The assembly of DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft (developed in Canada) may be started in Ulyanovsk; the project will be supported by Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Vedomosti reports with reference to Vyacheslav Ilyushin, representative of “Aviasoyuz” regional and general aviation association.
The aircraft will be manufactured by the first resident of Ulyanovsk special economic zone – Vityaz Company, the founder of Aviasoyuz. The project will be presented at the joint meeting with the participation of the representatives of the association and the government ofYamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug to be held in mid-August. Vyacheslav Ilyushin said that the authorities of some regions are taking interest in the Canadian aircraft suitable for operation in Thule and Arctic Regions.
«Before launching the production, we will purchase nine aircraft of the type in Canada; the vehicles will be operated by Chukotka Air», — he said.
According to the CEO of Vityaz Company, Sergey Antsiferov, the company plans to reach the output of 24 aircraft per year. «In order to cover our expenses we must produce 50 aircraft, while the market capacity for this type is about 200 vehicles for the next 10 years and the same holds true for security agencies, Ministry of Interior, EMERCOM, etc.», - Vyacheslav Ilyushin noted.
The required amount of investments for this project is about $80 million and $50 million have already been spent, Sergey Antsiferov said. According to him, 1.3 billion rubles will be allocated for development of general aviation in the network of the federal target program for supporting the civil aviation during the period until 2015 coordinated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. These funds may be used to compensate the lease payments for Canadian aircraft.
Besides DHC-6 Twin Otter, it was planned to launch the production of other Canadian aircraft in Ulyanovsk, for example, Q-400 Bombardier. Russian Technologies State Corporation wanted to obtain the license for complete knock down assembly of these vehicles and was even ready to invest up to $100 million in the project, but the parties have failed to reach the agreement. The corporation has opted for another project: it will construct a plant for production of light aircraft seating 9-19 passengers in Ulyanovsk in cooperation with Diamond Aircraft Industries (Austria). The parties have signed the corresponding agreement at Paris Air Show 2013. The amount ofinvestments will be $150-200 million.
Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, which owns the Czech LET plant, is negotiating with the administration of Volga Federal District on launching the production of L-410 aircraft in Ulyanovsk.
