Russia to Spend Over $700M to Support National Aircraft Industry in 2017

ULYANOVSK (Sputnik) — Russian government is planning to allocate more than 40 billion rubles (approximately $702 million) for the support of the national aircraft industry this year, Medvedev said Wednesday.

"In total, about 41 billion rubles is provided for support of aircraft production this year," Medvedev said at the conference on supporting national aircraft industry in Ulyanovsk.

Medvedev pointed out that in recent years Russian authorities had been making efforts in order to overcome the crisis of Russian aircraft industry which began at the turn of the century.

"Today we have achieved another level of understanding of problems and another general level of development. The results are tangible. I mean both designing of the Sukhoi Superjet aircraft and recent test flight of МC-21," Medvedev said.

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 is a twin-engine regional passenger airliner, designed and produced by the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company, which completed its maiden flight in 2008 and was first commercialized in 2011. It is jointly sold to global markets by Russia's Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company and Italy’s Alenia Aermacchi.

The МC-21 is a single-aisle airliner, designed by the Yakovlev Design Bureau and produced by Irkut. The first test flight of МC-21 was carried out in May with active test flights starting in July. According to Russia's Minister of Trade and Industry Denis Manturov, serial production of the MC-21s will begin in 2019.