VLADIVOSTOK. April 18 (Interfax) - The Russian-Chinese project to design a new airplane for long-haul flights has been developing successfully, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has said.
This project "may give a start to a whole series of airplanes of different classes," Rogozin told reporters in Vladivostok on Friday, following a meeting of the co-chairs of the Russian-Chinese commission in charge of preparing regular meetings of the two countries' prime ministers.
He reiterated that this project is highly important both for Russia's aircraft industry and Russian-Chinese cooperation in aircraft building.
In 2012, the Russian United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) held negotiations with China's aircraft producer Comac as part of a feasibility study for a joint project to develop a new wide-body passenger airplane.
Russia and China were supposed to have drawn up a design for the new plane by the end of 2013.
Rogozin said in October 2013 that the relevance of the new airplane was "absolutely obvious" both to Russia and China.
However, handling the production of a large number of such airplanes on its own would be "too costly" for Russia, he said.