"Where else to go? The MC-21 will not fly the declared range": why the restart of the Tu-214 is an alternative-free step

Nail Khairullin: professionals should lead the aviation industry

The Kazan Aviation Plant (KAZ, part of Rostec) will have to resume serial production of the Tu-214, since the promising MC-21-310 has not yet confirmed the declared flight range. The fate of the project and the problems of the enterprise were told by its former general director Nail Khairullin.

"Where else to go?"

According to Khairullin, today the Tu-214 remains the only real option for the revival of the domestic aircraft fleet.

Where else to go? There is nothing else. The MC-21 declared range will not be available in the foreseeable future.
Nail Khairullin, ex-CEO of KAZ

He noted that difficulties with the MC-21 project appeared long before the sanctions. When, due to the cessation of supplies of foreign materials, it was announced that there is no pan-yarn for a composite wing in Russia, this was, according to him, untrue.

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It has been in Russia for a long time. We worked with a plant near Moscow, which produced it. The director then said: "We will close your entire annual program if you find 300 thousand rubles". I found it. So sanctions are just a pretext, something just doesn't work out.
Nail Khairullin, ex-CEO of KAZ

The former head of KAZ recalled that the company had its own composite workshop, but later it was transferred to Aerocomposite. He called such a situation nonsense and clarified that KAZ independently made carbon fiber wing mechanization, and now they are forced to order it somewhere.

Lost personnel and destroyed system

Khairullin believes that the problem is not only in production, but also in the destruction of the professional school.

There were workshops where they trained turners and locksmiths. What's with them? They are not. There is also no training center for flight personnel. Everything is done so as not to allow the Tu-214 into civil aviation.
Nail Khairullin, ex-CEO of KAZ

According to Khairullin, the Kazan Aviation Plant until recently retained the status of a federal enterprise, achieving this through the Council security, holding on to the status of a strategic asset. However, KAZ was subsequently transformed into a joint-stock company.

Loss of management continuity

The former head of KAZ linked the decline of the industry with the liquidation of the Ministry of Aviation Industry, the destruction of a unified management system and the transfer of the industry from department to department.

Aviation construction was either given to the Ministry of Defense Industry, or to the Ministry of Economy, then to Rosaviakosmos, then to the Ministry of Industry and Energy. I have been to government meetings on the aviation industry twice. We didn't even hold a district committee bureau like that: everything is under tracing paper, no preparation.
Nail Khairullin, ex-CEO of KAZ

Khairullin emphasized that the aviation industry should be headed by professional aircraft builders, because the Soviet aircraft building school was one of the strongest.

And what are the Ilyushin and Tupolev companies now? It is impossible to find strength engineers, and Tupolev had the best ones. They drove away the specialists, and it takes decades to grow new ones.
Nail Khairullin, ex-CEO of KAZ

On Saturday, October 11, it became known that a new audit had begun at KAZ. Employees of theGeneral Prosecutor's Office of Russia raided the company's workshops.

Earlier www1.ru reported that Russian tires for the chassis of MC-21 and SJ-100 liners have been successfully certified.

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