Russian Air Force to Announce Competition for Medium Transport Airplane Project this Year
The Russian air force plans to announce this year a competition of projects for a medium military transport airplane, an informed source in the area of aircraft construction has reported.
As is expected, the OAO Tupolev Tu-330 and AK Il?yushin Il-214 projects will take part in the competition. Up to now, a decision about participation in the competition at the principle level has not been adopted at FGUP Myasishchev Experimental Machine Building Plant with the M-60 themed project – the Myasishchev EhMZ has participated in several competitions and not won one of them, the source specified.
He supposes that the deciding moment in the announcement of the competition?s winner will be the capability of the future developer of the medium transport to invest significantly more than half the funds into the scientific research and experimental design work program.
In the source?s opinion, of all competitors, the Il-214 project has the best chances of victory. OAO AK Il?yushin together with the Indian HAL corporation are creating a joint medium military transport airplane for the multirole transport airplane [MTA] program based on this project.
The division of risks in the MTA program between the Russian and Indian sides, according to preliminary information, is 53:47 with cost of scientific research and experimental research work performed evaluated at 352 million dollars.
As the practice of holding air force competitions has shown, not less than 3 months will be given to the preparation of the materials and documents for the competition, the source noted.
Source: 30.04.04, AviaPort.RU, Correspondent, Dmitriy Kozlov
Hang on- I thought the Tu-330 was competing against the An-70? Wasn’t the An-70 meant to replace the An-12? What’s going to happen to An-70 now?
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May 1, 2004 at 8:42 am