Rostec State Corp Unveils Future of Civilian Airliners: MC-21 Takes Off for First Time
The second model of the MC-21 airliner took its first flight. Today, the aircraft took off from the airfield of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant. The mass production of the Russian airliner will follow.
Artyom Kol has the details about the flight tests program.
– Ready for take-off.
– Cleared for take-off.
A crucial moment for the test-pilot Vasily Sevastyanov – captain of the new MC-21-300. A short acceleration on the airfield of the Irkut Irkutsk Aviation Plant, liftoff and report to the flight operations officer.
"After the take-off, the aircraft is in order, continue climbing by 1,000 meters".
This is the first flight of the second model of a brand new MC-21-300 plane, created from scratch by the construction offices of the Rostec state corporation.
Denis Manturov, Russian Acting Minister of Trade and Industry: "The flight of the second plane is an important event, which will enable timely flight certification tests. Construction of 3 more trial vehicles is underway at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant. Concurrently with flight and static trials, an active preparation to mass production of the new airliner is ongoing".
The presentation of the new MC-21-300 airliner took place two years ago. The headlines of the newspapers all over the world were grabbed by the question if Russia will return to civil airliners design club. And according to the designers, our country flies into this closed club on a new vehicle through the front door, leaving the competitors far behind.
Yuri Slusar, president of the PJSC "UAC" and PJSC " Korporatsia Irkut": "Brand new solutions for designing and producing structures from polymer composites have been developed. They are one of the main advantages of the plane. The new hi-tech production will ensure the development of the MC-21 program and other promising aviation projects".
The Irkutsk Aviation Plant was fully modernized in order to construct a new plane, a scalable assembly line was introduced, and as soon as all the flight and ground tests are finished, the plant will begin the mass production of the MC-21-300. Moreover, this year, in February, Aeroflot signed a procurement of 50 cutting-edge planes.
The first airliner MC-21-300 is being tested in Gromov Research Institute airfield, Moscow region. And the second aircraft took off today. It differs from the first model: some details were improved, and today the pilots, when conducting a technical test, tested the stability and controllability with different wing configurations, with retracted and lowered landing gear, and also the working capacity of the aircraft avionics at an altitude of 3,000 meters, at a speed of 400 kilometers per hour.
Artyom Kol, Olesya Kireeva, Vesti.