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Further Reading

MC21 / MS21

The MS-21 [Magiztralnyy Samolyet XXI veka - Main Aircraft of the 21st Century] project is part of the Federal Civil Aviation Program Until 2015. The single-aisle MS-21 family of passenger aircraft, due to enter service in 2012, is designed to seat between 130 and 170 passengers and to fly up to 5,000 kilometers (3,125 miles), or 6,350 kilometers (4,000 miles) for the longer-range model. The MS-21 plane is being developed by Russia's major manufacturing companies - Ilyushin, Tupolev and Yakovlev - to replace the aging Tu-154, which currently services some 80% of Russia's passenger and freight traffic and also the Airbus A-320 and Boeing 737 aircraft. The new jet is expected to be 10-15% more efficient than the Boeing and Airbus of its class. However, its target price will be just $35 million, $20 million below that of the similarly-sized Boeing 737-700.

To increase the aircraft competitive ability in its class on domestic and international lines in period up to 2028, a number of advanced approaches were embodied in project as conception. The optimized aircraft arrangement and aerodynamics, new advanced structural materials, FBW control system, integrated avionics, automatic systems monitoring and, as a result, improved operating cost make the aircraft attractive to customer. The aircraft would meet all preservation of the environment requirements as well as ICAO requirements and airworthiness standards.

The project included a family from three versions of MC21 that differ in fuselage length and passenger capacity - initially rated at 132, 156 and 174 seats. The cargo and cargo/passenger version are also provided. The modern passenger saloon and ECS make the aircraft comfortable for aircrew and passengers. The cargo compartments and their equipment can accommodate standard containers and pallets. As customer options the aircraft can be equipped with avionics and engines of western production.

The JSC «Yak» and «Il» long time experience in civil aircraft development as well as participating of industry's institutes in project promised to be very effective. The project was initally supported by the first-rate aviation enterprises - IAPO, AVIASTAR, SMAZ. The crediting from National Reserve Bank and «IL.finance» leasing company helps running the project in time. Subsequently it was determined that Irkut will be solely responsible for the MS-21 breakthrough project, with the Ilyushin aircraft company leaving it. Ilyushin will instead focus on the 11-214 military transport and its Indian version dubbed Multirole Transport Aircraft (MTA).

Work on the MS-21 unites the lead developer - OAO Development office of A. S. Yakovlev and Tupolev (mechanization wing, horizontal plumage), JSC Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (passenger compartment), JSC Taganrog Aviation Scientific-Technical Complex im.G.M.Berieva (vertical empenage). Industrial cooperation will involve JSC "Scientific Production Corporation" Irkut ", OAO" Voronezh joint-stock aircraft company, ZAO Aviastar-Fixed-wing manufacturing and other enterprises, including those not yet members of the OAK. The Beriev aircraft company will work on the MS-21's tail. As before, the Irkutsk aircraft plant is to manufacture aluminium fuselage (most probably, it will be made of weld alloys), Ulyanovsk-based Aviastar will produce wings. Voronezh aircraft plant (VASO) - the fin assembly and Tekhnologiya Research and Production Enterprise - the tail cone and some parts of the wing.

Irkut will take on the MS-21 family with over 150 seats. And Sukhoi, in addition to the first-generation 96-seated Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ-100), will design two second-generation aircraft - the SSJ-110 and SSJ-130 carrying 110 and 130 passengers, respectively. This is in return for Irkut's dropping the 130-seat MS-21-100, raising the capacity of the MS-21-300 medium version up to 180 passengers, and adding the the 210-seat MS-21-400. Sukhoi will provide the MS-21 an all-composite wing basing on its SSJ-110/130 solutions.

It is planned to manufacture Tu-204/214-family aircraft through 2015, when the MS-21 is launched. And it seems that the Il-96 long-range plane will not be replaced even after 2015. While aircraft manufacturers seem to manage to launch production of the Superjet 100 and Tu-334 given the needed funding, the aircraft industry really needs a breakthrough if it wants to create the new-generation MS-21.

The MS-21 is not the only medium-range civilian aircraft to emerge from Russia recently - Sukhoi Civil Aircraft's Russian Superjet-100 (RRJ) shares similar characteristics. But the significance the industry attaches to the MS-21 is evidenced by the host of Russian aviation companies involved in the project. These include such iconic names as the Yakutsk Design Bureau, Sukhoi, the Beriev Taganrog Aviation Scientific Technical Complex, famed for its Be-200 seaplanes - Tupolev and Antonov. Several western corporations are also involved.

To maximize their competitive edge, the designers have consciously avoided the long-haul market. The market for wide-bodied passenger aircraft is dominated by Boeing and Airbus. It would be useless to compete with their latest designs, such as the Boeing-787 Dreamliner or the giant Airbus A-380, which can seat between 500 and 800 passengers.

The niche for narrow-bodied jet liners carrying 150 to 180 travelers is another matter. True, there are rival models here, too: particularly the Boeing-737, the Airbus A-320. But Airbus is set to phase out the A-320 to provide room for new orders. By the time the MS-21 is certified and airborne, A-320s will no longer be produced, leaving a gap in the market that Irkut hopes to exploit. Irkut has actively cultivated the impression of the MS-21 as the heir to the A-320, promising to make it 15% to 20% more efficient than the Airbus plane.

In 2008 the state should allocate 1.6 billion roubles to Irkut for the MS-21 project of a total 3.5 billion to be spent only on the airframe without the powerplant and avionics. Twice as much money is required to finish all the works. And it should be taken from the company's own funds, shareholders or on capital market. The initial stages of the project, covering the basic elements and design ideas for a prototype, have already cost 1.5 billion rubles (over $60 million). In September 2008 a conceptual design was prepared and digitization (preparation of digital drawings) of the plane's components will begin. The aircraft will finally be rolled out for flight testing in 2010.

The problem with the MS-21 is this - its "estimated" introduction/certification date is seen as being "around" the year 2015. By that time most of the aircraft it is designed to "replace" will more than likely have been retired and scrapped. Most of Russia's leading Airlines(Aeroflot and S-7 "Sibir" etc.) will have retired their IL-86 and Tu-154 after 2012. And those Airlines won't wait for the MS-21, they will buy A-320 or B-737.