MOSCOW. April 10 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Air Force will hold a competition among projects of a medium transport plane, Air Force Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Mikhailov told reporters on Thursday.
"The competition will involve TU-330 and IL-214 planes," Mikhailov said. It will be announced in a few days.
Asked by Interfax-Military News Agency about the fate of the Russian-Ukrainian AN-70 plane, Mikhailov said it can be put on tests only after all exposed shortcomings are fixed.
"Further tests of the AN-70 are possible only after the removal of all drawbacks," the commander-in-chief said.
"The plane's mass production cannot be started, because it has not passed many cycles of tests," he noted.
"Flight security is the most important thing for me," Mikhailov stressed.
According to him, Ukrainian specialists are of the same opinion. The joint position of Russian and Ukrainian experts is written into the act of February 25, 2003.
The AN-70 has lost its prospects during the development, in particular, it has entered the class of heavy planes, where it is competing with the IL-76MF, and the latter "surpasses the AN-70 in many aspects," the Russian official said.
The program for the AN-70 STOL military cargo aircraft has been implemented together by Russia and Ukraine on the basis of two intergovernmental agreements of June 24, 1993, and May 19, 1999. The state customers of the aircraft are Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries, and the head contractor is Antonov ANTK, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Under intergovernmental agreements, Russia and Ukraine are financing R&D related to the AN-70 in proportion to the number of planes they are planning to procure. Russia is planning to buy 164 planes and Ukraine 65 planes, which corresponds to 72 and 28 percent of the R&D value.
The AN-70 is powered by four D-27 engines developing 14,000hp each. The aircraft with a take-off weight of 130t is capable of airlifting up to 47t of cargo. Its maximum cruising speed is 750-800kmph. The plane's service life is 20,000 flights or 45,000 flight hours or 25 years in operation.
The AN-70 is to be serial-produced at the Kyiv (Ukraine) and Omsk (Russia) aviation plants. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry signed the first contract for the procurement of five AN-70s for the Air Force in April 2001. The first serial Ukrainian aircraft is to be made in 2003.
The basic AN-70 took to the air in the early 1997, and the state program of trials began in the same year. The full program completion is scheduled for 2003. The remaining tests are for icing, high-, and low-temperature environments.
It will estimatedly cost USD86m to complete the R&D on the aircraft.
Speaking about the competition among light transport planes, the Air Force has recently named the IL-112 the winner.
"After the results of the competition are approved, we will search for the plant to master production of the IL-112," Mikhailov said.