RuAviation

The Irkutsk Aviation Plant is upgrading the MC-21-310 aircraft with the tail number 73055 under the import substitution programme. The aircraft will be substantially upgraded at IAZ: domestic equipment will be installed instead of foreign equipment.

On 7 June, this experimental aircraft performed a flight from Zhukovsky to Irkutsk. Employees of the flight test unit performed the acceptance of the aircraft, dismantled the rescue equipment, and mothballed the engines. Then the airliner was transferred to shop 277, where the aircraft systems will be modified and tested.

A large amount of work is planned to be done on the on-board cable network, it will be replaced in the same way as it was done earlier on VS 73051. In addition, it is necessary to refine aircraft systems, hatches and doors, replace piloting and navigation, radio communication and lighting equipment. PD-14 engines were dismantled and sent to Aviadvigatel JSC for a range of modifications. The aircraft’s power supply system and software and mathematical software will undergo a large-scale upgrade. The auxiliary propulsion system and the complex embedded rack of onboard equipment will be replaced.

In order to mount the new equipment on the aircraft, some elements of the airframe will have to be modified. Specialists from the IAZ and engineering centre will have to replace sensors, flaps, brackets, and replace door openings. More than 150 documents describe the work to be done.

One of the significant changes is the new VAS compartment, which required a virtually complete set of works for production preparation and parts manufacturing. Another labour-intensive modification is the dismantling of the hatch and the emergency escape shaft. Employees of workshops 249, 246 and 255 will have to replace the floor frame and install a new cargo door.

Specialists of the Engineering Centre are completing the issue of design documentation, and employees of the technical bureau of the Civil Aircraft Equipment Assembly Plant are preparing the finalised technological documentation. Emerging issues are promptly resolved with the specialists of the leading technological and design departments and the design bureau of the engineering centre in Irkutsk.