Aviacor (Samara International Aviation Corporation)
Pskovskaya street, 32 443052 Samara, Russia Tel:(8462) 29-42-78 Fax: (8462) 27-04-77
Samara-based AVIACOR is one of largest aircraft manufacturers in Russia. The Corporation has a 65-year record of experience in aircraft production. Series production of the aircraft -- now designated as TU-95 -- started in January 1956 at Plant Nr. 18 in Kuibyshev, while production tests were still underway. The TU-95 was produced by Samara Aviation Production Union (APO), while the first aircraft were assembled at Taganrog machinery plant. According to Russian sources, TU-142 series production took place at the plant Nr. 18 in Kuibyshev and from the mid-1970s at Plant Nr. 86 in Taganrog. Western sources report that the production line at Taganrog reopened in 1983 to build the Bear-F and Bear-H.
In 1996, Samara regional administration granted Aviacor its guarantees for Rbs300bn for converting its production lines for new aircraft types. In the late 1990s, Aviacor suffered from a shortage of orders for the 164-seater Tu-154M airliner currently in production. As a result, the work-force was cut from 24,000 to 10,000. The cuts were supplemented by restructuring of the enterprise, and now the enterprise is the most financially stable aircraft manufacturer in Russia.
AVIACOR offers medium-range passenger airplanes Tu-154 and Tu-154-100. At present, the TU-154M aircraft is the factory's main product, with about 1,000 units produced, representing 60 percent of the air passenger transportation market of the Confederation of Independent States (CIS). Aviacor produces the Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft (most common aircraft of the Soviet era) and new Tu-154-100. In 1994-95 Aviacor sold about 20 aircraft and only 2 in 1996-97. As of 1997 approximately 20 aircraft remained on the assembly lines in various degrees of completion.
In 1996, Aviacor signed an agreement with ANTK Antonov for production of An-140 (approximate cost $6.5 million) which is supposed to gradually substitute the outdated An-24, -26, -30, -32 and Yak-40. The An-140 is the only relatively large airplane whose development began after the USSR collapsed.
The larger four-engine An-70 was created under a contract from the Defence Ministry of the Soviet Union as a replacement for the Antonov An-12. Both the Russian and Ukrainian Air Forces are in the need of replacing several hundred aging An-12 and An-26 transports. Should the An-70 be put into production, Russian enterprises would produce 80% of necessary parts for the airframe and 63% those for the powerplant. Aviacor of Samara would handle final assembly. AVIANT of Kiev (the Ukraine) would produce airframe parts, TAPO of Tashkent (Uzbekistan) would manufacture wing sections, "ZMKB Progress" of Zaporozhie (the Ukraine) and UMPO of Ufa (Russia) would provide engines.
In 1996 Honeywell and stock company AVIACOR, a leading Russian producer of commercial aircraft, announced that they have signed a Strategic Alliance Agreement for the purpose of using Honeywell avionics on AVIACOR-produced aircraft. The agreement was signed at the Asian Aerospace '96 Air Show and Exhibition. In addtion, Honeywell is working with Aviacor in building the Tu-334 (100-seater prototype and the main Russian competitor of Ukrainian An-70) and has submitted a request in for financing with ExImBank. Honeywell will also support the program of upgrading avionics on a large fleet of Aviacor-produced older generation aircraft.
AVIACOR also provided tooling to Boeing. Negotiations were in progress to produce B-737 and B-757 for Boeing,, but these talks led nowhere.
AVIACOR-SERVICE, a daughter company of AVIACOR with a network of regional technical centers, agencies in customer airlines, has been created specially for current maintenance and repair of airplanes produced by AVIACOR.
The Samara regional court ruled the plant to be insolvent on September 16, 1994. Its outstanding debt to creditors is worth more than 200 billion rubles most of which are owed to commercial banks. The court of arbitration suspended all bankruptcy proceedings and appointed external management. The council of creditors appointed Lev Khasis, manager of the Samara subsidiary of AvtoVazbank, to the post of acting manager. In April 1996, the Samara regional arbitration court stopped proceedings on Aviacor's insolvency. The company ended 1997 with a "break-even" balance which is a positive sign.
The Siberian Aluminum Financial-Industrial group bought a controlling stake in Aviacor in 1998. Twelve out of 17 seats in the Aviacor's board of directors went to SibAl on June 23, 2000. The board of directors also comprises representatives of AvtoVazbank, the Perspektiva-Plus Investment Company, the Class scientific-technological center and Aviacor. Aviacor's largest sister enterprise is Aviacor-Aviation Plant. Other sister companies include Aviacor-mebel, Mikron, Aviakor-servis, Aviacor-remont. Aircraft accounted for only a half of all orders that were placed with Aviacor in 2000.
It enters into the holding “Russian Machines”, which unites the machine-building active memberships of group “Basic Element”.
