KYIV
Engine manufacturer Motor Sich and plane maker Antonov, two of Ukraine’s most prominent business concerns, have signed a contract, the second this year, to maintain and extend the life of aircraft engines, the publication Defense Express reported, quoting data from the Prozorro public procurement platform.
Ukraine’s Antonov State Enterprise, formerly known as the Antonov Design Bureau, was founded in the late 1940s and is famous for designing and producing aircraft of the same name. It currently also produces building materials, household products, auto components, spare parts for agricultural machinery and railway transport equipment.
The contract, valued at 920 million hryvnias ($35 million) will cover maintenance and modernisation of engines used on Antonov’s smaller turboprop AN-26, An-30 and An-32 aircraft as well as the An-124 “Ruslan” large transport aircraft and the An-225 “Mriya”, the world’s largest operational cargo aircraft. All contracted work is to be completed by the end of this year.
The contract is similar to a $35 million contract signed in August – applied to “Ruslan” and “Mriya” D-18T engines. Antonov Airlines which operates international cargo services has in its fleet seven “Ruslan” aircraft and one “Mriya”.
Antonov ordered several aircraft engines from Motor Sich earlier this year.
Motor Sich has been the focus of a dispute between Ukraine and China. The company is majority-owned by Chinese investors, but Ukrainian authorities announced plans to nationalise the company, declaring it was safeguarding national security.
China objects to the nationalisation plan and has urged Ukraine to safeguard the “legitimate rights and interests of Chinese investors”. A Ukrainian court seized the assets and all the shares of the company in March.
In July, Antonov said that it hoped to reach an agreement on producing a modernised version of the n-74TK-200 aircraft alongside specialists from the Canadian province of Quebec, in a move to support and develop the ex-Soviet country’s aviation sector and reduce its dependence on supplies from Russia.
The parties agreed on a cooperation plan, Ukroboronprom state company said. The future model aircraft will make maximum use of the latest aviation technologies, such as a glass cabin, among others. It is planned to develop a number of modifications of the basic model of civil and special aircraft. Ukrainian aircraft builders have already been producing this model of aircraft at the Kharkiv Aircraft Plant.
A significant number of components for AN-74TK-200 is produced in Russia. Those components fall short of modern requirements, which creates an obstacle for the aircraft to obtain mandatory certification in the European and American markets.
The final assembly of the model will be organised at production facilities in Ukraine and Canada. An inter-governmental agreement is required from Ukraine and Quebec.
The An-74TK-200 aircraft model was developed by the Antonov Design Bureau and mass-produced by the Kharkiv State Aviation Production Company.
The aircraft can be used in particularly harsh conditions, such as Arctic or Alpine, temporary and can operate on limited air strips with minimal technical support infrastructure.