No surprises expected

Published: 5/2/2000

The proposed Federal programme ‘Development of Russian civil aeronautical engineering for 2001-2015" will be presented to the government by the end of the spring according to Victor Samokhin of the FSVT. According to Samokhin the programme will be in two stages. The first from 2001-2006, will deal with getting existing programmes completed and certified under Russian standards. He is however, unspecific if this applies to all aircraft programmes or the selected programmes that the Russian Aerospace Agency have been referring to over the last few months. The second stage between 2006 and 2015 will deal with the planned production of new aircraft, to meet the demands of the aging Russian airline fleet estimated to be 1400 aircraft and 1150 helicopters by 2015. Samokhin says the programme calls for the production of at least 2800 new “generation" of fuel-efficient aircraft and 2200 helicopters to fulfill the needs of the airlines, the state and export markets. At present Samokhin states that he believes that the aircraft required to meet the needs of the Russian market over the next 30 years already exist, in the form of the Il-96-300, Tu-204 family, 100-seat Tu-334 for interregional routes, Il-114 for intra-regional routes, the Be-200 amphibian and the Mi-34/38 from Mil and the Ka-62 from Kamov. The lack of deliveries of these aircraft to date, not surprisingly, is attributed by Samokhin to the lack of lease financing, a problem that the programme will address. We will have to wait to see what the full proposal has to say, but it appears from the comments by Samokhin, that there are not going to be many surprises. In fact the whole process may engender the thought among those observing, that the exercise simply reflects that those responsible for the industry"s future are either lost for ideas or unwilling to accept radical change and are simply retreating into the tried and tested method of the past, the ‘15 year plan" .

Article ID: 1552