Minister: Russia finishes tests of new composite wing for MC-21

LANGKAWI, Mar 26 (PRIME) -- Russia is finishing tests of a new composite wing for MC-21 planes after the U.S. sanctions prohibited imports of component parts, Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov told reporters on Tuesday.

“We are now finishing tests of a new wing given the supplies of the line (of materials) from other suppliers,” he said.

As a temporary measure, Russia buys the materials in Southwest Asia, but it plans to launch its own production.

“I don’t think that it will make out production part significantly more difficult. We will have to delay it by about six months, but we will definitely not go back to the suppliers that we had. Speaking about costs, it will add about U.S. $2 million to each plane. That means that someone is not interested in that,” he said.

The Russian government plans to get a local and European certificate for the plane in 2020 so that customers start receiving MC-21s in early 2021, he said.

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