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Putin’s persuasion nets MS-21 its launch customer

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Just to close the loop on the not so subtle intersection of Russian aircraft and politics, Aeroflot announced today it intended to begin taking deliveries of the 150-seat Irkut MS-21 starting in 2016, which appears to make the carrier the launch customer for the type.

In a letter to Putin, chief executive Valery Savelyev specifies the airline’s acquisition plans up to 2020. Aeroflot says it aims to acquire 40 Sukhoi Superjet 100s, 11 Antonov An-148s and 25 An-140s before 2016. The aircraft will be used to modernise the fleets of Aeroflot and six associate carriers, of which it is taking over management control.

In addition, Savelyev says Aeroflot is prepared to take up to 50 MS-21s between 2016 and 2020. This all-new airliner is designed to be a viable Russian alternative to the existing single-aisles from Airbus and Boeing in the 130- to 190-seat category, and is due to enter service in around five years.

While I don’t speak a word of Russian, Irkut’s MC-21 highly-stylized marketing video provides an interesting look at the plans for the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G-powered aircraft with its three-variant family. The initial 150-seat MS-21-200 will seat 150, the -300 with capacity for 180 passengers, and the -400 with seating up to 210. The 300 appears to be a simple stretch of the fuselage, while the -400 will incorporate a further fuselage stretch and an expanded wing span, leading and trailing edge.

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Putin’s persuasion nets MS-21 its launch customer

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Report: 787 test fleet to grow from six to ten (Update1)

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Airplanes Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten at various stages of assembly.

In another effort to avoid a further entry into service slide of the 787, Boeing is reportedly adding four flight test aircraft to the fleet. According to a report by Buckingham Research, Boeing will add Airplanes Seven through Ten to the flight test campaign. All told, The Rolls-Royce test fleet will grow to eight. Airplanes Seven through Nine are all destined for ANA, while Airplane Ten will be delivered to LAN. The report suggests that the additional four aircraft will take part in ETOPS and functionality and reliability testing, suggesting that the aircraft will not require the extensive instrumentation unlike the first six 787s.

ZA102, Airplane Nine, was set to join the flight test campaign this fall, but was derailed following the uncontained engine failure of the aircraft’s Trent 1000s during a ground test in Derby, UK. Aviation Week’s Guy Norris reports that the August 2 failure was traced to a build up of oil inside engine.

UPDATE: LAN has selected Rolls-Royce Trent 1000s, not General Electric GEnx-1Bs, as previously posted. I confused LAN’s aircraft with Airplanes 17 and 19 for Royal Air Maroc, which were initially allocated as Trent 1000-powered 787s, but were fitted with GEnx pylons during the assembly process.