Plant declines to comment(270 words)

Published: 12/7/2000

The Chairman of the Ulyanovsk regional Duma Sergey Ryabukhin has sent letters to Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, the president's aerospace advisor Yevgeny Shaposhnikov and the General Director of the Sredne Transportny Samolyet (STS), the An-70 consortium, Leonid Terentyev, asking for orders for the aircraft to be placed at Ulyanovsk's Aviastar. According to a report in the local press, Ryabukhin had previously convinced the Russian Air Force to look at the costs of producing the aircraft at Aviastar, on the basis that the costs of producing the An-124 and the An-70 at the same plant would substantially reduce cost and speed the An-70s progress to full production Aviastar are however, reluctant to talk about Ryabukhin's claims. Leaving the suspicion that Ryabukhin's motives may have more to do with the local electorate than actually getting the aircraft produced. At present the aircraft if it is ever to be produced, will be produced at Aviakor. There have been recent reports that the Ukrainians are less than convinced that the aircraft will ever be produced in Russia despite claims by Aviakor of working towards that goal. According to Aviakor's owners Siberian Aluminium (SiBal) they have heard nothing of such a plan, although equally nothing of orders for the aircraft from the Russian Ministry of Defence. At present the only new activity at the plant is orders for the overhaul of two Tu-154 from Samara Airlines worth $2m, to be leased to Atlant-Hungary. There have also been some changes of responsibility at SiBal, with the director responsible for Aviakor taking control of the company's recent acquisition auto producer Gaz, with no replacement announced. The only recent good news on the Russian side of the An-70 project, although slightly desperate, are the reports of the efforts of the Russian Minister of Defence Igor Sergeyev, to get NATO to reverse its descision to go with the A-400M over the An-70X at a recent meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels.

Article ID: 2234