Antonov An-148 regional aircraft after its first commercial flight

On December 24, the new Antonov An-148 regional jet airliner performed its first commercial flight from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Operated by the State Transport Company (GTK) Rossiya, the plane carrying over 50 passengers landed at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport at 3.53 p.m. Moscow time.

The plane was manufactured at the Voronezh Aircraft Production Association, or Voronezh Aircraft Plant, and its first commercial flight is a landmark event for the Russian aircraft industry because this is the first Russian-Ukrainian design to be introduced into production in the past 20 years.

The An-148 was developed in just six years, an extremely short time for modern civilian aviation, by Ukraine’s Antonov Design Bureau and aircraft-components suppliers from Russia and Ukraine without any federal funding. The project received about $400 million in off-budget allocations.

On October 1, the Russian aircraft leasing company Ilyushin Finance, which is the main supplier of new Russian civilian aircraft, leased the An-148 to GTK Rossiya. A Russian-made An-148 was first displayed at this year’s International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS-2009) in Zhukovsky near Moscow in August.

Ilyushin Finance’s General Director Alexander Rubtsov told journalists that the company hoped that the second An-148 would be ready for GTK Rossiya by December 30 and that it would provide it with another plane in February 2010. Photo: The An-148 passenger compartment.

The plane’s state-of-the-art aviation and radio equipment, multi-function indicators and electronic fly-by-wire flight-control systems make it possible to operate the An-148 on any route, in good and bad weather, day and night, even on busy routes. Photo: The An-148 cockpit.

The An-148 is a high-wing monoplane which can operate from unimproved airfields. This is a major advantage enabling it to adapt to regional-airport conditions.

The plane can operate from tarmac and unimproved runways located up to 1,500 m above sea level in any weather conditions.

Moreover, the self-contained An-148 has a ramp to allow passengers to disembark without any specialized airport equipment. Major flag carriers and regional airlines can afford to buy this inexpensive and fuel-efficient plane.