The project of the new Russian long-range aircraft Tu-454, which is considered as a potential competitor to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350, faces a key limitation — economics. This was announced by aviation expert, executive director of the analytical service "Aviaport" Oleg Panteleev.
According to him, if you focus only on the domestic market, it will be almost impossible to recoup investments in the development and production of the aircraft. Even if there is demand within the country, the project risks remaining unprofitable.
Either we initially create a deliberately unprofitable machine, solving the problem of import independence, or we make a competitive device on the world market, but in cooperation with other countries.
Panteleev recalled that attempts to cooperate with China in the aviation sector showed the complexity of cooperation: Beijing is developing its own wide-body aircraft.
At the same time, he stressed that the technical competencies of Russian institutions and manufacturers allow creating such an aircraft — the key issue is not engineering, but the economics of the project.
The Tu-454 will be equipped with two promising PD-26 engines based on the PD-35 gas generator. The timing of the possible launch of the program and other technical characteristics of the aircraft have not yet been reported.
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