Mi-34 producer in bankruptcy

Published: 5/2/2000

It appears from statements by Evgeny Bodo, General Director of Mi-Light Helicopters (LVM) in early April, that the Mi-34 light weight multipurpose helicopter may be assembled in Poland, Brazil and potentially Malaysia. The plans were however, greeted with some surprise by Zygmunt Szymonczyk, Moscow representative of Poland's PZL-Swidnik. Who commented that that he had never heard of such a plan and that it was unlikely that Swidnik would become involved given that they already had their own programme in the segment, the PZL Swidnik SW-4.He did however, acknowledge that they could be negotiating with a smaller producer. Instytut Lotnictwa based in Warsaw does have a light helicopter programme. The $350,000 helicopter originally intended for the demonstration and training market, had reported domestic sales of six aircraft in 1995/96, although none has been confirmed since that date there were reports of orders from Nigeria for six Mi-34s in mid 1999 for delivery in 1999. The helicopter has also faced funding problems since its first flight in the 1986, and a federal order to resume production in 1996 does not appear to have improved the outlook despite the Ministry of Economics statement in June of 1999, that the programme would receive some government funding. The helicopter went into serial production at the Arsenyev plant in the Far East in 1993. For Moscow based LVM formed in 1993 to develop and produce the Mi-34 and jointly owned by a number of entities including Mil, Arsenyev and Perm, time may be running out for any expansion. On the 4th April, the Moscow Arbitration Court put the company into bankruptcy proceedings and appointed an external manager for the plant for failure to repay a loan to the Vostok-Zapad Bank of $3.7m originally granted in 1994 for one year. The major investor in the Mi-34 programme, oil and petroleum trader LanRusinvest has not commented on the programme"s future. Associated articles: www.concise.org Mi-34 sales: 18th May 1999

Article ID: 1554