MC-21 Completed 69% of Certification Program

Aircraft No. 73055 Logged a Record 52 Hours in December

The certification process for the MC-21-310 medium-range airliner is gaining momentum. In December of this year, four prototypes took to the skies simultaneously, and the level of readiness for certification reached 69%, according to the analytical resource "We Fly Together."

Мс-21-310
Мс-21-310

The authors noted that aircraft Nos. 73051 and 73054 perform auxiliary work, while the main load falls on flight aircraft 005 and 006.

Aircraft No. 73055 seems to have reached an optimal working rhythm. In December, it performed 12 flights, logging a record 52 hours. This included a flight to Irkutsk on December 19, from where it accompanied the flight of the "Superjet" 97024 to Novosibirsk. On December 25, it performed a flight to Yamal to Sabetta lasting about 6.5 hours.
«Летаем вместе»

Aircraft No. 73057 has been performing nine flights for the second month in a row. The aircraft is undergoing a cycle of certification tests of stability and controllability characteristics with Russian control system drives.

On December 18, 2025, the aircraft reached its practical ceiling of 12,055 meters in flight and demonstrated a record ground speed of 1026 km/h.

It should be noted that the most discussed problem surrounding the MC-21 remains the low flight range — only 3800 km instead of 5100 km.

Previously, 2.2 billion rubles had already been allocated to reduce the weight of the aircraft. 2.2 billion rubles were allocated. Aircraft manufacturers must solve this problem by the end of 2027. Aviation experts have proposed two main ways to solve the problem of aircraft overweight.

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