The new Il-100 "Elephant" and Il-276 military transport aircraft will not see the sky anytime soon. The announcement about production plans at the "Aviastar" plant in the Ulyanovsk region did not come from industry representatives, but from regional authorities, so the start dates for the aircraft's production are still unknown, said Roman Gusarov, editor-in-chief of Avia.ru portal and aviation expert, in an interview with "Perviy Technicheskiy".
He did not rule out that these projects are likely already on the agenda at specialized meetings, but that does not mean that everything will happen literally tomorrow.
The aircraft will be built at "Aviastar", where such aircraft are traditionally produced. Before producing the machine, it still needs to be designed, and there is a lot of work to be done here. I have no information whether these projects are already underway in the "Ilyushin" bureau. A lot still needs to come together here, but the question arises — when?
Gusarov recalled that the Il-100 "Elephant", positioned as a potential replacement for the An-124, is entering a niche where everything is already in order with such aircraft.
What is the situation with the "Ruslans" today? We have enough of them, they will fly for a long time, and there is no need for a large number of new ones. The current aircraft are enough to meet the needs of the Ministry of Defense and cargo transportation. But aircraft need to be developed now so that they appear in about 10 years.
Governor of the Ulyanovsk region, Alexey Russkikh, noted that "Aviastar" will soon begin work on technical re-equipment.