MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax-AVN) - It is next to impossible to keep the Russian aircraft industry working without forming a National Aircraft Building Company (NABC), thinks Yury Lastochkin, Director General of the Rybinsk-based Saturn research and production association.
"A lot has been said about the National Aircraft Building Company, but my opinion is it should be formed soonest and toughly," he said in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda daily, published on Friday.
According to him, there are quite a few remains of the technological Soviet empire in the country which cannot work properly.
"It is true that these have awards, merits and are named in honor of prominent designers and developers, but most unfortunately they cannot make any rivalry in the market today. The sooner the NABC is formed in Russia and the sooner it starts working, the better for the country and the participants in such a merger," he said.
He added that Russia is close to losing the commercial aircraft building branch now, and may lose the military aircraft building industry in some time.
"This is the reason why the NABC shall be formed immediately and harshly without looking at somebody's ambitions, lobbying and so on. We must be sincere with ourselves that this is not going to be an easy process. It will not be possible to make everybody feel good. Someone will feel bad without any doubt. However, there are state interests that should rank first when making decision," he said.
According to him, Saturn will continue the work with the NABC on the fifth-generation fighter, and on the RRJ international project jointly with the Sukhoi Commercial Aircraft Company and French Snecma Moteurs.
Saturn specializes in aircraft engines and gas turbines for use in national economy. The Rybinsk Motors plant merged with the Rybinsk design bureau of engine building in 1997, and later was joined by the Volzhsk machine-building plant in 1999 and the Lyulka design bureau from Moscow in 2001.
The association's main customers are 120 air carriers from Russia and abroad, as well as the Russian Defense Ministry, Emergencies Ministry, Interior Ministry, gas giant Gazprom, and the Unified Energy Systems of Russia. The company employs 18,000 specialists, 2,000 of which work in the Moscow Lyulka scientific center and the Moscow region's Lytkarino machine-building plant. The remaining 16,000 work at the enterprise's manufacturing sites in Rybinsk. The total area of manufacturing facilities of the company is about one million square meters. About 7,000 of its specialists are engaged into research and development.