The Russian aviation industry is preparing to launch serial production of medium-haul and regional aircraft with maximum substitution of foreign components. According to the aviation industry development program, the Irkutsk Aviation Plant (IAZ) is to produce nine MC-21-310 aircraft in 2025. At the moment, nine airframes at various stages of readiness are in the assembly and test shop of the plant. At the same time, production of parts for four more airplanes is underway.
Technical re-equipment continues at the plant. In October it was reported that two coloring and drying chambers were delivered to the coating shop No. 208, and their installation is being finalized after the main construction works. The equipment will improve the painting processes for flight ground support equipment and large aircraft units, such as air intakes and keel panels.
The principle of operation of the new chambers is to supply clean filtered air under overpressure. This ensures uniform paint application and prevents particles from settling on the surface to be treated, which significantly increases the quality of the finish. Any particles remaining in the air are effectively captured by filters. Fire safety is supported by an automatic powder fire extinguishing system.
As part of the capacity expansion program, an S31 assembly station doubler will be installed in Shop 255 to speed up the manufacturing process of the main chassis support recess and the air conditioning system compartment (environmental control system, ECS). “The additional equipment will speed up the production of sub-assemblies of the main landing gear niche and AHU, which will further reduce the time required to lay down the F3 compartment. Installation of the assembly slipway is planned to be completed at the end of November, and already in December the assembly fitters will start manufacturing of the airframe compartment,” Yakovlev said.
In addition, new stations PF.20.1 and PF.30.1 are being installed in shop 246, which will be used in the process of final assembly of the half-fuselage. After their commissioning, the existing PF.10.1 and PF.10.2 stations will be relieved and the work will be paralleled across four stations, which will make the redistribution of labor more flexible and efficient. The transition to the additional two stations is scheduled for December this year.
A new hangar for ground testing and customization of the MC-21, a building for engineering services, and a new shop for final assembly of military equipment have already been erected at the IAZ to free up space for the MC-21. At various stages of construction are the galvanic coating shop, the new mechanical assembly shop and the hangar for airfield ground equipment, where the installation of thermal insulation is being completed.
Currently, the plant is implementing a total of 20 investment projects with a total budget of over 80 billion rubles. Within the framework of modernization of production facilities it is planned to purchase over 400 units of equipment, a significant part of which has already been contracted or put into operation.
On October 18, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov visited the Irkutsk Aircraft Plant and toured the shops where MC-21s are assembled. Director General of PJSC “Yakovlev” Andrey Boginsky reported on the progress of work on modernization and expansion of the production base of the enterprise to ensure serial production of MC-21 – up to three aircraft per month or 36 per year.
On October 23, speaking at the plenary session of the Federation Council, Sergey Chemezov, General Director of Rostec State Corporation, said that the production of MC-21 aircraft will begin in 2025, and the Irkutsk aircraft plant’s capacity already allows to produce up to 72 airliners annually.
In the Federation Council, Sergey Chemezov raised the issue of renaming the SJ-100 airplane to a more consonant Russian name. Despite the fact that this digest refers to the MC-21 airplane, the editorial staff of the Russian Aviation website believes that some explanations are necessary – see at the end of the digest**.
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Sokol Aircraft Plant in Nizhny Novgorod is finalizing preparations for the production of the underwing compartment (UAC) for the MC-21 aircraft. The decision to create a reserve production site at the plant was made in 2022 due to the high workload of other aviation enterprises. Since then, the plant has prepared a site for the assembly of the PCO, and carried out technical re-equipment of production. Simultaneously with these works, the technical service created the tooling necessary for the production of the underwing compartment.
At the moment, the plant has developed and put into production the tooling for the assembly of panels, upper and lower sections of the underwing compartment. In addition, production of slipway doublers has been started to meet the increasing production volumes of airplanes.
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Roman Taskaev, lead test pilot at Yakovlev PJSC, told RIA Novosti in an interview that work continues on certification of individual systems of the MC-21-310. “We are waiting for the end of import substitution on the MC-21 aircraft to start its certification tests in a fully import-substituted guise. Certification of individual systems of the airplane is now underway,” Taskaev said.
In October, 73051 and 73054 prototype airplanes performed flights in Zhukovsky. On October 31, 73051 performed a flight to assess the performance of the wing de-icing system, including reconfiguration of the system in case of various failures. The aircraft took off at 7:22 (UTC) and landed at 11:11 (UTC), with a flight duration of 3 hours and 49 minutes.
The flight profile of this prototype aircraft on FlightRadar24.com recorded a speed that at times exceeded 1000 km/h. The Gromov Research Institute explained to us that this was due to the fact that at maximum M number and in crosswinds, the airplane’s airspeed was actually so high.
Flight 73054 made two flights in October. On October 21, takeoff was at 7:24 (UTC), landing – at 11:53 (UTC), flight duration was 4 hours 29 minutes. On October 29, takeoff was at 7:07 (UTC), landing was at 10:53 (UTC), and the duration was 3 hours 46 minutes. In these flights the aerodynamic performance of the airplane with modified wing mechanization was evaluated.
** Explanation
Speaking at the plenary session of the SF, Rostec head Sergey Chemezov emphasized that the SJ-100 aircraft will receive domestic engines, avionics and units. And most likely, a new name. According to him, the Superjet New model is being developed and will be assembled by exclusively domestic specialists, so the name of the airplane is proposed to be “Russified” as well. “We are already working on it,” Chemezov noted. – Probably, something can be associated with the name of our famous aircraft designer Alexander Yakovlev, as this airplane was originally created in the Yakovlev Design Bureau. Maybe we will offer to choose a name for the general public – this option is also being discussed,” added the head of Rostec.
The SSJ100 – Sukhoi Superjet 100 – a 100-seat short-haul regional jet was developed by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company with the support of Boeing Corporation. The aircraft received its first name – Russian Regional Jet (RRJ-95) on April 13, 2001, it was suggested by Boeing executive director Phil Condit. In 2006, at the insistence of French and Italian participants in the RRJ project, the aircraft was renamed SSJ100, and in July 2007, Sukhoi presented the official name Sukhoi Superjet 100 at the Farnborough Airshow.
In February 2020, as part of the creation of the Civil Aviation Division, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft became part of Irkut, lost the status of a separate legal entity and became known as Regional Aircraft, a branch of Irkut. The Yakovlev Engineering Center became Irkut’s main design and engineering division back in 2009. In the mid-summer of 2023, UAC rebranded and the Civil Division of UAC, represented by Irkut, was named PJSC Yakovlev, while the import-substituted version, previously called SSJ-New, was named SJ-100.
Thus, Chemezov was not mistaken and did not misspoke in terms of who “originally” designed the SJ-100, he had previously been asked a question about the renaming of the Superjet, and he answered it in much the same way. It is just that the head of Rostec did not express himself quite correctly. Therefore, his statement to the SF should be considered in the context of the SSJ-New version, the work on which has been carried out at Irkut since 2020, and now at Yakovlev, although they started working on an import-substituted version of the SSJ100 at Sukhoi Civil Aircraft in 2018, and its name was SSJ100R.
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