Modernisation of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, aimed at increasing production of up to 36 MS-21 aircraft annually, is nearing completion. This was announced by First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov on 6 June. The IAZ modernisation programme includes technical upgrades and expansion of production facilities, which will make it possible to achieve the specified production volume. He emphasised that efforts to expand production capacity as well as parallel development work play a key role in achieving the set goals.
85 billion roubles have been invested in expanding the Irkutsk Aviation Plant’s capacity to produce the MS-21. This was announced by Igor Kobzev, Governor of the Irkutsk Region, during the plenary session Days of Regional Development Space of the Future: Angara-Yenisei Macroregion at the international exhibition-forum Russia. According to him, the expansion of the plant’s capacity will create 15.5 thousand new jobs, which in turn will support the economic development of the region.
IAZ specialists have developed a drilling machine with automatic feed, designed to replace foreign analogues. Two modifications of such machines have already been tested, but at least 11 of them are required to increase serial production of MC-21. The drilling machine is equipped with a rotary motor and a drill pulse feed unit that helps to crush chips. To improve performance, a coolant is fed into the cutting zone through the internal channels of the drill and spindle. Its concentration level is regulated by a special feed unit. The spindle rotation and feed unit has a return function when the required drilling depth is reached. To prevent emergencies, the machine is equipped with an emergency stop and a safety clutch, which is activated when the drill jams.
Within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum the head of the United Aircraft Corporation Yuri Slyusar said that from September 2025 the delivery of MC-21 to Aeroflot will begin. But to do this, it is necessary to obtain an addition to the type certificate, which was issued for the aircraft with foreign components.
“We have made about 1,200 flights on the MS-21 and obtained the necessary certificate, but unfortunately it was obtained with foreign components. We were ready to start serial production. About 12 serial airframes have already been made by the Irkutsk Aviation Plant. Now we need to obtain an additional certificate to the existing one – this means about 200 flights, which should start in September 2024. Our task is to fly these 200 flights on three machines within a year. And from September 2025 we will start delivering MS-21s to Aeroflot. We are all waiting for it,” said the head of UAC.
According to him, Aeroflot pays great attention to the aircraft, formulates its requirements both from the technical point of view and in terms of building around the operation of the liner its maintenance, spare parts supply, training of specialists
Yuri Slyusar also said that Belavia may become one of the first foreign airlines that will start receiving MC-21-310 aircraft. UAC is interested in expanding the number of potential operators, including the national Belarusian carrier, as the experience of operation in various airlines will improve the performance of the aircraft. Earlier, Belavia management expressed interest in acquiring Russian aircraft, including the MC-21 and SJ-100.
Yuri Slyusar said that Belarusian enterprises could receive orders worth up to Br5 billion annually from the Russian aircraft industry. “This is the order that we can theoretically place at the Belarusian aviation enterprises. These are parts, units, from which aircrafts will be assembled – Br3-5 billion annually,” Slyusar said in Irkutsk during a visit to the aircraft plant by a Belarusian delegation headed by President Alexander Lukashenko.
Belavia general director Igor Cherginets noted in March that the airline is particularly interested in Russian aircrafts, which will be produced in cooperation with Belarus. Now the republic manufactures up to 1,000 different items of components for MS-21 and SJ-100 aircraft. “Certain components, spare parts for these aircraft are already produced in our country. We have very good relations with UAC, PJSC “Yakovlev”, we often meet, certain preliminary agreements have been signed,” Igor Cherginets told Minsk-Moscow Youtube-channel.
The airline’s CEO Sergei Alexandrovsky said in an interview with the TV channel Russia 24 during SPIEF-2024 that Aeroflot wants to transform the agreement with UAC for the supply of 339 aircraft of different types, including MS-21, SJ-100 and Tu-214 into MS-21 only, and both the basic version MS-21-310 and the shortened – MS-21-210, which will be developed.
It can be assumed that Alexandrovsky’s initiative is related to the unwillingness to operate the Tu-214 aircraft, the cabin of which is designed for three flight crew members, as well as to the insufficient passenger capacity of the SJ-100 aircraft. In addition, a homogeneous fleet allows to reduce operating costs. But if Aeroflot can reach an agreement with UAC, other Russian airlines, which are also waiting for the MS-21 to replace A&B aircraft, may not start receiving it until 2030.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called US sanctions against the MS-21 manufacturer “complete rubbish”, pointing out that they were imposed because of competition with US aircraft from Boeing. According to the president, the sanctions failed to affect the production of the Russian airliner.
“We are making an aircraft – the MS-21. It is a modern aircraft made of modern materials. The US administration took it and put it under sanctions, meaning that it is supposedly dual-purpose. That’s rubbish, there is nothing dual-purpose about it. Because of what? Because it is a competitor of Boeing,” Putin said at a meeting with representatives of international news agencies.
On 17 June, the flight of the 73051 prototype, which lasted 3 hours and 45 minutes, completed the factory flight tests, which included the evaluation of the integrated automatic control system, determination of the altitude and speed characteristics of PD-14 engines with the new software of the electronic control system, as well as the approach, departure for the second round and landing in fully automatic mode. In June, this aircraft performed seven flights, and test crews from PJSC Yakovlev and GosNII GA completed an evaluation of the performance of the FADEC with the PD-14, including simulated engine failure.
Also in June, aircraft with b/n 73054 and 73056 performed flights, overflight of the aircraft after a long layover. In addition, in connection with the planned improvement of wing mechanisation, aerodynamic modes were included in both flight missions of 73054. This aircraft will also be used for the development of the aircraft’s domestic computer system.
Under the import substitution programme, the software of radio navigation equipment was updated, and in June flights, in addition to the main flight task, domestic radio navigation control panels were tested on all three machines in parallel.
In the second quarter of 2024, the MS-21 prototype aircraft performed a total of 19 flights with a total duration of more than 65 hours.
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