United Aircraft Corp. president Alexey Fedorov hopes civilian orders can compensate for Irkut's loss of military orders.
Photo: Nikolay Cyiganov
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Irkut Moves into Civil Aviation
The Irkut scientific design complex, one of the two makers of the Su-30 fighter jet, will be reorganized for the production of civil aircraft. Civil orders at the complex are to rise from the current 1 percent to 60 percent when the MS-21 goes into mass production, no earlier than 2016. United Aircraft Corp. president Alexey Fedorov announced the changes at the Farnborough air show yesterday. Experts say Irkut was forced into the transition because Sukhoi does not plan to produce the new Su-35 off its own premises in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. That aircraft is now undergoing testing there.
Irkut’s proceeds from military production in 2007 were 30.27 billion rubles, the Center for the Analysis of Strategy and Technology estimates, thus placing it the third in the Russian military-industrial complex. Irkut accounts for 15 percent of Russian arms exports, but experts acknowledge that demand for the various modifications of the Su-30 that Irkut supplies to Algeria, Malaysia and India will disappear in 2017.
Irkut will begin making the first parts for the new MS-21, a civil aircraft with seating for 150-210 passengers, in 2012. Fedorov said the transition to civil construction would be made in the course of ten years. Refitting for production of the MS-21 will cost $330 million. A tender for the design of its engine will be complete by June 2009. Experts say, however, that the new plane will be difficult to market. Russian airlines will have replaced most of their outdated Tu154 models with Boeing or Airbus craft by that time.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 15, 2008
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