Russia tries to revive its Cold War-era aviation industry after it… ravaged by western sanctions.
State engineer Rostec said it would make 1,000 aircraft by 2030 in a bid to end Russia’s reliance on Boeing and Airbus aircraft. Due to Western sanctions, parts of these companies can no longer be supplied to Russia after the attack on Ukraine.
“Foreign aircraft will disappear from the fleet,” Rostec told Reuters news agency. “We believe that this process is irreversible and that Boeing and Airbus aircraft will never be delivered to Russia.”
Flagship Aeroflot and other Russian airlines have bought hundreds of Boeing and Airbus jets in the past few decades in an effort to break the rickety safety record of Soviet-era domestically made jets.
The Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives lists Aeroflot as the top for all fatalities, with 11,308. Air France ranks second among civil airlines with 1,752.
The airline has turned its reputation around after hitting rock bottom in 1973, when a total of 27 crashes claimed the lives of 780 passengers and crew.
The turnaround has been aided by a flood of Western-made jets, which helped improve the security record of the Russian civilian fleet. Of the 181 Aeroflot aircraft in use, only six are Russian-made, although it has some Irkut MC-21 and Tupolev Tu-204.
“They are extremely dependent on Western systems,” said Agency Partners’ aviation expert Nick Cunningham. Redesigning existing aircraft to exclude western parts will take at least five years, he said.
“It’s very, very problematic without any western content,” he said. Half of the components and technologies used in Russia’s aircraft industry in 2021 came from abroad, Reuters reported.
Mr Cunningham said it would be faster and easier to let old jets fly by cannibalize parts from retired modelsas Iran has since the 1979 revolution to keep its own fleet flying with no western parts.
Rostec controls United Aircraft Corporation, the umbrella for Russian aircraft manufacturers such as Ilyushin, Tupolev and Mikoyan.
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, most Russian aircraft manufacturers have focused on building military aircraft such as the Mikoyan MiG-35 and the Sukhoi Su-75.