Russia’s MC-21 narrowbody programme made further progress during July as the first production-standard import-substituted aircraft approached the start of its factory flight-test campaign, while the government introduced additional financial measures intended to sustain serial production over the next decade.
The principal development during the month was confirmation that aircraft MS.0014 (registration 73362), the first production MC-21-310 built entirely with domestically supplied systems and equipment, has entered the final stage of ground preparation before its maiden flight. The aircraft is completing high-speed taxi trials at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant (IAZ), where it will begin the manufacturer’s flight-test programme.
A second production aircraft, MS.0015, is expected to join the flight-test campaign during August, indicating that Yakovlev is beginning to build a small fleet of production-standard aircraft to support certification and industrial validation.
The production line at Irkutsk is also expanding. Company officials disclosed that 18 aircraft are currently progressing through the manufacturing cycle. These include airframes undergoing structural assembly, fuselage section mating, systems installation and final production activities. Although detailed completion schedules were not released, the figures provide the clearest indication to date of production throughput following completion of the import-substitution effort.
Industrial workload nevertheless emerged as one of the programme’s principal challenges. During a visit to the Irkutsk facility on 24 July, plant management highlighted uneven production loading across both the final assembly line and the wider supplier base. Maintaining stable output has become increasingly important as the programme transitions from development to serial manufacture.
The Russian government responded by announcing additional financial support intended to maintain continuous production through 2035. Following discussions chaired by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on 30 July, authorities confirmed that funding has already been secured for the first 18 production aircraft and that further measures will be introduced to prevent interruptions to the assembly line.
More than RUB250 billion has been allocated to Russia’s civil aerospace sector during 2026. Approximately RUB200 billion will be used to subsidise loans for aircraft manufacturers and major suppliers, while additional funding will support advance payments for aircraft scheduled for delivery before 2030 and completion of production infrastructure across participating enterprises. The government is also preparing a preferential financing scheme, due to enter into force in 2028, to support airlines and leasing companies acquiring domestically manufactured aircraft.
Alongside efforts to stabilise production of the baseline aircraft, officials provided an update on the proposed MC-21-210 derivative.
The shortened variant is intended to accommodate approximately 140 passengers while retaining the Aviadvigatel PD-14 engine. Designers expect the reduction in fuselage length to decrease structural weight sufficiently to increase range to at least 5,000 km. Development work is already covered by a state-funded contract, with the new variant expected to share the majority of its systems and production processes with the MC-21-310 in order to minimise industrial disruption.
Flight testing also accelerated during July.
The two import-substituted prototypes, MS.0012 (73055) and MS.0013 (73057), completed 17 flights with a combined duration of 56 hours 10 minutes, continuing the certification programme required to expand the aircraft’s Type Certificate following replacement of foreign-supplied equipment.
Most sorties focused on validating aircraft systems under both normal operating conditions and simulated failures.
MS.0012 was primarily employed for avionics evaluation, including the flight management system (FMS), weather radar, VHF communications, the traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) and terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS). Additional flights assessed fire detection and suppression systems protecting the auxiliary power unit and cargo compartments.
Testing using MS.0013 concentrated on flight-control and aircraft systems. Engineers evaluated the automatic flight-control system, fly-by-wire control laws, nosewheel steering, braking performance following simulated hydraulic failures, fuel system behaviour during negative-g manoeuvres, auxiliary power unit operation and emergency landing gear extension.
The aircraft was also used to examine handling characteristics at elevated angles of attack and sideslip, together with the operation of flight-envelope protection functions intended to prevent exceedance of certified limits for airspeed, load factor and Mach number.
Beyond flight testing, several industrial developments strengthened the programme’s domestic technology base.
At ONPP Tekhnologiya in Obninsk, a robotic laser-processing system entered service for manufacture of electrically heated cockpit transparencies for both the MC-21 and SJ-100. The installation combines robotic positioning with laser scanning and ytterbium-laser processing to produce conductive heating circuits directly from digital design models, improving manufacturing repeatability for glazing with complex geometry.
Meanwhile, GosNIIAS completed a significant upgrade of its Electronic Bird avionics integration laboratory. The new radio systems simulator reproduces surveillance, navigation and communication environments before flight testing, allowing engineers to evaluate interactions between onboard systems within a single virtual operating environment. The facility supports integration of domestically developed avionics and ground-based certification activities associated with the expanded Type Certificate for the import-substituted MC-21.
IAZ also reported measurable improvements in production efficiency following implementation of revised manufacturing management procedures. Optimisation of ERP workflows, visual production management and tighter control of work-in-progress have reduced preparation time for manufacturing tasks from approximately 357 hours to less than 35 hours. The company also reported a substantial reduction in the number of personnel and process interfaces required to prepare production documentation, improving manufacturing predictability as serial output increases.
July therefore marked another incremental step in the MC-21 programme’s transition from development to production. While certification of the import-substituted configuration remains the immediate priority, the month’s developments suggest that industrial attention is increasingly shifting towards sustaining serial manufacture, expanding production capacity and preparing follow-on variants alongside completion of the flight-test campaign.
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