Volga-Dnepr predicts demand for An-124 will create need for 80-100 aircraft by 2025
Antonov, Aviastar, Motor-Sich, NPK Irkut, Volga-Dnepr and ZMKB Progress have formed a joint working group and a council of directors to look at restarting production of the An-124 Ruslan heavy freighter.
A decision on the programme is due by year-end. According to Volga-Dnepr, the international market for Ruslan services will grow from $400 million in 2003 to $600 million in 2007 and $1.4 billion in 2017, which would require 80-100 aircraft between 2007 and 2025.
Until 2007, demand can be met by converting redundant Ruslans, says Volga-Dnepr. After that extra aircraft will be required, for which development should start in 2005.
Volga-Dnepr technical director Victor Tolmachev, formerly Ruslan chief designer at Antonov, says aircraft drawings would have to be digitised to improve production efficiency. There would be a glass cockpit supplied by NPK Irkut's Russian Avionics, similar to that being developed for the re-engined Ilyushin Il-76TD-90VD.
The working group is comparing reworked ZMKB Progress D-18T turbofans and new and used Western engines. The D-18Ts would need a redesigned hot section and fan to meet International Civil Aviation Organisation Chapter 4 noise and emissions requirements. Tolmachev says a reworked Ruslan, with Western engines, would be priced at around $250-270 million.
The group will also study which airframe standard to use for new Ruslans - the An-124-100M, which has Western avionics, or the stretched An-124-300. One proposal is that two models are produced, but with a unified design so that airlines can operate a mixed fleet to better meet market requirements by offering the less expensive -100M for intracontinental flights and the extended range and enlarged -300 for intercontinental missions.
Meanwhile, Kiev-based Aviant has delivered the final An-124-100 in the current production run to the United Arab Emirates. Last month, Aviastar in Ulyanovsk rolled out two Ruslans built from the last airframe sets the plant had in stock, destined for Volga-Dnepr and Polet. The first will be delivered to Volga-Dnepr in May.
Volga-Dnepr and Antonov Airlines are to complete by the end of 2005 the next stage of their Ruslan fleet upgrade, prolonging airframe life to 24,000h, and adding required navigation performance (RNP-1) avionics, terrain awareness warning and flight-management systems.
VLADIMIR KARNOZOV / MOSCOW
Source: Flight International
