The Irkutsk Aviation Plant (IAP) — a branch of PJSC Yakovlev — is preparing for the mass production of import-substituted MC-21 liners. To do this, they will have to undergo changes to the type certificate, but aircraft manufacturers are not waiting for this event. They are actively testing new domestic equipment for assembling aircraft, building new workshops, and training employees.
As the company's general director said in an interview with IA TASS, a new building with an area of 36 thousand square meters has already been laid for mechanical assembly and forging and stamping production. A new complex of equipment will be installed there, which will allow reaching the set production volumes for the MC-21. For now, airframes are being assembled for them and a set of parts is being prepared.
Today, we have nine airframes in various stages of readiness in the assembly and testing production. In the component assembly production, the next 4 are being manufactured, and we have already manufactured parts for 16-18 aircraft.
In order to produce up to 36 MC-21 aircraft every year, as planned, automation of production, personnel training and regular supplies of import-substituted components are required. The pace is high.
There should be at least three aircraft per month. But I emphasize that the completion of modernization and the supply of import-substituted aircraft systems are decisive here. At the same time, all subcontractors are working with us, increasing and modernizing production facilities, and synchronous work is very important here so that they carry it out together with us.
The plant is, in particular, awaiting domestic PD-14 engines for changes to the aircraft type certificate in connection with the replacement of a number of foreign parts with Russian ones, including the power plant. Currently, three MC-21 prototypes still have American Pratt & Whitney engines, and three already have Russian PD-14 engines.
But aircraft designers have found a way out. Aircraft with a Russian engine will be tested in the air, and those where the power plant is not critical are being tested in Zhukovsky for aerodynamics, stability and controllability. Work does not stop.
Of the three aircraft with PD-14, one will undergo lightning protection tests in Zhukovsky. Two more are currently in Irkutsk. We are preparing the first aircraft for flights in a partially import-substituted form, the main systems are already Russian there. The second aircraft will be completely Russian, but it will begin testing a little later. On these two aircraft, we must fly the test program and obtain approval of the main change to the type certificate.
We received the certificate in due time with imported components, now we need to make changes for Russian ones, after which serial deliveries will begin. But, as you can see, we are not waiting, we are gradually preparing a backlog of serial airframes.
Veprev noted that the main problem now is the supply of Russian import-substituting components. Their refinement and correction are "inevitable", since the Russian aviation industry has to perform work in two to three years that takes five to seven years for their foreign colleagues. But you have to wait, since "safety and reliability are the main issues" in the manufacture of import-substituting parts for Russian aircraft.
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