PAUL DUFFY / MOSCOW

Rosaviakosmos plans to breathe new life into aerospace by combining five companies

Russia's aerospace agency Rosaviakosmos (RAKA) plans to merge five leading aircraft organisations over the next four years as it seeks to resurrect the country's ailing industry.

Following a plan outlined earlier this year by deputy prime minister Boris Alyoshin, the agency favours establishing a single company, provisionally named United Aircraft Construction (known as OAK in Russia) by 2007. The new company will combine the Ilyushin, RSK MiG, Sukhoi and Tupolev design bureaux with the Irkutsk Aircraft Production Organisation (IAPO) plant. The latter recently took over the Beriev design bureau.

The merger would bring with it the two factories owned by IAPO and the eight others owned or closely tied to the design bureaux:a total of 10 out of the 19 in Russia. OAK will consist of combat aircraft, civil aircraft, military transport aircraft and components divisions.

The five companies will start moves towards the merger next year. Eventually, the state shareholding in OAK will be reduced to 25.5%, with the rest being sold to outside investors, providing working capital for OAK - currently in short supply, although IAPO plans a flotation early next year. While Sukhoi and, to a lesser extent, MiG earn hard currency from military aircraft exports, transport manufacturers lack the balance sheet strength to finance airliner sales in the way that Airbus and Boeing have done.

Several Russian companies are known to be interested in taking a stake in the industry, including Kaskol, now working with Airbus and EADS to manufacture components in Russia.

The plan does not include Russia's aeroengine industry, possibly because its close links with the energy industry (chiefly producing oil and gas pumps for pipelines) give it a better commercial outlook than the rest of the sector. Helicopter design bureaux are also excluded, but this plan could lead to closer co-operation, or even a merger, between Kamov and Mil.

The Tashkent Aircraft Production Organisation in Uzbekistan, which builds the Ilyushin Il-76 transport and Il-114 turboprop, will also be excluded from the merger.

Source: Flight International