The first Russian-Belarusian 19-seat LMS-401 turboprop aircraft should be produced in 2026, and 85 to 100 aircraft by 2030. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Pyotr Parkhomchik in an interview to the TV channel Belarus 1 following the meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Russia and Belarus in St. Petersburg.
Pyotr Parkhomchik noted the active work of the two countries in the field of aircraft building. He recalled that in 2023, during the visit of Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko to Yekaterinburg for the exhibition Innoprom-2023, the Belarusian JSC 558th Aviation Repair Plant and the Russian JSC Urals Civil Aviation Plant (UZGA) signed an agreement to build a 19-seat aircraft. At the time, Deputy Prime Minister said that the aircraft was named LMS-401.
“Today we are developing and creating this aircraft together, we are conducting development work. We should produce the first two aircraft by 2026. It is very important that we already have a firm order today – the minimum number of aircraft that we will have to produce by 2030. This is 85-100 aircraft. If we successfully fulfil the set tasks, there may be more,” said Pyotr Parkhomchik in St. Petersburg.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, today at the 558th Aircraft Repair Plant in Baranovichi, where the serial production of the LMS-401 aircraft will be carried out, it is necessary to build 20 thousand square metres of additional production space for machining and an additional building where the assembly will be carried out, as well as to purchase about 100 units of complex equipment. In addition to the Baranovichi aircraft factory, the 407th Minsk Civil Aviation Plant will be involved in the creation of the aircraft.
Given the quoted characteristics of the new machine, we are talking about a replacement for the Czech L-410, which was first produced only at the Let Kunovice aircraft plant in Czechoslovakia, and in 2018 the production of these machines was mastered at UZGA in Yekaterinburg. At HeliRussia-2023, Oleg Bocharov, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, reported that the aircraft will have non-retractable landing gear. The main priority is to limit the cost of flight hours and production costs. According to him, the VK-800 engine will be used as part of the new aircraft’s propulsion system, while onboard equipment will include a complex developed by KRET in 2019.
At the Innoprom-2023 exhibition, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said that certification of the LMS-401 aircraft is scheduled for 2027, and its commercial operation should begin in 2028.
The closest analogue to the joint Russian-Belarusian project is the An-28 light passenger aircraft, which is equipped with two 960-horsepower TVD-10B turboprop engines developed by the Omsk Engine Design Bureau (OAO OMKB, a branch of ODK-Saturn). The AN-28 was produced in Poland. On 24 January 2024, Rosaviatsia issued GosNII GA an additional type certificate No. FATA-STC030339, which increases the AV-24AN propeller of the AN-28 aircraft designated life from 6,000 to 9,000 hours. Currently in Russia the aircraft is available in the fleet of two airlines: Siberian Light Aviation (SiLA) and Kamchatka Aviation Company.
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