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Aviation History
1999
1999 - 2502.PDF
Freighter funding due soon THE US EXIM bank is ex pected to release by the end of the year long-awaited funding for an initial batch of three Uyushin II- 96T widebody freighters being acquired by Aeroflot. The Pratt & Whitney PW2 000- powered aircraft received US Federal Aviation Administration certification in June, but the air craft have not been delivered as final details of the financing condi tions are still being thrashed out. The Exim bank recently wrote to the Russian Government outlining its remaining concerns, say officials close to the project. The Russian flag carrier is due to receive an additional 17 I1-96M passenger aircraft in batches once the funding package has been agreed. The aircraft will probably be registered in Bermuda, alongside 10 Boeing 737-400s also being acquired by Aeroflot and financed by the Exim bank, according to Ilyushin head of foreign economic relations Valery Smirnov. The Exim bank is financing the US content of the I1-96M/T, which includes Rockwell Collins avionics in addition to the P&W engines. Smirnov claims that Ilyushin also has a "valid preliminary con tract" with cargo carrier Volga- Dnepr, which is interested in ordering four Il-96Ts, to operate alongside its Antonov An-124s. Meanwhile, flight testing of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW12 7- powered 11-114-100 turboprop regional airliner continues, with Russian certification of the aircraft set for September, according to Smimov. Several Russian airlines - including Aeroflot - intend to operate the aircraft, he says, and South East Asian carriers are also being targeted as potential cus tomers. Russian manufacturerTupolev, meanwhile, continues to attempt to find takers for die Tu-204 nar- rowbody twinjet among the cash- strapped airlines of Russia and die CIS. Moscow-based TransEuro- pean is operating two Perm PS-90- powered Tu-204-100s, while Vnukovo Airlines is taking five. Transaero has expressed interest in acquiring 10 aircraft, but has yet to make a firm commitment, accord ing to Tupolev chief designer Yury Vorobjev. Three Rolls-Royce RB211- 535-powered Tu-204-120s, mar keted by Sirocco Aerospace, have been delivered to Air Cairo in Egypt, but no additional customers have been signed. • MiG 1.44 now scheduled to fly in September UNLIKE ITS Sukhoi for ward-swept wing counterpart the S-37 Berkut, the MAPO MiG 1.44 advanced fighter prototype failed to appear at the Moscow air show. After its first public appear ance in January, the 1.44 remains in MAPO's hangar at die edge of die Zhukovsky airfield where it has been stored for four years, and shown only to occasional VIPs. MAPO chief executive Nickolay Nikitin says: "Everybody under stands that it [the 1.44] will never enter series production. We see it as an experimental aircraft to research some of the fifth-genera tion fighter technologies." Nikitin says that the aircraft, conceived in 1983, cannot become a basis for a next generation Russian air force fighter to rival the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor. The Russian equivalent to the F-2 2 may appear "somewhere around 2015", according to Nikitin. The 1.44 technology demon strator is scheduled to begin its experimental flight test pro gramme of 27 or 28 flights in September. The results of the test pro gramme will determine whether the development of this particular prototype will continue, according to Nikitin. • S-37 was on show in Moscow Cessna and Dassault expect slow CIS sales BUSINESS jet manufacturers Cessna Aircraft and Dassault Aviation expect die current trickle of sales to customers in Russia and the CIS to continue, but rule out any significant pick-up until the region's economies improve. The two were die only Western firms to exhibit aircraft at MAKS '99. Cessna says it has sold six aircraft to "Russian interests" during the past sixyears, five of diem Citation business jets, and predicts sales to continue at die rate of "one or two a year over die next couple of years". The Wichita, Kansas-based company predicts, however, that the market's long-term potential is "huge", particularly for its Caravan single-turboprop utility aircraft. Dassault says that Russian and CIS customers have purchased around 15 pre-owned examples of its business jets, and that it has delivered four new Falcon 900Bs and one Falcon 50, as well as one Falcon 2000. • il, Kazan and Eurocopter sign Mi-38 deal THE MVZ MIL design bureau, Kazan Helicopter Plant, Eurocopter and Euromil (a joint venture between Mil and Eurocopter) have signed two memoranda covering the develop ment and production of the Mil Mi-38 multipurpose helicopter. Eurocopter will act as avionics integrator. Kazan general manager Alexander Lavrentyev says die first Mi-3 8 fuselage has been shipped to Mil for structural load testing. The second fuselage will be tested in Kazan, and the third will become the first flying prototype. Lavrentyev says Kazan, one of the most successful Russian aircraft industry enterprises, has invested about $100 million of its own money in Mi-38 prototype devel opment and parts manufacturing. The Mi-38's first flight is sched uled for late 2000. The Mi-38 makes use of tech nology tested on the Mil Mi-28 attack helicopter, inheriting the latter's main rotor and transmis sion. The first composite main rotor blade produced by die Kazan plant using production manufac turing processes is being tested at Mil, and "the first results are suc cessful", says Mil. By the end of this year, a flying testbed to evaluate the Mi-3 8's rotor system will be flown. The Ml Mi-38 is intended to replace the large in-service fleet of Mi-8/Mi-17 medium helicopters, and to take over some of the tasks which are now carried out by age ing Mil Mi-6s. • NEWS IN BRIEF • MIG-31 UPGRADES MAPO is to develop a proto type of an upgraded MiG-31 interceptor. Nickolay Niki tin, MAPO general director and general designer, says the decision to retrofit the up grades to existing MiG-3 Is will be taken after a review of flight test results. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 25 - 31 August 1999
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