PressTV A senior Russian official has revealed plans by Moscow and Beijing to collaborate in a joint bid to develop a wide-body long-haul passenger airliner.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin emphasized on Tuesday that the joint project is only financially viable as a collaborative effort (with the Chinese) at a time European Airbus and American Boeing companies account for 80 percent of Russia’s long-range passenger aircraft market, RIA Novosti reported.
Rogozin, however, offered no clue about the project’s current status, merely noting that Russian aircraft design bureau chiefs were due to meet and discuss the issue soon.
The future airliner, he also emphasized, must not be a “blind copy of Airbus and Boeing.”
The Russian deputy prime minister is further cited as saying that Russia and China may also engage in joint development and manufacture of “a new heavy-lift helicopter with capacity double that of the Mi-26.”
Russian-built Mi-26 heavy transport helicopter is reportedly the largest and most powerful aircraft of its type that has ever been produced. It has a payload of up to 20 tons.
The senior Kremlin official dismissed the views of skeptics that insist there will be no demand for such a helicopter, adding that Chinese specialists were ready for consultations on a joint helicopter project.
There has been no reports of Chinese confirmation of the joint aircraft production projects announced by Rogozin, however.
The development comes as Rogozin has recently criticized the Russian aerospace industry for being plagued by many problems as well as “technical incompetence,” calling for structural reforms in the entire sector.
MFB/MFB