Russian Civil Aviation: News #5

They are probably talking about this.
https://www.uecrus.com/press/odk-rasshiryaet-proizvodstvennye-i-ispytatelnye-moshchnosti-dlya-vypuska-aviadvigateley/

UEC-STAR in Perm is building new facilities. To expand production for PD-8, PD-14, and PS-90 engines. UEC-STAR produces engine control units. They make both analog and digital ones. i.e. the FADEC units for the engine.

Indeed, the funding is there and the infrastructure to make and support these engines is being built too.... this is all positive news moving forward.

If Russia is going to market internationally, I don't think "Yak" is the best name.
Look at the Western planes - "Megatop", "Superjumbo", "Dreamliner" etc
The West even gave Soviet planes some good names eg Antonov 124 was called the "Condor" in NATO reporting.

Yaks are associated with dirty animals in the mountains in S America, that spit at people, and carry pan pipe playing coca leaf carrying midgets about.

Firebird wrote:If Russia is going to market internationally, I don't think "Yak" is the best name.
Look at the Western planes - "Megatop", "Superjumbo", "Dreamliner" etc
The West even gave Soviet planes some good names eg Antonov 124 was called the "Condor" in NATO reporting.

Yaks are associated with dirty animals in the mountains in S America, that spit at people, and carry pan pipe playing coca leaf carrying midgets about.

Every language has something that sound silly in another language.

And now for Russia is important to use names in Russian.

They can still have a nickname:

The An-124 nickname Is Ruslan (a legendary Russian Hero from the 11th century who was also the protagonist of a Poem from Pushkin)

The An-22 nickname is Anteus (a giant and hero from Greek mythology).

And American planes have also a "number".
The dreamliner is the Boeing 787 (or B787), the "dreamlifter" is a boeing 747.

I would like the MC-21 to be commercialised as Yak-242

(And ideally also to assign a Yak number to the russified SJ-100).

It could also have a Russian cool nickname and if airlines in South America want to buy it, it can get also a Spanish nickname like "el superavion".

For sure not something English sounding like superjet

Firebird wrote:If Russia is going to market internationally, I don't think "Yak" is the best name.
Look at the Western planes - "Megatop", "Superjumbo", "Dreamliner" etc
The West even gave Soviet planes some good names eg Antonov 124 was called the "Condor" in NATO reporting.

Yaks are associated with dirty animals in the mountains in S America, that spit at people, and carry pan pipe playing coca leaf carrying midgets about.

The South American spitting animal is the 'guanaco', a close to llama camelid. Not the Asian Yak

Airbus does not use silly merkan monikers to name aircraft and they manage to outsell Boeing just fine.

A BS article from a German aviation website.

The main point is that the leasing companies, because of the sanctions against Russia made themself unreliable and they violated the previous contracts.

Noone would lease airplanes if they could be blocked so easily just because your country needs to solve military the problem caused by US and EU meddling in foreign countries.

Anyway it is not a big issue for Russia. At worse it will prevent Russia to be able to lease western aircrafts after they remove the anti Russian sanction.

Much better so, since at that point Russia will have serial production of the aircraft it needs.


https://www.aerotelegraph.com/ausslandschulden-koennten-russischen-airlines-ihre-zulassung-kosten

Accrued leasing costs
Foreign debt could cost Russian airlines their license
Russia has confiscated around 400 aircraft owned by foreigners. The airlines are no longer paying leasing rates. This could cost them their operating licenses.

14.11.24 - 10:07 | Benjamin Recklies

The problems facing Russian aviation are not getting any smaller, even more than two and a half years after the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine. Western sanctions are making access to spare parts more difficult and prohibiting the import of Western aircraft. The airlines' latest fear is that they could lose their air operator certificates (AOC).

At the beginning of the war, Russia confiscated and re-registered around 400 aircraft belonging to Western leasing companies . President Vladimir Putin decreed that the leasing payments for these aircraft must be made in rubles. Special accounts were set up in Russian banks to which the payments were to be transferred. The problem: Western companies did not accept the procedure.

Russian airlines do not pay
Russian airlines, for their part, stopped making payments. On the grounds that the payments would not lead to an actual repayment of the debt. The difficulty with all this is that the leasing contracts are still valid. But the airlines prefer to use the financial resources to maintain flight operations. Or to buy the aircraft, which only a few players, such as Ural Airlines and S7 Airlines, have managed to do so far.

Leonid Mokhov, head of Nordstar Airlines, warns in a letter to the Russian Air Transport Operators Association that the airlines' high foreign debt is putting them at risk due to non-payment of lease payments, reports the Aviatorshina channel . According to Russian regulations, non-payment and financial instability, measured by indicators such as debt repayment and lease obligations, could lead to the withdrawal of the operator's license.

Ministries should change rules
Mokhov is calling on the association of air transport operators to use its influence with the ministries of finance and transport to change the current regulations. The Nordstar boss is calling for leasing liabilities to simply be removed from the financial assessment of airlines in order to continue to meet the legal requirements for an operator certificate.

At the same time, airlines are to be exempt from profit tax when it comes to written-off leasing liabilities from contracts before 2022. In fact, a law will come into force on January 1st that requires airlines to tax their non-operating income generated by written-off debts with a profit tax of 25 percent.

They should continue paying their leases to the Russian ruble bank accounts like the government requested. And these funds should be able to be used to keep the airplanes operational, i.e. maintenance, or buy aircraft from the lessors outright.

As for Western "operating licenses" those do not matter one iota inside Russia. And it is not like these Russian airline companies can fly into the West in the first place thanks to their sanctions.

More Western kabuki theater similar to stopping insuring Russian ships.

Cool names don't help if the product is rubbish and a bad name does not hurt if the product is basically good.

Marketing is a waste of energy most of the time... customers who object to a name that sounds too Russian are not likely to be customers anyway... or at least not good customers.

They should continue paying their leases to the Russian ruble bank accounts like the government requested. And these funds should be able to be used to keep the airplanes operational, i.e. maintenance, or buy aircraft from the lessors outright.

They shouldn't pay the leasing companies because the leasing companies have stopped supporting the aircraft they leased... which is a fairly important part of any lease... being able to safely continue to use the leased vehicle.

Let the loss be the cost of western sanctions on Russia... who cares about the leasing companies.... the leasing companies didn't consider the situations of the Russian airlines or the Russian customers, why should Russia care about these companies... they can ask the US government for compensation from the 300 billion in seized Russian assets/funds.

And of course Russia can seize 300 billion in foreign assets to cover those losses too.... everyone wins.

Import-Substituting Tu-214 Takes Flight for the First Time, 11.20.2024.

Import-substituting Tu-214 aircraft takes to the air for the first time.

MOSCOW, November 20 - RIA Novosti. The import-substituting Tu-214 aircraft took to the air for the first time as part of a flight test programme, according to a statement from the United Aircraft Corporation ( UAC ).

"The Tu-214 aircraft, which is used as a flying laboratory, has begun a flight test programme with new Russian components.

Today, the aircraft took to the air for the first time after import substitution," the company noted.

The flight took place at the airfield of the Kazan Aviation Plant (KAZ) named after S.P. Gorbunov and lasted 1 hour and 10 minutes. The aircraft was piloted by the crew of JSC Tupolev, according to them, the flight task was completed in full.

The Tu-214 aircraft with tail number 64509 was operated by Transaero Airlines since 2007. In 2015, the aircraft ceased flying and was stored. In June 2024, after restoring its airworthiness, the aircraft took to the air again. In July, the flying laboratory was sent to Minsk Civil Aviation Plant No. 407 for painting in a new livery in accordance with the UAC corporate style. After painting, the aircraft returned to KAZ for further additional equipment.

https://ria.ru/20241120/tu-214-1984907148.html

Since this is an old plane, will it be used to test new avionics in order to make Russified version Tu-204 with two member cockpit, like Aeroflot asked or for some other purpose? It was mentioned in the past that MoD might buy few dozen pieces, but for that purpose, old version with 3 crew members will be good enough.
Peculiar and redundant project that keep surviving, imo, only buy political weight of regional Tatar government who kept it alive during the 90's as well, by financing development and production.

Further details:

Testing of Russian systems and equipment has begun on the Tu-214 flying laboratory, 11.20.2024.



The Tu-214LL aircraft, after work on replacing imported components with Russian analogues, made its first flight at the airfield of the Kazan Aviation Plant named after S.P. Gorbunov. This was reported on my TG channel reported the Managing Director of JSC Tupolev Konstantin Timofeev.

The flight was performed with the landing gear retracted, its duration was 1 hour 10 minutes. The flight task included the necessary checks of domestic systems and equipment. After landing, the Tupolev crew reported that the flight task had been successfully completed in full.

The replacement of imported components affected 15 primary and about 30 secondary systems of the aircraft. The replaced components included computing devices, ground proximity and air collision warning systems, and onboard radar systems. The modernization also included improvements to the lighting systems and electrical equipment, hydraulic system, and integrated control system.

According to the managing director of Tupolev, further tests on the Tu-214 flying laboratory will include checking the interaction of the new Russian systems with each other, as well as with the rest of the aircraft's equipment. "Based on this machine, we will continue flight tests, further modernization and development of the Tu-214 platform, including the creation of a two-member cockpit," Konstantin Timofeev said in a statement on the TG channel.

UAC plans to organize the flow production of Tu-214 aircraft. "A conveyor line is planned, it has been contracted. The task is to reach the production of 20 aircraft per year. More is not needed, we'll see later, anything is possible," he told. He was giving a lecture to students of the Kazan National Research Technical University – KAI in the summer of 2024.

https://aviation21.ru/na-letayushhej-laboratorii-tu-214-nachalis-ispytaniya-rossijskix-sistem-i-oborudovaniya/

Kiko wrote:The replacement of imported components affected 15 primary and about 30 secondary systems of the aircraft. The replaced components included computing devices, ground proximity and air collision warning systems, and onboard radar systems. The modernization also included improvements to the lighting systems and electrical equipment, hydraulic system, and integrated control system.

These are all things which are part of modern aviation requirements. Safety systems to reduce the possibility of accident. Which were not part of the original Soviet design and were added later using with Western components to meet ICAO standards.

The way this is being done is by replacing Western components with ones which were originally designed for the MC-21 modified to be used in this aircraft. Which is one reason why I think this project is a bad idea. It is consuming scarce resources which would be better put to use to finish the more modern MC-21.

It is not a bad idea and it is needed for the military anyway. So import substitution of those components had to be done.
As far as the political will of the tatar local government that financed it. Good, otherwise it would have been possible that Kazan aviation factory would have been closed completely, including the part which made strategic bombers.

Let them finish it, and after it is in production russian airline can decide if they want them or if they will be mostly used for special purposes.

Rodion_Romanovic wrote:It is not a bad idea and it is needed for the military anyway. So import substitution of those components had to be done.
As far as the political will of the tatar local government that financed it. Good, otherwise it would have been possible that Kazan aviation factory would have been closed completely, including the part which made strategic bombers.

Let them finish it, and after it is in production russian airline can decide if they want them or if they will be mostly used for special purposes.

The military needs an aircraft sure. But it does not need to be the Tu-214. The MC-21 could be used for that as well. At one point the main benefit of the Tu-214 was greater native content for the military versus more imported components on the MC-21. But the MC-21 won't be using imported components anymore.

Like I said before, if Kazan wanted to manufacture civilian aircraft they could have made a small regional jet transport aircraft. There used to be a Tupolev project for one. And there is no such aircraft right now. Instead money is spent on duplicate projects.

Another alternative would be making military transports.

Peculiar and redundant project that keep surviving, imo, only buy political weight of regional Tatar government who kept it alive during the 90's as well, by financing development and production.

Not redundant at all.

If you cancel the project, which already has aircraft in service you already have to spend money replacing the foreign components in the operational aircraft, so you are going to Russianise the existing aircraft anyway.

Cancelling the project means you then need to spend money to convert all the factories and producers to change to produce aircraft you will be making, which will take time and wont be free and will be added to the costs of stopping production of the Tupolevs and converting them to Yaks or Sukhois.

In other words there will be a long period where they wont be doing anything at all while getting ready to make different types while costing money.

Continuing to make Tupolevs means the existing fleet can get Russian parts and upgrades to improve their performance, and testing and work can be done that does not effect the work on the MS-21 or Superjet, so all three can run in parallel getting planes that Russian or Russian friendly airlines can use instead of foreign types from companies that hate Russia.

The Russian military does not need super advanced composite airliners with the super low cost flights, the Tu-204/214 is just fine as it is and will be even better with all Russian components and systems. There are plenty of Russian military types that need replacing including the Il-20 and Il-22 in elint roles, as well as Tu-154M and Il-38.

They could also develop the Tu-330 transport plane that is largely based on the Tu-204 and is a 35 ton payload transport plane.

A light AWACS and inflight refuelling model would be useful too.

The way this is being done is by replacing Western components with ones which were originally designed for the MC-21 modified to be used in this aircraft. Which is one reason why I think this project is a bad idea. It is consuming scarce resources which would be better put to use to finish the more modern MC-21.

Standardisation is a good thing. Production capacity of the parts used in both or all three aircraft should be funded accordingly and capacity for production increased.

Having said that, after claiming they needed just over 1,000 new aircraft by 2030 they have since revised the number down to just over 800 aircraft, so the requirements will be changing over time anyway, so planning and development need to be flexible as well.

Worst case scenario 20 aircraft a year they could produce them only for the Russian military and that would allow them to upgrade their MPA fleet of aircraft and Intel aircraft and VIP aircraft over the next five to ten years and not one airliner need be made.

If you cancel it, then when the Russian military starts placing orders that is going to be even more pressure on MS-21 and Superjet production.

Import substitution means Russian computers and cabling and equipment manufacturers getting orders and producing stuff... which is the only way for them to grow and develop their businesses.

There will also be aviation systems like weather and other systems based at airports as well as command and control systems for air traffic.

The fact that they have three aircraft is a good thing, while extensions and reductions in aircraft lengths will allow other niches to be filled relatively quickly and efficiently... and with Russian types too.

Like I said before, if Kazan wanted to manufacture civilian aircraft they could have made a small regional jet transport aircraft. There used to be a Tupolev project for one. And there is no such aircraft right now. Instead money is spent on duplicate projects.

Another alternative would be making military transports.

The Tu-330 has 70% commonality with the Tu-204... and is probably more urgently needed than most other types as a 35 ton payload transport between the Il-276 and Il-476.

GarryB wrote:Not redundant at all.

If you cancel the project, which already has aircraft in service you already have to spend money replacing the foreign components in the operational aircraft, so you are going to Russianise the existing aircraft anyway.

Except that there aren't that many Tu-214/204 in service to begin with. Probably like a dozen or two.

GarryB wrote:Cancelling the project means you then need to spend money to convert all the factories and producers to change to produce aircraft you will be making, which will take time and wont be free and will be added to the costs of stopping production of the Tupolevs and converting them to Yaks or Sukhois.

They are building a new factory and a new workshop to make the parts for the Tupolevs. My suspicion is they were building the Tu-214 from old part stocks. And that is why production stopped. I wouldn't be surprised if the Tu-214 started being produced again after the MC-21.

GarryB wrote:In other words there will be a long period where they wont be doing anything at all while getting ready to make different types while costing money.

No. They could be building the PAK DA. At least the engineers would. If there were mechanics left they could be refurbishing bombers. Which are necessary right now.

GarryB wrote:Continuing to make Tupolevs means the existing fleet can get Russian parts and upgrades to improve their performance, and testing and work can be done that does not effect the work on the MS-21 or Superjet, so all three can run in parallel getting planes that Russian or Russian friendly airlines can use instead of foreign types from companies that hate Russia.

Except it does impact the work on the MS-21 because those aircraft use the same suppliers. The engine supplier, like I said before, is one example. Both the PS-90 and PD-14 are made in the same factory under the same roof. Except the PS-90 used in the Tu-214 takes more man hours to build and consumes more fuel. It is just dumb to continue building the old aircraft. Period.
Just remember that modern engines use electronics for fuel control, and the older engines use analog computers. You have a gazillion mechanical parts to hand assemble, a goddamned mechanical clock, instead of a single computer chip.

Having different aircraft with different components from the same suppliers will mess up mass production and increase the unit cost of both aircraft. But then again this is what happens when you get people who don't understand engineering dictating industrial policy in modern Russia.

GarryB wrote:The Russian military does not need super advanced composite airliners with the super low cost flights, the Tu-204/214 is just fine as it is and will be even better with all Russian components and systems. There are plenty of Russian military types that need replacing including the Il-20 and Il-22 in elint roles, as well as Tu-154M and Il-38.

Those "super low cost flights" are due to the aircraft using less fuel. You are telling me the military isn't interested in that?

As for the other aircraft you mentioned, I think they could be replaced with the Superjet once that is in production.

GarryB wrote:They could also develop the Tu-330 transport plane that is largely based on the Tu-204 and is a 35 ton payload transport plane.

I have looked at the aircraft and it doesn't look that common to me. Maybe it used the same engines and the same cockpit and avionics but that is about it. The airframe looks totally different.
It is also an obsolete design at this point. They should just have built the Il-276 regardless of the Indians wanting it or not. Instead they wasted money on the Il-112 when they didn't even have a working engine to power it initially. They scaled down the Il-276 design to make the Il-112 and then it the design was just too heavy. Back then the PD-14 was still not available but they had the PS-90. The initial design of the Il-276 was supposed to use the PS-90.

GarryB wrote:A light AWACS and inflight refuelling model would be useful too.

Russia seldom does expeditionary warfare. I think the Il-76 tanker is good enough for now.

GarryB wrote:Standardisation is a good thing. Production capacity of the parts used in both or all three aircraft should be funded accordingly and capacity for production increased.

You can bet those parts will have to be modified. For one the electronics standards used in modern aircraft are totally different so the hardware interfaces won't be the same. They might start from the MC-21 designed components but then they will have to make it interface with the older Tu-214 aircraft. And test and certify everything all over again.