Russia is working on
developing a super-heavy plane to replace the Antonov An-124 cargo aircraft
MOSCOW, July 30.
/TASS/. The work on developing a super-heavy plane to replace the Antonov
An-124 Ruslan cargo aircraft has been included in the state armament program
through 2027, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said on Monday.
"The R&D
work on the plane is in the plans at the end of the state armament
program," Borisov said, replying to the corresponding question.
The An-124 Ruslan is
a Soviet and later a Ukrainian heavy long-range turbojet transport plane with a
maximum lifting capacity of 120 tonnes. It develops a maximum speed of 865 km/h
and has a flight range of 4,800 km at full load. According to open sources, the
Russian Aerospace Force currently operates nine An-124 planes and 10 more
Ruslan aircraft are used in Russia’s Volga-Dnepr airline.
In September 2015,
Ukraine’s Antonov State Company withdrew from the United Aircraft Corporation -
Antonov Russian-Ukrainian joint venture, which created serious difficulties for
the Volga-Dnepr airline with the extension of the cargo plane’s service life
and its maintenance.
As was reported
earlier, the Ulyanovsk-based Aviastar-SP enterprise has launched preliminary
work related to restarting the production of An-124 Ruslan planes in Russia.
Source: ITAR-TASS
30-07-2018
