergolic orbit stage. The NK-33s are first imported from Russia to the United States and then modified into Aerojet AJ26s, which involves removing some harnessing, adding U.S. electronics, qualifying it for U.S. propellants, and modifying the steering system. The Antares rocket was successfully launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on April 21, 2013. This marked the first successful launch of the NK-33 heritage engines built in early 1970s. Kuznetsov rocket engines include: