️-Russia returned to the top rank of civil aviation this morning when its newest MC-21-310

airliner made a maiden flight, using PD-14 engines, the first developed in modern Russia. The $8 billion project is designed to end reliance on Western tech. -After the Soviet collapse, Russian-made airlines began to favour Western planes, over domestic offerings. Aeroflot has more Airbus & Boeing than Sukhoi models (which use French engines, anyway). S7 & Ural Airlines have no Russian aircraft at all. -The Irkut MC-21-300 has capacity for 211 seats, and is designed to compete with the Airbus 320 and the Boeing 737. It is planned to be introduce the aircraft to service next year, and it will be considerably cheaper than its Western rivals. The big test will be safety.

2020-12-15