VLADIMIR KARNOZOV & PAUL DUFFY / MOSCOW
Moscow airline becomes launch carrier for twinjet after posting letter of intent with Tupolev/RSK MiG for two aircraft
Atlant Soyuz Airlines has signed a letter of intent (LoI) with Tupolev and RSK MiG for two Tu-334s, as flight testing of the new twinjet gathers momentum.
The Moscow-based airline, which operates a fleet of around 30 Russian passenger and freighter aircraft, is due to take delivery of its first Tu-334 in 2004 and the second in 2005. According to Vladimir Kravchuk, Tu-334 project manager at the RSK plant in Moscow, the firm contract is to follow "within a month", and will make Atlant Soyuz the launch customer for the 102-seater.
To date, no firm orders have been placed for the new Tupolev, although Russia's two largest passenger airlines, Aeroflot and Pulkovo, have signed LoIs, with talks in progress with Russian carrier KMV regarding an order.
The baseline model is equipped with Ichenko Progress D-436 engines, although a Westernised version powered by Rolls-Royce BR715 engines is also planned. The R-R model has been specified by Aeroflot. Kravchuk says the RSK production plant plans to assemble 194 Tu-334s by 2015, to fulfil a market requirement for the 350 such aircraft forecast by Russia's Rosaviakosmos state agency. The Tu-334 project will break even with the sale of 48 aircraft, Kravchuk says. RSK is planning to complete its first aircraft in July 2003, and make first delivery in 2004.
Rosaviakosmos has invested $15 million in the programme to fund this year's work. According to Tu-334 chief designer Igor Kalygin, the single flying Tu-334 prototype has completed around 144 flights and 180h since its first flight in February 1999. Russian certification is targeted for the end of next year.
The aircraft is due to start noise-testing at the end of this month, and this should be completed by June. Progress has been made on the test programme, says Kalygin, including the establishment of performance and certain take-off/approach/landing parameters.
Source: Flight International
