Meetings over the last several weeks between a Russian aerospace delegation
and the European Joint Aviation Authorities to discuss Russian and CIS produced
aircraft's certification under the Joint Aviation Regulations (JAR) has agreed
to develop cooperation between the two bodies.
As a result of the meetings according to Valentin Kiyashko, responsible for
the Transport Aircraft Certification Department of the Interstate Aviation Committee
(MAK), the JAA has established a group at the JAA to review the certification
process for Russian aircraft in conjunction with its Russian counterpart focusin
initially on the RR powered Tu-204-120, the first Russian aircraft to be certified under
the JAA. Tupolev will be required to produce documents described as the "certification
basis". These documents will be reviewed by the JAA, which will then seek further
clarification on elements of the submission where the Russian certification
through the Russian Aviation Registry (RAR) is felt to differ from the JAAs.
The process of certification under these conditions according to Kiyashko, will
take 1.5 years, but still requires a statement from Tupolev and Aviastar, the
aircraft's producer regarding funding for the process. While Kiyashko is more
sanguine believing a lesser agreement is more likely, others report that the
JAA is ready to agree to a Bilateral Air Safety Agreement relating to airworthiness
standards, following two years of discussions at various conferences covering
harmonization between the respective authorities including the FAA. Kiyashko
appears to believe that the environment for certification of Russian aircraft
is more suitable than it has been in the past and has commented that relations
with the FAA have advanced so far that the agency had adopted some of the Russian
approaches to certain certification requirements such as landing in icy conditions.
The Secretary General of the JAA Klaus Koplin has however, been reported as
seeing the approach to certification between the two authorities as being based
on projects rather than an overall agreement. The certification of the Tu-204-120
should however, considerably ease the process of certification for other aircraft
in the future.
Tupolev's Chief Designer on the Tu-204-120 Oleg Alasheyev suggests that the
certification process with the JAA on his aircraft is already well advanced.
He said that Tupolev had planned the certification of the Tu-204-120 sometime
ago and its progress had been hindered by the lack of funds. Funding had now
been secured and the process was therefore restarting. According to Alasheyev,
Tupolev has already forwarded the "certification basis" to the JAA under JAR-25
and it is now waiting a reply from the JAA regarding what elements of the Russian
certification are acceptable and which are not. The latter then requiring investigation
through further submissions and or additional flights on the aircraft, which
is already operating into Europe on lease from Sirocco International to Air
Cairo. The aircraft's operations within Europe are however, constrained by the
lack of certification as it cannot be registered within the EU without first
being certified by the JAA and then in turn given the approved ticket by the
JAA's member countries.
For Sirocco, in partnership with Tupolev and Aviastar; the approval of the
aircraft is an essential development for the landing of a European launch customer
and a precursor to a similar process of certification and sales in the US. At
present Sirocco's President Tom Smith, is tight lipped about possible customers
in Europe, although there have been reports, which Smith does not deny, that
package carrier TNT have expressed interest in the Tu-204-120. Others however,
have questioned Sirocco's ability to support the aircraft in the field, claiming
that spare part support particularly would be a major headache for the company
in the event of a sale to a European operator; and that building of such a structure
would pose a problem for the company given its relations with the aircraft's
parts suppliers.
TNT is currently experiencing the aircraft in its Perm PS-90 powered version
at first hand through a wet leased aircraft from UK operator AirRep. The latter's
Commercial Director Andy Lewis suggesting that TNT have been impressed with
the aircraft and that the only constraint they had on using further aircraft
was availability. AirRep is currently expecting to take delivery of a second
aircraft in early April 2001 for probable leasing to TNT. Other sources report
that Air Rep have been recently in negotiations with Sirocco to wet lease an
Air Cairo Tu-204-120 for use by TNT in the interim, but have failed to reach
agreement on the lease terms and there appears to be some discussion on the
availability of the aircraft in question. Alayseyev is due to make a presentation
regarding the aircraft to the JAA on the 23rd of November and is optimistically
in the view of some sources, looking for aircraft to be certified by the JAA
within a year, given that the initial review of the aircraft's design and manufacture
is expected to be completed only by the middle of 2001. This still leaves a
number of areas such as documentation, reported to be a problem with the Il-96T
during its FAA certification, to be covered. Alayseyev however, believes that
the documentation produced in English for the aircraft's operation in Egypt
is adequate for certification of the aircraft in Europe and the US.
