The new domestic medium-range airliner MC-21 will be able to reach its declared range of 5000 km by 2029, in two ways. The publication Frequent Flyers reported on them.
The first way is to develop a shortened version of the MC-21-210 by 2029, designed for 140 passengers. In this form, the aircraft will be 6-7 tons lighter than the MC-21-310 and will be able to fly with a load of 140 seats for 5000 km.
The second is to reduce the weight of the MC-21-310, after which the flight range with 175 passengers will reach 5100 km.
The authors noted that it was widely discussed online that the import-substituted MC-21-310 became almost 6 tons heavier than the original MC-21-300 with imported components.
However, this is incorrect: the MC-21-310 did not increase its empty weight by 5750 kg, but its maximum take-off weight (MTOW), while the aircraft itself "gained weight" by about 3 tons. In addition to weight reduction, a noticeable contribution to the increase in range would be made by increasing the fuel efficiency of the PD-14 engines.
It should be noted that, according to the technical data sheet, the range of the MC-21-310 with PD-14 in a two-class configuration is 3850 km.
Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov stated that the MC-21 would increase its range by 1000 km and reduce its weight in about three years. The head of the RunAvia flight safety service, Andrey Patrakov, explained to "The First Technical" that the drop in the flight range of the MC-21-310 is associated with import-substituted composite materials.