The flagship project of the Russian civil aircraft industry, the MC-21 medium-haul aircraft has been facing challenges since 2014 due to Western sanctions and the need for import substitution. The airliner, which is supposed to replace Boeing and Airbus aircraft in Russia, requires the replacement of 36 different systems and units.
After the coup d’état in Ukraine and Russia’s support for the Lugansk and Donetsk, the sanctions imposed on the aircraft industry have not yet had a significant impact on the progress of the MC-21 project, although they have slowed it down. A complete ban in 2019 on supplies to Russia of composite materials for the manufacture of the wing and centre wing of the aircraft, and in 2022 – the rupture of all relations in the aircraft industry by Western countries, have led to a halt in the serial production of the aircraft and shifted the start of its operation by 6-8 years.
In an interview with the Vedomosti newspaper, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said that the creation of Russian analogues of systems and avionics also requires adapting the very design of MC-21 aircraft to them.
‘A good option would be to make an additional version of the aircraft fuselage shortened by one section. This will allow airlines to operate the aircraft more efficiently, taking into account the resulting weight characteristics, while maintaining the original parameters for the flight range with a load of 140-150 people,’ the Deputy Prime Minister said when asked about solving problems with import substitution of units.
At the initial stage of the MC-21 project development, the Yakovlev Engineering Centre of Irkut Corporation developed two versions of the aircraft: the basic version -300 and the reduced version -200. In the import-substituted version they have the indices -310 and -210 respectively. Andrey Boginsky, CEO of PJSC Yakovlev, spoke about the start of work on the MC-21-210 in April this year.
In the summer of 2021, Irkut CEO Ravil Khakimov said that design documentation has been developed for the MC-21-200 and MC-21-400 versions.
‘As soon as the MC-21-300 version starts flying in airlines, depending on the demand, we will most likely take on the MC-21-400 project first of all, i.e. it is a medium-haul aircraft that will be able to carry up to 260 passengers. And depending on the demand we will look at launching MC-21-200,’ Ravil Khalikov said at the time.
He explained that it will happen not earlier than 2024-2025.
