The Tu-214 aircraft with the tail number 64509 will be used as an experimental site for testing import-substituted equipment. The project to resume production of this type of aircraft is supported by the state and includes the construction of more than 100 such aircraft. This is stated in the UAC video. UAC noted that the work to replace imported components, components and systems with domestic ones will take place on this flying laboratory until the end of this year.
The Tu-214 with the flight number 64509, created in 2008 and previously operated by TransAero Airlines, in June this year performed a flight from Kazan, where it was restored to airworthiness after long storage, to Minsk to the 407th Civil Aviation Plant. Here Belarusian specialists repainted the airliner in the UAC corporate livery. Under the programme to resume construction of these machines, Flight 64509 will become a working experimental site for testing domestic equipment to be replaced so that the aircraft does not depend on the whims of former ‘partners’.
‘The task is very large-scale, it is called ‘Revival of domestic aircraft construction’. We have both factories, designers, and the support of the state, the president, the government, and most importantly, the necessary financial resources have been allocated. Today the aircraft is getting a new birth – there is a government order in the programme of civil aviation development, and we have to make more than 100 of these aircraft,’ said Konstantin Timofeev, Managing Director of Tupolev, who piloted the aircraft from Kazan to Minsk and then back to the capital of Tatarstan.
Spare parts and components for the Tu-214 are manufactured at enterprises located in more than 10 cities in Russia and Belarus. This creates jobs, supports the local economy, and guarantees the quality of all components through the use of advanced technology and skilled labour.
‘A fully domestic aircraft is an important part for our state. Therefore, there are probably no other opinions here that speak of the importance of this project and that Tupolev is now a pioneer – to create the first domestic import-substituted aircraft in our country,’ said Ruslan Islamov, director of the Kazan Technical Centre for Aftermarket Services.
The idea of the laboratory is that not only import substitution components are worked out on this aircraft, but also a whole range of structural and system changes to improve the aircraft in the future. Earlier, Aeroflot CEO Sergei Alexandrovsky said that it was necessary to modernise the Tu-214 into a version with two pilots in the cockpit, currently the aircraft is piloted by two pilots and a flight engineer. Tests of such an aircraft are scheduled to begin in 2026.
On 22 June 2023, Vadim Korolev, who then held the position of Managing Director of Tupolev, during a meeting in the Government of the Russian Federation said that the Tu-214 meets modern requirements of civil aviation, has a high degree of localisation of production and consists of 87% of domestic purchased components. Kazan Aircraft Plant and Tupolev by the end of 2024 should replace all imported parts in the Tu-214 design with Russian ones and get approval for them to the type certificate.
It can be expected that it is import substitution on Tu-214 inertial navigation system HG2030AE21, early warning system of proximity to the ground EGPWS and meteorological radar station RDR-4B of the American company Honeywell, as well as rescue equipment Air Cruisers will be the main task to be solved in test flights.
Tupolev notes that the Tu-214 flying laboratory will be the first fully domestic civil aircraft in modern Russia and will create conditions for Kazan to produce airliners that meet the requirements and challenges of the time.
