The Russian civil aircraft MS-21, the wing of which is made of composites manufactured in the Russian Federation, made its first flight. This was reported by the press service of Rostec, reports TASS.
“Today the MC-21-300 aircraft, the wing of which is made of Russian-made polymer composite materials, made its first flight. The liner took off from the airfield of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant – a branch of the Irkut company. The flight took place in the normal mode”, – Rostec reports.
The state corporation noted that the aircraft was piloted by test pilots Heroes of Russia Roman Taskaev and Oleg Kononenko, who fully completed the flight mission and reported that the aircraft’s systems were operating normally.
In 2018, the manufacturer of the composite wing for the MC-21, Aerocomposite, came under sanctions from the United States. As a result of the restrictions, the company lost the opportunity to purchase imported raw materials for the wing, so Rosatom took up the development of a domestic analogue. The RF Ministry of Industry and Trade has allocated 4.4 billion rubles for the creation of Russian materials for the composite wing.
“The first flight of an aircraft with a wing made of Russian composites proves that we did everything right, the MC-21 program is consistently and steadily moving forward, despite sanctions and unfair competition. This is the result of the development of the competences of the aviation industry and related industries and an unprecedented scale of state support”, said the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov.