Saudis suspend work with An-132
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?shop=dae&modele=release&prod=202159&cat=3
Time hasn’t been kind to the Ukrainian aerospace industry. The An-148 was a flop, and with the Saudis walking away from this then their only potential development left is the An-178 (which is also a joint program with the Saudis). Antonov doesn’t really have any hope for substantial future orders. Their Soviet legacy business plan of producing airframes has been a failure. Their history is largely in highly specialized aircraft which simply does not have much market demand. They might be able to transition to a component level designer&supplier on the global market, but there is a lot of competition there. (And China isn’t there yet but they are coming…the competition is only going to get worse!) Antonov, and the Ukrainian aerospace industry as a whole, would also need investment and new technology to do it. With this program likely gone they are running out of chances for the infusion of either. Thoughts?
By: bandua - 10th May 2019 at 16:41
They will probably have to reshape into something very different than what they used to be. They were already struggling but in the last few years, they just lost their main partner and client. Plus Its new alignment forces them to compete against C17, A400, EMB390, Hercules, c295, while access to other than Russ Antonov’s traditional market can also be affected but new rules. Still, they might find their place in all this mess but they may also not find it or not find it soon enough.
By: XB-70 - 2nd May 2019 at 01:49
[USER=”77174″]panzerfeist1[/USER] – Antonov’s struggles isn’t exactly a new thing. They’ve struggled continually since the end of the USSR. Like all of the ex-Soviet design houses, they were never intended to operate independently. The bureaus drew specialized expertise from the central research agencies in Moscow (TsAGI, CIAM, and VIAM). Once the USSR went kaput, they should have changed their business plan to establish long term relationships for obtaining that expertise. They never did. Now I think it might be too late even if they did try to change their business plan.
By: panzerfeist1 - 30th April 2019 at 16:31
Is this true or just rumors? All of Russia’s best engineers have left Ukraine during the 2014 crisis which is why they are falling behind?
By: paralay - 30th April 2019 at 15:52
Firm “Antonov” not lucky with the country.
By: JSR - 30th April 2019 at 04:37
you can read the whole interview. non scientific bankrupt approach to making planes.
Sign In
April 30, 2019 at 3:26 am