Cash generated by fighter sales to Sudan, Yemen and India has allowed RSK MiG's Lapik plant in Lukhovitsy to resume work on the Tu-334 102-seat airliner that was suspended in October last year, when general director/general designer Nikolai Nikitin was replaced by Valery Toryanin.
"When I came, the financial situation was difficult. We had to focus on making fighters for export," says Toryanin. Cash shortages forced suspension of work on the Tu-334, but Toryanin says that, after completion of MiG-29 deliveries to Sudan, work was able to resume. "We are paying suppliers for shipment of systems for our first airframe," he adds.
RSKMiG had invested $47 million into the Tu-334 before the suspension. It is now finalising a deal with Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, on a credit line for the Tu-334 project. "We also expect funding from the Moscow city government," Toryanin says. Support from Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzhkov is critical in renegotiation of the August 2003 agreement with the carriers Atlant-Soyuz, which is owned by Moscow, and Aerofraht, which jointly ordered 10 Tu-334-100s at a unit price of $12.9 million.
RSK MiG has also asked the Russian government to resume state funding for Tu-334 production. "There is a large market demand for an aircraft in that size as the Tupolev Tu-134 and Tu-154 lifetimes expire. The Tu-334 is the only modern regional jet certificated. MiG alone cannot cope with the large market demand in Russia and other countries, so a group of manufacturing plants should also take part in the effort," says Toryanin. Lapik expects to roll out its first Tu-334 by the end of this year.
Source: Flight International
