MOSCOW/KYIV. Dec 23 (Interfax-AVN) - Joint tests of the Russian-Ukrainian AN-70 military transport plane will continue after stability of D-27 engine functioning is confirmed, the press service of the Russian Air Force's state flight testing center said on Thursday.
"Tentative plans provide for making three research flights on the AN-70 to make sure that engine performance is stable. If the flights are successful, joint tests of the plane will continue," the press service told Interfax-Military News Agency.
According to it, Russian experts will arrive in Ukraine early next year to conduct the test flights.
The plane's chief designer Vasily Teplov earlier told Interfax-AVN that the D-27 engine meets technical requirements, including those concerning gas-dynamic stability, which allows partners to continue joint tests of the AN-70.
This is confirmed by the act on checking the engine's technical specifications and gas-dynamic stability signed by the Russian Air Force's state flight testing center and its Ukrainian partners, namely the Armed Forces' state aviation research and testing center and the Progress machine-building design bureau, in mid-December, Teplov said.
When planned flights of the AN-70 in Ukraine are over, a comprehensive program of the plane's state tests will continue. Tests will include an airdrop of parachutists, hardware and cargoes in low temperatures, he said.
According to the Ukrainian party, the AN-70 test program is completed by 75-80 percent, and it may be completed in full before the end of 2005, Teplov noted.
The AN-70 STOL plane development program is being implemented by Russia and Ukraine on the basis of intergovernmental agreements dated 1993 and 1999. The two countries' defense ministries are the state customers of the plane.
Division of intellectual property between Russia and Ukraine is among pressing issues pertaining to the project, experts say.