The MiG Corp. and Phazotron Corp. continue deliveries of knockdown kits to India for upgrading the entire fleet of Indian Air Force MiG-29 fighters under the contract signed on 7 March 2008 (MiG-29UPG programme). In all, 63 aircraft, including nine MiG-29UB twin-seat combat trainers, are subject to upgrade. They are to be given more up-to-date avionics, with their weapons suite to be beefed up with advanced missiles. In addition, airframe and powerplant improvements will extend the fighters' service life by far, and the aircraft will switch to on-condition maintenance. The fuel load will increase owing to a conformal spine fuel tank aft of the cockpit. At the same time, the fighters will get the mid-air refuelling capability.

The Irkutsk-based Angara airline, a key carrier in Eastern Siberia, received its fifth An-148-100E (RA-61710, c/n 41-06) regional jet airliner on 29 December 2014. The aircraft became the second An-148 that the company got under the 12-year financial leasing agreement it and the Sberbank Leasing Nord signed in summer 2014 and the fifth aircraft of the type operated by Angara. As is known, the first three new An-148-100Es (RA-61711, RA-61731, RA-61714) were delivered to the Irkutsk-based air carrier by the Ilyushin Finance Co. leasing company in late 2012. The current two An-148-100Es built by the VASO plant in Voronezh in 2011 had been operated by the Polyot airline before April of last year, after which were returned to their owner due to the carrier's difficult circumstances and piling debt for its leasing payments. They were ferried to the Voronezh-based manufacturer for storage and subsequent modification to the requirements of a future customer. The first of them, RA-61709 (see the picture), joined Angara’s aircraft fleet last October.

2014 proved to be rich in epoch-making events in space exploration all over the globe. India launched a prototype of its manned spacecraft onboard the latest GSLV MkIII rocket. The European Space Agency landed the Filae probe onto the Churimov-Gerasimenko comet. The United States started the flight tests of the MPCV Orion multirole spacecraft. Russia kicked off flight development tests of the new-generation Angara launch vehicle. It would not be an overstatement to say that the event of the year to Russian spacecraft and launch vehicle developers was the maiden flight of the Angara-A5 heavy-lift LV from the Plesetsk space launch centre on 23 December 2014.

Late November 2014 saw the completion of the certification of a Sukhoi Superjet 100 (RRJ-95B) VIP version by the Aircraft Registry of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC). The developer received a supplementary type certificate confirming the safe flying of the SSJ100 equipped with an enhanced-comfort passenger cabin.

Indian naval aviators are learning to fly MiG-29K/KUB multirole carrierborne fighters off the Vikramaditya multirole aircraft carrier that has sailed to India’s shores from Russia a year ago. The first landing on the deck of the new Indian carrier took place here on 7 February 2014. The MiG-29KUB was controlled by the Indian Navy 303 Sqn commanding officer, Navy Capt. Ajay Theophilus, with Andrei Shishov, a test pilot with the MiG corporation, occupying the back seat in the instructor-pilot capacity. On the same day, there was another MiG-29KUB landing on the ship, with the aircraft controlled by the Indian pilot. Whose instructor pilot was MiG’s chief test pilot Mikhail Belyayev.