MS-21 stuck in the knots – Mail News

As discovered "Kommersant", Russian medium-haul aircraft MS-21 because of the unavailability of individual nodes will not enter the Russian market in 2019, but in the second half of 2020. At the request of the developer – the company "Irkut", the certification of MS-21 in Russia has has been postponed to more than one year, beginning in July 2020. In Europe, the aircraft will receive a certificate no earlier than the end of 2021, while the European Aviation Safety Agency ( EASA) apparently does not recognize the results of the tests conducted by Russia. In this case, according to "Kommersant", Rosaviatsiya will apply reverse measures – will refuse to recognize the EASA certificates for imported aircraft.

The certification of the MS-21 aircraft by the Rosaviation was postponed from May 2019 to July 2020, Kommersant told sources close to the situation. Aircraft certification at EASA was postponed until December 2021. According to Kommersant, the initiator of the transfer was the developer of MS-21 – Irkut Corporation JSC (owned by United Aircraft Building Corporation, UAC), who informed the representatives of Rosaviation and EASA at a meeting of the project managers.

"Rosaviatsia was informed of this change by a letter from the company Irkut," said the department. "The applicant determines the time to obtain the certificate, the task of the certification authority being to badess compliance with the standard design of the aircraft." Two top manager The aviation industry clarified that the reason for the delay "in a purely productive aircraft". "It takes a little more time to finish testing the individual components and bademblies of the machine," added one of them.

This is the issue of a type certificate – a basic document confirming the aircraft's compliance with the airworthiness standards. Without a certificate, Irkut Corporation can not market the MS-21.

According to the November report of the Chamber of Accounts, 158 billion rubles were spent for the creation of the MS-21. The total cost of the project until 2025 is estimated at 437.4 billion rubles. and can go further ("b" wrote about it on October 5).

A source from the Federal Air Transport Agency pointed out that Irkut did not meet the deadlines initially set in the timetable. Another source, "Kommersant", familiar with the certification process, said that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce had held a meeting on November 20 on the new conditions for testing and works (they do not have to). 39 have not responded to "Kommersant").

In the "Irkut", they say that now two MS-21 flight certification tests are successful, the installation and installation of the third aircraft systems are complete. The UCK specifies that the delivery of the first MS-21 will be made in 2020 (it was earlier around 2019). "The tests are complex in order to guarantee the required rhythm, to receive a type certificate during the planned periods and to start deliveries, as stipulated in the contract with the initial customer," they said. The anchoring client is Aeroflot, which will receive 50 MS-21 for $ 5 billion via the AviaCapital-Service leasing company (included in Rostec). In "Aeroflot" did not answer questions "b".

Other delays are possible: a source from the Kommersant sector claims that at the September meeting, EASA announced its refusal to accept the Rosaviatsia certification results. If EASA does not change the decision, Irkut will have to pay for a test cycle (several hundred flights) in Europe, he explains. But at the Federal Air Transport Agency, they say that "there is no reason for such statements".

"The Russian side continues to work according to the well-known rules of EASA," said the agency.On November 14, at the meeting of Rosaviatsiya and EASA leaders, the principles of Cooperation were stated – the use of a symmetrical approach for the certification (validation) of Russian aircraft in European and EASA aircraft in the Russian Federation with maximum recognition of the results of the initial certification. "

According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, additional control and testing should only concern the "delta", ie the differences between Russian and European requirements. A source at the Kommersant Ministry says that in the event of a refusal of EASA to take into account the results of the work, Rosaviatsiya would apply a mirror approach to validate a European aircraft in the Federation of Russia.

EASA and the Interstate Aviation Committee, which, until 2016, were dedicated to aircraft certification, have not responded "Kommersant". Fedor Borisov, senior expert of the Institute for Transport Economics and Transport Policy of the HSE, notes that the shift in commissioning periods is normal when creating new aircraft. It acknowledges that EASA's lack of recognition of Rosaviation certification rules will result in the need to certify the MS-21 in Europe.

The German Kostrinsky, Ivan Safronov