Omsk Motor Production Amalgamation

It was established in 1916 in the city of Zaporoshye (former Aleksandrovsk). In 1941 the enterprise was evacuated to the city of Omsk and as early as 1942 it started to produce the engines for the bombers II-4, fighters La-5 and other war aircrafts having made a significant contribution to the victory of our country over Fascist Germany.

In the postwar year in Omsk there was started the production of gas turbine and liquid-propellant jet-engines, and also of other items of the aviation engines engineering.

In the early 70-s the enterprise started to produce the most perfect at that time domestic gas turbine engines of its type. These engines were applied on the basic domestically produced combat aircrafts of the front aviation: Su-17M, Su-24M and others.

By 1990 the military products volume of Omsk Motor Production amalgamation accounted for 72 % of the total production volume. But economic and political changes in the country required making conversion. Within the frameworks of this process the enterprise started to put into production the turboprop engine designed for equipping the regional passenger airplane II-114 which was a very promising one and it supposed to replace such airplanes as An-24 and Yak-40.

The ground-based products were also put in production in the city of Omsk – the gear boxes for the cars “Moskvich-412” and IZh-2126, motor cultivator “Krot” with the set of mounted implements equipment for the light industry. The activity related to civil products is being now successfully continued.

From the middle 1980s the enterprises serially produced the gas turbine of the fourth generation for the aircraft MiG-29, which is in high demand at the international aviation market in such countries as India, Iran, Poland, Syria and others.

At present the Omsk Motor Production Amalgamation possesses all modern technologies: machining process, welding in vacuum, in the medium of controlled atmosphere, electron beam, plasma welding, application of hardening and protective coatings, all kinds of thermal treatment, sheet-metal stamping and die forging, core mold, non-ferrous and iron casting including consumable patterns, die casting, injection casting etc.

(Omsk Industry, № 3 (13), 2007)

Ex. 11. Прочтите и переведите текст с помощью словаря.

Regional Defense Exhibitions as an Efficient Means of Resolving the Economic Problems

In the economy of the Soviet era the Omsk oblast (region) distinguished itself in three areas – machine building and instrument making, farming production and food processing, and oil production and oil refinery. The former oriented itself to defense needs and accounted two-thirds of the entire industrial potential of the region. The research complex (R&D departments), the vocation and higher schools were shaped to meet the demands of those industries.

In the early 1990-s, as an acute economic crisis broke out, the defense companies lost not only the state’s support but also orders for their products. The stoppage of the great plants, each of which employed tens of thousands of skilled specialists, posed a threat of public disorder to the city that time.

Developed in the 1990-s, the Conversion program initially was repudiated by executive of many companies who, referring to the lack of working capital for reconstruction and modernization and to banks’ prohibitive interest rates, preferred “to wait and see”. Later, however, they came to realize the necessity of collective efforts, of search for right solutions to restructuring of production. It became clear that large-scale projects were needed, projects that maximally take account of the capabilities and core activities of the companies.

In 1995, the second stage of the Conversion program excluded “the trifles” from the companies’ product range, focusing them on major projects that could engage their product capacities. Soon, quite new types of high-tech products appeared in the companies’ product line. Over that period the exports of products turned out by Omsk defense companies have grown by 15 times!

In association with foreign customers the research institutes and design bureaus of Omsk realize an array of large-scale research and development projects, including those for creation of spacecraft and detection systems. Another joint work is the upgrade of the previously supplied military hardware. Over recent years, the Omsk oblast has invariably been among the leading exporters of non-raw material products.

(Adapted from Defense Technologies. Special Issue)