On November 23, 2022, there was an event that we have all been waiting for – the first MS-21 aircraft “dressed” in the livery of the airline “Rossiya”. The press service of “Rossiya” explained that at the moment the plane is under the import substitution program and cannot yet be included in the certificate of the operator, carrying out commercial transportation.
“First, the branded gray-red-white livery of “Rossiya” will receive three pilot aircraft of Irkut Corporation, which are not included in the fleet of the carrier. Then it will be applied to the MC-21 in the airline’s fleet. The MС-21 prototype aircraft will be operated by Irkut Corporation for training pilots-instructors of the Rossiya airlines,” explained the representative of the carrier.
In addition, the Aeroflot group together with the manufacturer will also work on the road map of the maintenance in the airports of the potential route network of new liners. In this regard, it will be appropriate to recall some important points in the history of the MC-21.
According to the plans of 2016, it was planned to complete testing and certification of the airliner in 2017, to start serial production and commercial operation – in 2018. But in 2018, foes, whom we sometimes call “partners” to this day, put a footstep in the form of sanctions against Aerocomposite. “Something’s really good about your MC flying, and it’s already three whole things… get this!”, they said behind the puddle and banned deliveries to Russia of the composite materials used to make the MC-21 wing.
In Ulyanovsk, they got up, dusted themselves off and answered: “Well, we have Rosatom and UMATEX”. Work began to boil, and in 2021 board 73361 took off with a wing of Russian composites. And a year before, in December 2020, another plane took off – 73055 – already with Russian engines. The plane turned out to be so good that it was not shameful to show it to Arab sheikhs and other spectators in Dubai in the fall of 2021.
Senior officials in the aviation industry and the Ministry of Industry and Trade drew up new plans, according to which in the fall of 2022 two aircraft were to begin commercial flights to the “Rossiya”. But on the morning of February 24, 2022, we woke up in a completely different reality. Enemies were delighted with the opportunity, rubbed their hands with a grin and began to sanction us.
“Partners” have forbidden to supply everything related to the aviation industry to anyone, if the recipient is related to the letter combination “рус”, rus or ru. And thus, everything that had been worked out for more than 10 years turned out to be crossed out. The situation was not only unpleasant, but catastrophic. The finished and certified aircraft turned out to be unsuitable for mass production and commercial operation, now domestic equipment had to be integrated into the plane.
The plans again had to be rewritten, fortunately, by that time, import substitution had already been going on for several years, and the main phase of this process should be completed in December 2023. We now have the following dates:
- December 2022 – approval of the main changes to the type design in terms of the wing and power plant, as well as the start of trial operation of aircraft 73054 in the livery of the “Rossiya”;
- 2023 – modification of board 73361 to version MC-21-310rus – a completely “Russian” aircraft and its connection to the flights of two aircraft of version -310: board 73051 will mainly undergo ground tests, and 73055 – flight;
- December 2024 – completion of certification tests of already three MC-21-310 aircraft, transfer of six production aircraft to Rossiya airline for the start of commercial transportation;
- 2025 – the beginning of commercial operation as part of the “Rossiya” fleet.
Since 2018, both Irkut and Ulyanovsk Aerocomposite, and other numerous subcontractors have begun to be gradually replaced with domestic individual elements: composites, electrical systems, avionics, cable networks. Until 2024, it is necessary to replace the wing mechanization drives, the APU, oxygen equipment and many other systems and assemblies. If something remains imported there, then very little and not critical. At the same time, the domestic APU is already being tested on one of the experimental SSJ100, and its modification is planned for installation on the MC-21.
Here it must be taken into account that the MC-21 is very densely equipped with various technological innovations, for example, an active side handle. When controlling one pilot, the handle of the second one moves – this is important from the point of view of flight safety, and especially during training. Today, such active side sticks are only on the relatively small G500 / G550 business aircraft of the American company Gulfstream, as well as on the experimental KC-390 military transport aircraft of the Brazilian company Embraer. MC-21 is the first large passenger airliner equipped with such a device, which also requires replacement with domestic equipment.
Therefore, we will be glad that we have been waiting for so long: the first MC-21 is being prepared for flights in the livery of a commercial airline, albeit only in trial operation and not as part of its fleet. In the very near future, the liner in the livery of “Rossiya” will return to Zhukovsky to the Flight Test and Development Complex of the Yakovlev design bureau to prepare for the upcoming flights.
