MOSCOW. Aug 8 (Interfax-AVN) - The Antonov aircraft research and technical association has made up to 30 percent of modifications that are to be made to the AN-70 military transport plane after the first stage of joint state tests, Director General of the Medium Transport Plane international consortium Leonid Terentyev said on Thursday.
The first stage of the tests was completed on December 22, 2001, Terentyev told Interfax-Military News Agency. The second stage is now in progress. The deadline for the tests is set at late 2003 and for certification at the first quarter of 2004.
A slight decline in the intensity of the plane's development can be attributed to personnel changes in the Air Force command, Terentyev said.
"After personnel changes in the Air Force command, solution of several problems related to the AN-70 development program slowed down somewhat. However the Russian Air Force has lately scaled up cooperation with developers and producers of the new plane," Terentyev said.
The AN-70 short take-off and landing plane is designed jointly by Russia and Ukraine on the basis of intergovernmental agreements signed in 1993 and 1999. The Russian and Ukrainian Defense Ministries are the state customers, and the Antonov association is the chief developer. Mass production of the plane is to be launched in Kyiv and Russia's Omsk.