ULYANOVSK, Volga Region, August 24 (AVN) - The AN-124 Ruslan plane upgraded to the AN-124-100VS level was demonstrated to specialists and mass media at the base of the Aviastar aircraft production enterprise here on Friday, Anatoly Karpov, president of the Air Launch aerospace corporation, said.
The plane's new variant will be used as aircraft carrier in the Air Launch space purpose aviation and missile system which is currently in works, Karpov told the Military News Agency.
The Air Launch system is designed to put satellites weighing up to 3.5t in low, medium and high elliptical orbits with declinations ranging from zero to 115 degrees.
According to specialists, the cost of modernisation is some USD13m. The works on the second plane will be completed this year. Two more planes are to be made in the future. The total sum required for the programme implementation makes USD120m to 130m.