South African company Denel Aviation, specializing on repair, maintenance and overhaul of aerotechnics, plans to get Russian accreditation for repairing the "Mi" helicopters based on the African continent. Denel Aviation s business development manager Farouk Yesufu told about that during his interview to "Aviation EXplorer".

According to his story in the times of USSR 30 - 40 years ago a great number of helicopters and planes were sold to Africa by the Soviet Union. All together there are about 520 different aerial vehicles, part of them are not able to fly currently and part of them just can't be repaired and restored to life, because these vehicles have never been exposed to normal maintenance during their stay on the continent.

"On this evidence we are in discussions with the Russian partners regarding cooperative bringing these aerial vehicles made by the Soviet Union and based on the African continent to airworthiness, because we have a world class facility on the African continent", - specified Mr. Yesufu.

"Feasibility study of the project will kick off shortly to determine the way forward with this project. At present we are finding out if it makes sense to start this project. We are expecting to receive the final answer about the commercial prospects of this project in the course of a month or two. As for the cooperation with Russia, the question is overhaul of Mi-8 helicopters, their modification Mi-17 and also Mi-24", - he added.