US AND RUSSIAN aviation officials, are confident of reaching agreement on the first certification bilateral, between the two nations by mid-1996, significantly easing development problems which threaten several joint ventures.
US Federal Aviation Administration aircraft-certification service director Tom McSweeney says that the latest meetings with the Russian Department of Air Transportation's (DAT) Air Registry (AR) in early April "...were the best programme reviews we've had". He adds that, "notable progress was made particularly on the Ilyushin Il-103".
The FAA and AR hope that, by concentrating first on a relatively simple aircraft project such as the Il-103 - a primary training and general-aviation five-seater - then more complex types such as the Antonov An-38, Il-96M and Tupolev Tu-204 will be easier to encompass within the bilateral. "Procedural things have to be arranged before you can move onto bigger types like the Il-96," says McSweeney. The bilateral will initially cover US Federal Aviation Rules (FAR) Part 23 certification before expanding to cover air-transport categories.
Despite the apparent good progress now being made, the bilateral for air-transport aircraft is likely to be at least two years further off, says McSweeney. Even at the current rate of progress, the agreement of the FAR Part 23 certification bilateral will be at least two years behind original projections.
Ilyushin gave the go-ahead for the Il-103 programme in 1990, assuming that international deliveries of the trainer could begin in 1994 with certification to FAR Part 23.
Source: Flight International
