WASHINGTON, June 28 (RIA Novosti) – In a move that might very well set the Father of the World Proletariat spinning in his mausoleum, the American defense contractor AAR Corp. has announced that it is exploring the possibility of doing business in Vladimir Lenin’s birthplace of Ulyanovsk, rotor.com reported this week.
Illinois-based AAR announced that it had signed a “letter of intent” for a tentative two-phase commercial aviation project that would, if successful, include an aircraft parts distribution and logistics center and a commercial aircraft maintenance facility to be based in the southern Volga city. AAR’s plans are for the first phase to open in mid-2014 and the second in 2015.
Ulyanovsk is an important center of Russian aviation. Aviastar-SP manufactures the cargo aircraft AN 124 and the airliner Tu-204 in the city, which is also home to the Museum of Civil Aviation, the largest museum of flight in Russia, containing 9,000 exhibits.