Russian authorities are still grappling with a plan to produce regional aircraft for the domestic market, with four options presented to the country’s government.
During a high-level meeting on 12 May, Russian president Vladimir Putin received outlines of the proposals which include three turboprops and a jet option.
These included an option for localised Russian production of the Chinese Xian Aircraft MA700, possibly alongside the Progress Arsenyev helicopter plant in eastern Russia.
Putin said that a domestically-produced aircraft with 50-60 seats was required, particularly for local transport in the eastern region, according to the presidential office record of the meeting.
He said the absence of sufficient connections sometimes required passengers to fly between regional points via Moscow or St Petersburg – a situation which Putin described as “totally unacceptable”.
Putin sought details on options to produce regional aircraft with the capability of using remote, unpaved airfields.
“Once we had many such aircraft,” he said. “But they have all aged.”
He noted that Russian operators have used imported regional aircraft but Putin said Russia should develop its own type, one which could also be sold abroad.
Trade minister Denis Manturov told Putin that the options included reviving production of the Ilyushin Il-114 – powered by Klimov TV7-117 engines – formerly produced at Tashkent in Uzbekistan.
He added that combining the capabilities of United Aircraft’s Sokol plant in Nizhny Novgorod, the Ulyanovsk-based airframer Aviastar, and facilities in Voronezh, could enable production of 12 aircraft per year by 2022.
The Antonov An-140 is an alternative, Manturov told Putin, but with 50 seats it accommodates fewer passengers than the 64-seat Il-114.
It was also jointly developed with Ukraine and, while the Russian plant in Samara has produced a few of the type for the Russian defence ministry, Manturov said there was still a dependency on Ukrainian organisations.
“We are willing to discuss terms for purchasing a relevant licence with our colleagues engaged in this civil project, and so to localise it entirely,” he added.
Russia had considered domestic assembly of Bombardier Q400 turboprops but the plan lapsed in the wake of the political fall-out over the armed conflict with Ukraine.
Manturov said a fourth option for regional aircraft production involved resurrecting the Tupolev Tu-324 concept, a 50-seat twinjet with aft-mounted engines. He told Putin that the aircraft did not progress beyond the initial research phase because the Irkut MC-21 became a development priority.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
