VOSTOK AIRLINES of Khabarovsk, Russia is expected to be named as the first customer, for the Antonov An-38 regional airliner.
The 27-seat An-38 will be delivered to Vostok in October 1996. The twin-turboprop was developed by Ukraine's Antonov design bureau from the earlier An-28, but includes extensive Western-supplied equipment. It is built by Russia's Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Association, and is the region's first aircraft to be designed and built with Western engines.
Antonov anticipates 600 An-38 sales in airline, cargo and special utility versions. AlliedSignal, which supplies the aircraft's TPE331-14 engines, and which integrates the entire propulsion package, believes that up to $1.6 billion in revenues could be generated over the life of the twin turboprop.
Antonov says that nearly 90 test flights have been completed, and 112 of the 250 flight hours needed for the projected flight-test programme accumulated. The aircraft, is scheduled to be certificated by the Russian authorities, in the first quarter of 1996.
Antonov is to give more details at Paris of renewed efforts to speed up US Federal Aviation Administration approval, stalled by difficulties in achieving US-Russian bi- lateral-certification agreement.
Source: Flight International
