It Didn't Fly Us Here
// The Paris air show
The world's largest aerospace show opened yesterday in the Paris suburb of Le Bourget. This is the 46th demonstration of aircraft and space technology.
The main event of this year's show was the demonstration of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) and its subsidiary Airbus of the first test model of the A380, the world's largest passenger plane. On the first day of the exhibition, the two-story giant flew twice, to the applause and unfeigned delight of visitors.
Russia's showing at Le Bourget is more modest than in past years. Sukhoi exhibited only full-scale model of a Russian plane to fly over Paris. This is a multipurpose Su-27SKM fighter, which is presently being offered for sale to China. However, Russia still won an honorable mention for its stands in the largest pavilion at Le Bourget, which it shares with France and the United States. Such a prestigious display location won Russia a small victory on the very first day. French President Jacques Chirac stopped for a long time at Sukhoi's stand and expressed interest in the situation with the RRJ joint project to build a new regional RRJ airplane, in which the French company Snecma took part.
It should be noted that Sukhoi had intended to use the show at Le Bourget in order to announce the signing of a memorandum of delivery of RRJ planes to OAO Aeroflot (Kommersant reported on these plans on June 10). However, the company did not have time to prepare the documents. As a result, on the civil aviation side, Sukhoi was limited to signing contracts for the delivery of avionics and guidance systems for airplanes of the RRJ family to Thales and Parker Aerospace.
Sukhoi's rival in regional civil aviation, Ukraine's Antonov Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex (ANTK), with its An-148, was also not noted for its extensive display. ANTK also intended to display the first real An-148 in the skies of Paris; however, there was no brilliant presentation. Fearing the seizure of its equipment abroad under suits against the Ukrainian government, the Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer refused to bring the An. According to Kommersant's information, the Russian partners even offered to register the plane for a while to a private Russian company in order to exclude the possibility of seizure and thus take it to Le Bourget. But this idea was also rejected, because the purchase and sale of an uncertified prototype was impossible in principal.
The only consolation for the designers and sellers of the An-148 was yesterday's visit to their combined stand of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, who arrived at Le Bourget in one of the largest motorcades (there were 12; even the president of France managed with 8). Responding to Kommersant's question on the prospects for the An-148 project in view of the restructuring of the Ukrainian aircraft industry and the pro-Western orientation of Kiev bureaucrats, Timoshenko said the “Cooperation between Russia and Ukraine in aircraft manufacturing has a bright future, and the government will be the guarantor.”
Sergey Ryzhkin, Ivan Safronov; Paris
All the Article in Russian as of June 14, 2005
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