Russia's Aviastar aircraft builder to expand production

BOLSHOYE GOLOUSTNOYE, Irkutsk region, August 8 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's
biggest aircraft builder, the Ulyanovsk-based Aviastar-SP plant, will set
up a joint venture with AeroComposit Co to manufacture wings for Russian
medium-haul passenger jets MS-21, Alexei Kashkarov, the head of Aviastar's
planning and budgeting department, told Itar-Tass.
According to Kashkarov, the plant has drafted an ambitious program of
expanding production and creating new jobs. The plant plans to participate
in major projects both in the civilian and military sectors.
Thus, under the Sukhoi Superjet-100 project, the Ulyanovsk plant will
undertake interior works and applying a final coat of paint.
The plant is working on a program for the development of the
medium-haul Tu-204SM jet. The first such plane was sent for certification
trials to a testing ground in Zhukovsky outside Moscow. A second such
plane will soon be ready. It is planned to build more than 40 Tu-204SM
jets.
According to Kashkarov, the Ulyanovsk-based plant may soon be
authorized to assemble An-70 new generation cargo planes.
Apart from it, it is planned to resume the production of An-124 Ruslan
planes, which have no analogues in the world, in a new modification. "So
far Ruslan is being modernized to an order from the defence ministry. The
order is rather big, so I think we will have enough work for the next
three to four years," he said.
These plans require more workers. "Currently, Aviastar employs 10,000.
By the year 2020, it is planned by create 5,000 new jobs," he noted.
Built in 1976, the Ulyanovsk Aviation Industrial Complex, renamed
Aviastar in 1992, is one of the largest manufacturers of aeronautical
engineering in Russia and the CIS countries It specializes in the
production of modern passenger and cargo aircraft of the Tu-204 family and
unique transport civilian aircraft Аn-124-100 Ruslan. Capacities of
Aviastar allow to produce up to 50 aircraft per year.