100 Million Dollars Already Invested: Tu-324 Relaunch Shelved Due to Superjet

Reports have surfaced that the new Russian Aurus business jet may be based on the Tu-324 project, into which Tatarstan invested about 100 million dollars in the 1990s. This was reported by BUSINESS Online.

The publication recalled that the idea for the Tu-324 arose in the early 1990s, when the Kazan Aviation Plant was left without orders after the curtailment of production of the Tu-22M3 and Tu-160.

Tatarstan and Tupolev ordered a study that showed a future shortage of replacements for the Yak-40 and Tu-134. It was decided to earn funds for the project through export oil supplies, and the republic invested about 100 million dollars with a total program estimate of 330 million.

The media reported that the production of new business jets would be launched in the Ulyanovsk Port Special Economic Zone (PSEZ) based on the Tu-324 aircraft.

It later became known that the promising aircraft will receive domestic PD-8 engines, designed for import-substituted Superjets SJ-100 and Be-200 amphibians. The investment volume is estimated at tens of billions of rubles; in fact, the enterprise will be built "from scratch."

Earlier, www1.ru reported that Yakovlev will be able to produce up to 36 MS-21 aircraft per year in the future.

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