If the serial production of new airliners in Russia fails, Western aviation giants, including Boeing, may return to the country. This opinion was expressed by Stanislav Ryzhakov, former director of the Ulyanovsk branch of Tupolev.
If the industry fails the program, and it is necessary to produce not one, but at least 5-7 aircraft per year, they will start begging for permission. Boeing is ready to resume deliveries right now.
Ryzhakov admitted that he does not want to think about what will happen to the industry in this case. The specialist added that the Kazan Tu-214 still needs to "lose weight" for sure.
It is necessary to lose at least 3 tons, and preferably - 5. This is possible. 1.5 tons - very easy. We worked on this topic, and with the Tu-204SM, only by improving the manufacturing technology, we should have removed about 2 tons, with the Tu-204-300 - at least 3. But this needs to be done.
Recall that deliveries of Boeing civil aircraft to Russia were suspended in March 2022 due to the introduction of large-scale Western sanctions.
The head of the Ministry of Transport, Andrey Nikitin, stated that import substitution of systems, flight tests, and serial production of Russian aircraft must be accelerated.
The head of OAK, Vadim Badeha, noted that domestic passenger airliners are capable of occupying up to 100% of the Russian aircraft fleet, completely displacing foreign equipment from Boeing and Airbus.