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Further Reading

Beriev Be-200

Beriev, a long-established designer, has catered almost exclusively for military seaplanes and amphibians since its establishment in 1930 - the Be-32 is the first exception. However, the fall off in military budgets caused it to scale down its long-range naval patrol A-40 Albatross by a third and create the Be-200, a 64-passenger, twin-jet amphibian which is also offered as a fire fighter, air sea rescue or cargo aircraft. Financial problems delayed the first flight. Beriev see a market for remote coastal services and expect ,up to 500' to be sold, approximately two hundred of which should be domestic sales. Some interest is already evident from Western countries which need fire fighting and coastal patrol aircraft.

The work on the Be-200 was launched in the 1980s when TANTK began plans to develop an amphibian aircraft for the national economy. This new plane was to be based on the A-40 Albatross military amphibian, a unique aircraft which was never brought into series production for lack of funds. Since 1990 OKB im. G.M.Berieva developed works on the civil themes. The first project in this direction became multipurpose amphibian aircraft B-200, created on the basis of the technical solutions, realized with the development of the military amphibian A-40 Albatros. In the 1990s, when political and economic reforms began in the country, the IAPO management was faced with the problem of how to maintain their highly-skilled personnel who developed state-of-the-art aircraft. Following an aircraft design competition, IAPO awarded a tender for a developmental project of the Beriev Experimental Design Bureau to develop a new and unique amphibian airplane, the Be-200, which would have no analogs in the world.

For the civil machine is practically completely preserved aerodynamic and hydrodynamic layout A-40. At the same time the dimensions of the aircraft were considerably reduced. Specialists at the OKB conducted analysis of the tasks which can be solved by contemporary seaplanes both in Russia and abroad, showed that a similar amphibian should be made in the class of takeoff masses from 35 to 40 tons, i.e., it is twice easier than Albatros.

From the very beginning as one of the basic versions of the use of an amphibian was examined fire-prevention. B-200, the capable of assuming onboard to 12 cubic meters of water and 1,2 cubic meters of chemicals, can with one servicing with fuel drop to the center of fire from 150 to 260 t of liquid at removal to 600 km from the base (it is assumed that near the place of fire is a river or lake, machines suitable for the splashdown).

Variants were also developed for rescue and sanitary modification B-200[ChS] for the ministry for extraordinary situations, which transports up to 50 rescuers, 60 suffered on the folding seats or 30 victims on the stretchers, the passenger modification B-210 (to 72 passengers), business (to 12-18 people), cargo (on 6 t of load), cargo-passenger (to 19 passengers and 4 t of load) and patrol the versions of the amphibians, that have flying range from 900 to 4600 km.

Production of the B-200 was to be accomplished by Irkutsk APO. Irkutsk initially completed building test batch of three machines, one of which underwent static tests at Taganrog. The solemn rolling of the first flying model of amphibian of assembly shop [IAPO] consisted on September 11, 1996. On September 24, 1998, at 4:50 p.m., the Be-200 took off on its maiden flight which lasted 27 minutes. The second flying copy was assembled in the version B-200[ChS].

IRKUT Corporation has started delivery of Be-200ChS aircraft to the Russian Ministry of Disaster Relief, which in 2001 signed a contract to take delivery of seven aircraft of that type. The first serial aircraft was supplied to the Ministry of Disaster Relief in June 2003. According to the schedule, the second Be-200ChS entered service in the end of 2003 and the total order was fulfilled by the end of 2005. In 2005, Irkut continued to supply Russia's Ministry of Emergency Relief with Beriev Be-200 searchand- rescue amphibians. These aircraft also were expected to be sold to China and certain European countries.

In 2005 the Russian government approved the Strategy for the aviation industry development for the period up to 2015. The Strategy envisages a revitalization of innovative activities in the aviation industry. It was decided that, within the frame of the Strategy, resources would be concentrated on specific projects, such as the project for the unique, unparalleled abroad niche aircraft Be-200. "Promotion of these aircraft on the world aviation market will allow, already in the years to come, not only to gain export profits but also to demonstrate serious presence of Russia on the work aviation markets," claims Valeriy Voskoboynikov, the deputy director of the military-industrial complex Department.

The marketing investigations made it possible to determine the needs for the B-200 on the internal and World Market. Only for the deliveries for the export it can be required not less than 350 machines of such type. The potential markets for sale b -200 are considered the countries of southeastern Asia, Mediterranean, South and North America, including Canada. Besides, in a frame of the state visit of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to Malaysia early August 2003 IRKUT Corporation signed an agreement with DRB-Hicom Defense Technologies (Malaysia) to market Be-200 in the South-East Asia.

Engineering development of Be-200 version powered with BR715 engines manufactured by Rolls-Royce is completed. Co-operation agreement between EADS, Rolls-Royce and IRKUT on aircraft certification in accordance with JAR and FAR regulations was signed in the end of 2003. This agreement implies co-operation on Be-200 entering the Western market as well as product support using the existing EADS maintenance network.