The first flight of Antonov's new regional jet, the An-148, has slipped from July to September because of a delay in the supply of components.
Antonov general director Vladimir Korol says the outer wing sections were late being delivered from the KhGAPP plant in Kharkov to the Antonov experimental factory in Kiev, which is building the An-148 prototypes. The sections finally arrived on 7 June.
The completion of the first set of ZMKB Progress D-436-148 turbofans for the prototype is also behind schedule. Although Moscow-based MMPP Salyut delivered its components to the final assembly line at Motor-Sich in Zaporozhie in April, another supplier - UMPO - missed the deadline for the parts it builds. As a result Motor-Sich had to initiate a contingency plan and manufacture in-house some components it had outsourced to UMPO.
Completion of the second An-148 is still planned for October/November, and the third, a static test airframe, for December.
Series production will be undertaken at two plants - VASO in Voronezh, Russia and KhGAPP. VASO will build An-148s for the Russian market, with Aeroflot and Volga-Dnepr seen as potential customers.
The future of the khGAPP line in Ukraine remains in question, as it is overloaded with An-140 and An-74 production, which could see An-148 assembly being moved to the Aviant plant in Kiev.
Russia's third largest airline, GUAP Pulkovo, is to take up to 10 An-148-100s and five Tupolev Tu-204-300 airliners, with first deliveries next year. The aircraft will be provided via Ilyushin-Finance. The airline had been considering an order for up to 10 Tupolev Tu-334s, but has followed KrasAir in dropping the twinjet from its evaluation.
Source: Flight International
