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CIVIL AVIATION
• First Tu-214 built for Transaero • Vladivostok Avia to receive two more Tu-204-300s • First An-148s to be sold to Kazakhstan • Uzbek carrier to receive two more Il-114-100s • SuperJet gearing up for trials • First Russian low-cost carrier emerged In the run-up to grouth Russian airliner industry in 2006 According to official stats of the Russian Federal Agency for Industry, the national aircraft industry made 33 commercial planes in 2006. It is almost as many as the year before when the output totalled 34 aircraft, but it is mentioned as a 20-percent increase in financials. However, some other thing is more important: 2006 saw a number of developments indicating that Russian commercial aircraft have begun to come back to the global market while domestic operators have started placing new orders. This is proven by several new deals cut, in the first place, with major Russian aircraft leasing company, Ilyushin Finance Co. (IFC), during the year. The deals enabled IFC to contract manufacturers and launched financing of the production of advanced Russian airliners. Actually, construction of more than two dozen new airliners has been launched by the plants in Voronezh and Ulyanovsk for the first time in the past decade and a half. Until then, they had completed the backlog dating back to the 1990s. The things started looking up at Gorbunov KAPO in Kazan, too. Several aircraft were delivered by Aviakor in Samara. What kind of success did the Russian commercial aircraft manufacturers achieve in 2006 and what are they facing this year and in a bit longer future? Andrey Fomin and Andrey Yurgenson try to answer the questions INDUSTRY Sokol gaining height Report from Nizhny Novgorod The Sokol Aircraft Building Plant in Nizhny Novgorod, an oldest Russian aircraft manufacturer, turns 75 in February this year. The plant set up in 1932 as Plant No 21 (then Gorky-based Sergo Ordzhonikidze Aircraft Plant, Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) Aircraft Production Association) participated in production of numerous types of aircraft developed by N.N. Polikarpov, S.A. Lavochkin, A.I. Mikoyan and other outstanding Soviet designers. Today, the Sokol plant has advanced production facilities ensuring the complete production cycle and enabling international requirements-compliant cutting-edge aircraft to be made. In the run-up to the 75th anniversary of the company, our correspondents paid a visit to Sokol, were received by the management and pilots, and were shown the production lines and in-house flight-test facility • UAC registered Ivchenko-Progress engines for trainers and light combat aircraft MILITARY AVIATION • First two Su-34s delivered to RusAF • Air Force took delivery of six Su-25SMs • Russian Long-Range Aviation to get new Tu-160s • Il-76MD kicks off official trials • Another Ka-50 built in Arsenyev MiG-35: future of Fulcrum family The representative of the new generation of the popular MiG-29 light tactical fighter versions – its heavily upgraded MiG-35 multirole derivative – is to make its debut at the upcoming Aero India 2006 air show in Bangalore. Referred to as a Generation 4++ aircraft, the fighter may succeed the current MiG-29 and MiG-29SMT on the global arms market a few years further down the road. Unveiling the MiG-35 demonstrator at Bangalore pursues a definite goal: it is the model that the MiG Corp. and Rosoboronexport intend to submit for the Medium MultiRole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender the Indian Air Force (IAF) is to announce in the near future. Under the MMRCA programme, IAF plans to get 126 advanced fighters, the bulk of which is to be assembled by the Indian aircraft factories. Competitors of the MiG-35 under the upcoming tender are to be the US F-18E/F and F-16 Block 70, French Mirage 2000-5 and Rafale, West European Typhoon and Swedish Gripen. Most of them are very stiff competitors, and for this reason, minor modifications to the existing MiG-29 will not be enough for the MiG-35’s developer to come on top in the tender. Therefore, the MiG-35’s design, albeit outwardly similar to the production MiG-29, embodies a number of radical innovations that qualify it as a Gen. 4++ warplane. Andrey Fomin reviews the main peculiarities of the advanced MiG programme 558 ARP: we give aircraft a new lease of life COSMONAUTICS • Advanced Soyuz orbited planetary scout • GLONASS constellation growing • Third launch of the ‘second’ Soyuz • Proton – Arabsat: take 2 • Angara to fly in four years • Mars ‘flight’ as early as this year • First Soyuz to launch from Kourou in two years • Space tourism gets pricier CONTRACTS AND DELIVERIES Brahmos Aerospace’s managing co-director Alexander Maksichev: “The priority is the air-launched missile” The development and manufacture of the BrahMos supersonic antiship missile system has been among the key joint Russian-Indian arms development programmes recently. The missile has been under joint development by Russian and Indian as a derivative of the Yakhont antiship missile from NPOMash in Reutov, Moscow Region. The derivative is to have land-based, air-to-surface and sea-launched versions. A joint venture under the same name was set up to run the programme, with the acronym BrahMos standing for the rivers Brahmaputra and Moscow. The joint venture is manned by staff from Russia’s NPOMash and India’s Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO). The programme’s kick-off was authorised by the intergovernmental agreement made in February 1998. The contract for developing the BrahMos was signed in July 1999. Since then, the Russian-Indian weapon has passed the design, prototyping and test phases, having entered full-rate production and started entering service. The BrahMos Aerospace joint venture’s Russian managing co-director Alexander Maksichev spoke with Take-Off’s columnist Vladimir Scherbakov on the recent developments under the BrahMos programme and the future it faces • Russia offers to upgrade Indian MiG-29s • Algeria accepts new MiGs • China still to buy Su-33? • Indonesia to get more Sukhois • Il-76 deliveries to China slip behind schedule • Be-103 and Su-80 to be assembled in PRC? • Tupolev offers its freighters to China • Mi-26 comes to PRC Heading for Venezuela! First Su-30s arrive to Latin America Sukhoi’s division KnAAPO shipped the first four Su-30MK2 fighters to Venezuela in December last year. This is the first Flanker-family aircraft delivery to a Latin American country. On 10 December the pair of the Su-30MK2s flew during the air parade on the Venezuelan Air Force Day at Libertador air base, attended by President Hugo Chavez who had been re-elected as president just five days before. The contract for 24 Su-30MK2 multirole fighters and a batch of advanced Mi-35M attack, Mi-17V-5 utility and Mi-26T heavylifter helicopters was signed last summer in the course of Chavez’s visit to Russia. The smooth beginning of fulfilling the contract under so tight a schedule, which ensured the Su-30MKs’ participation in the air parade on 10 December 2006, gave powerful impetus to the Russo-Venezuelan cooperation in arms trade and to crafting new lucrative agreements on deliveries of Russian combat aircraft and other material to Venezuela and some other Latin American countries |
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