Western countries have not been supplying any aircraft or parts to Russia for some time because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. If it is up to the Russian state company Rostec, it will remain that way forever. With locally made parts, Russia wants to have produced a thousand self-built aircraft by 2030, making the dependence on Boeing and Airbus a thing of the past.

Rostec, which owns Russia's only civil aviation manufacturer, sees the confrontation with the West as a permanent rift in aviation country.

Due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the West has decided not to send any more spare parts to Russia. As a result, many Russian planes have to be grounded, and the country is trying to keep as many aircraft in the air as possible by using parts from other aircraft.

This stopgap solution won't last forever, which is why Russia's sights are now on aircraft production and maintenance without foreign input. In response to questions from Reuters news agency, Rostec says: "Foreign aircraft will disappear from the fleet. We believe this process is irreversible and that no more Boeing and Airbus aircraft will be delivered to Russia."

The goal of building more than a thousand completely new Russian aircraft within eight years does not seem very realistic. Even when Russia was able to receive essential parts from the West, it was struggling to produce a handful of aircraft. Russia and the rest of the Soviet Union have only been able to build 2,000 large commercial aircraft themselves in its entire history.

Despite the heavy dependence on the West, Rostec is hopeful: "The next goal is to replace the imported parts with homemade parts as soon as possible, in order to start production of the Sukhoi Superjets and Irkut MS-21s.

Russia wants to deliver 20 fully self-built Superjets every year from 2024. In addition, the country plans to deliver 72 MS-21s annually from 2029.

Currently, Russia is already testing Russian PD-14 engines for its MS-21s. Normally these aircraft flew with the American PW1400G engines from Pratt & Whitney. The MS-21 is the counterpart of the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320.

For regional flights, the Sukhoi Superjet will be used. However, Russia has much more trouble finding replacement parts for this aircraft. These aircraft flew with a French-made SaM-146 engine, which is no longer available due to the sanctions. However, these engines will still be used on the next 20 Superjets. When these engines are out of stock, a switch will be made to the Russian PD-14 engines, which are also already being tested on the MS-21s.

At the beginning of this month, Aeroflot placed an order for 339 aircraft: 210 Irkut MS-21s, 89 Sukhoi Superjets and 40 Tupolev Tu-214s.

Russia plans to deliver 1,036 passenger aircraft between 2022 and 2030. These include 142 Superjets and 270 MS-21s, as well as 70 turboprop Il-114s, 70 medium-haul Tu-214s and 12 Il-96 widebodys, government documents show.

--- DB4 - 20220519
* Origin: AVIATION ECHO HQ (2:292/854)