Traditionally associated with the production of military aircraft, the Irkut Corporation’s President, Oleg Demchenko, used ILA as a platform to highlight his company’s strategy for diversifying into civil aircraft production. Today, civilian work accounts for a small percentage of the company’s revenue, and the main business remains military. “The military aircraft we produce today will slowly be becoming obsolete by 2015”, he said.
The company has now been dealing with Airbus for four years, and it is already producing components for the Airbus A320, and though “not everything is going as smoothly as we would want” the company is working hard to introduce new technologies, to embrace new ways of working, and to meet Western standards. “These are totally different. Russian Standards are not worse, but they are very different” he said.
The company is moving ahead “step by step” and received ISO 9001:2000 and EN/AS 9100/2003 Quality Management Certificates from the independent Veritas certification Bureau at the show yesterday. These recognise that Irkut’s quality management systems meet international standards, and were seen by Demchenko as marking a key step in preparing the company for the new MC-21 airliner.
The MC-21 is intended as a replacement for the Tu-154 in Russia (a potential 600 aircraft market), and for aircraft like the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737. The Russian market alone is sufficient to ensure the programmes success, as Belchenko identified a figure of ‘around 200 aircraft’ to break even. Composite materials and engines are identified as the key technologies (and risks) for the programme, as Irkut hope to leverage a 15% reduction in operating costs by comparison with the best of today’s aircraft.
Irkut is putting out a tender for engine proposals in August, with engine selection scheduled for 2009. The company has already identified suitable engines from Pratt and Whitney and Rolls Royce, though Belchenko hinted strongly that the type would eventually be offered with a choice of Russian or Western engines.
The Sukhoi Design Bureau is expected to provide the composite wing, while Irkut anticipate that the fuselage will incorporate some international participation.
Irkut has received sufficient funding to launch the project, and Belchenko claimed that this was: “the first generously funded programme since the fall of the Soviet Union.”
“No CEO of Boeing or Airbus would claim to have as much money as they’d want – money is hard to come and easy to spend. When you bring home your pay cheque, does your wife ever say: ‘That’s enough’? I can’t tell you the exact amount of funding, it remains to be finalised, but no Russian programme has been so generously funded in the last 15 years.”
Draft design of the new aircraft will begin in 2010.
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Source: Flight Daily News