In July 2023, an interdepartmental programme for cooperation in aircraft construction between Belarus and Russia was adopted. The parties signed an agreement that opens up new prospects for the joint development of the aviation industry, and Minsk took the first step towards becoming one of the countries with its own aircraft construction.
As part of this programme, it is planned to develop and launch serial production of a new aircraft, called Osvey. The development will be carried out jointly by specialists of Belarusian and Russian design bureaus, the production of components and aircraft systems will be carried out both in Russia and Belarus, while the final assembly will be organised at one of the enterprises in Belarus, said Dmitry Stefanovich, head of the industrial planning department of the State Military Industrial Committee (SMIC), on air of the TV channel Belarus-1
“We are starting a joint development. The project is called Osvey. A new aircraft, the development is from scratch. The development will be carried out at the enterprises of the SMIC and enterprises of the Russian Federation, after which the production will be organised. The necessary equipment is being purchased and the relevant workshops are being built. Production will be both in the Russian Federation and in the Republic of Belarus. The full cycle of production will be organised at the enterprises of the Republic of Belarus,” said D. Stefanovich.
The agreement, which the Belarusian official is talking about, was signed on 9 July 2023 in Yekaterinburg during the visit of Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Roman Golovchenko to the Innoprom-2023 exhibition. At that time, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Pyotr Parkhomchik said that the aircraft would be called LMS-401. Now, according to Dmitry Stefanovich, the full name of the aircraft is known: LMS-401 Osvey.
Following the already established tradition of giving new light passenger aircraft the names of large lakes: TVRS-44 Ladoga and LMS-901 Baikal, the new project was given the name of Lake Asvyeya. The water body is located in Verkhnedvinsk district of Vitebsk region near the border with Pskov region and Latvia. Osvey is the second lake in Belarus by area.
The first 19-seat LMS-401 Osvey turboprop aircraft are due for production in 2026, with plans to build between 85 and 100 aircraft by 2030. 558th Aviation Repair Plant (Baranovichi) and Ural Civil Aviation Plant (Yekaterinburg) will be involved in the development. The 558th Plant will perform the final assembly of the aircraft, for this purpose it is necessary to build 20 thousand square metres of additional production space in Baranovichi. The 407th Minsk Civil Aviation Plant will also be involved in the production of components.
The aircraft will have non-retractable landing gear. The main priority is given to limiting the cost of flight hour and reducing the cost of the aircraft. The VK-800 turboprop engine will be used as the propulsion system, while the onboard equipment will be a complex developed by KRET in 2019.
