KYIV. Aug 20 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) and the State Civil Aviation Research Institute (GosNII GA) have confirmed a new assigned service life of 45 years for the heavy transportation aircraft Antonov An-124-100 Ruslan.
The plane's design service life was originally 25 years. In line with the new resolution coordinated between TsAGI and GosNII GA, The Ruslan's assigned service life will now be 50,000 flight hours, or 10,000 flights, or 45 calendar years, the Antonov aircraft corporation told Interfax on Thursday.
These figures exceed the service lives of the U.S.-made C-17 Globemaster III and the modernized C-5M Super Galaxy, which vary from 30,000 to 45,000 flight hours, Antonov said.
"The resolution can serve as an additional reason in favor of resuming the An-124-100's serial production," it said.
The Antonov design bureau also signed technological specifications for developing modernized An-124-100M-150 planes with a payload capacity of 150 tonnes with Russia's United Aircraft Corporation and the Volga-Dnepr group of companies.
The resumption of serial production of a modernized Ruslan in Russian-Ukrainian cooperation is planned for 2012.