By Vladimir Karnozov in Moscow
Yakovlev's third prototype of the Yak-130 advanced jet trainer crashed on 26 July while undergoing state acceptance trials from the company's flight-test centre in Zhukovsky near Moscow. The two-seat aircraft was destroyed after its crew reported a malfunction to its MNPK Avionika-supplied quadruplex fly-by-wire control system at an altitude of 32,800ft (10,000m).
The test pilots managed to descend to around 10,000ft before ejecting safely when the aircraft entered an unrecoverable spin. It crashed in Russia's Ryzan region without causing casualties on the ground.
NPK Irkut president Oleg Demchenko says the accident "will not cause delays to the delivery of aircraft for the Russian and Algerian air forces", which have respectively ordered 14 and 16 for training and light strike duties.
Yak-130 chief designer Konstantin Popovich says Yakovlev is assessing how to redistribute trials work between its two remaining prototypes.
Source: Flight International
