MC21 / MS21 - Program
The much-anticipated MC-21 aircraft, touted to become a direct rival of the Boeing-737 and Airbus 320, was rolled out for official presentation in Irkutsk, Russia on 08 June 2016. Serial production of the medium- and short-range passenger jet was planned for 2017. Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation, the umbrella organization that owns Irkut Corporation - the actual developer of the plane - held an international presentation of the new aircraft. Building the jet reportedly cost 100 billion rubles (approximately US$3.5 billion).
The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who congratulated the national aircraft industry, as MC-21 became the first Russia’s medium-range passenger aircraft developed this century. “This is a huge victory for our aviation industry and Irkut Corporation, our scientists, designers, engineers and workers,” Medvedev said. “I’m sure this is going to be a good machine, reliable and efficient.”
The Yak-242 was an all-new twinjet program shelved in the late-1990s in the days when customers and state funds for Russia's civil aerospace industry had all but dried up. In the early 2000s, however, the government issued a new tender for a passenger jet and the newly-formed Irkut - a merger of Yakovlev, fellow design bureau Beriev and the Irkutsk production facility - began work on the design.
One of the major results of the Yakovlev's work in 2003 was the victory of the MC-21 aircraft project in a bid for short- and medium-haul aircraft for domestic and foreign airlines.
The JSC «Yak» and «Il» had 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 would 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 united 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 would 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), would 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 was 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.
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.
By the end of 2013 the project was progressing to a first flight in June 2015 and certification two years later. Irkut claimed to have 256 commitments, of which 135 were firm, for the MC-21, which will be offered in two variants, a 150-seat -200 type and 181-seat -300 type. The narrowbody draws extensively on Western expertise, with Rockwell Collins avionics and, most notably, Pratt & Whitney's PW1000G geared turbofan engine. UTC Aerospace Systems (formerly Hamilton Sundstrand) and Zodiac are also suppliers.
The first flying prototype of the Irkut MC-21, a Russian twin-engine short-mid-range jet airliner with a capacity of 150-211 passengers, has left the assembly room floor, Russian media reported 04 May 2017. Speaking to the RIA Novosti news agency, an official from Irkut Corporation confirmed that "the first flying model MC-21 has moved from the final assembly shop to the flight testing division to prepare for the first flight." Details on the plane's expected flight testing schedule remained scarce.
Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said that the MC-21 should receive its airworthiness certificate in 2019. Eight planes, including three for flight testing, were being assembled at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant. Russia hoped to produce up to 1,000 of the planes for the medium-haul passenger liner market, which is by far the most capacious segment of the global aviation market, by 2037.
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