Industry ministry says it, Mubadala mull supersonic aircraft project

YEKATERIBURG, Jul 9 (PRIME) -- The Russian industry and Trade Ministry has discussed production of a supersonic plane with the United Arab Emirates’ sovereign fund Mubadala, and the Arab partners expressed interest in the project, Minister Denis Manturov told reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Global Manufacturing and Industrialization Summit.

“Today, we’ve covered a topic connected to development and production of a supersonic aircraft, it is about a project of multi-format multi-lateral cooperation. We may do that with the Emirates, with Saudi Arabia, and possibly with other countries that express interest,” he said.

“We’ve mentioned this direction as promising, and our colleagues were interested in that, taking into account the fact that they already invested in our aviation industry, and in Russian Helicopters in particular.”

In January 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested creation of a civil version of the Tu-160 supersonic strategic bomber. In September 2018, a representative of aircraft producer Tupolev said that pre-FEED works were at their final stage and that there was an understanding of price and specifications of the plane.

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