RUSSIA

DEFENCE

Lack of training blamed for MiG-29 collision

Low training quotas are being blamed for a collision between two MiG-29 aircraft in Chita oblast in the Russian Far East on 4th March.
The pilots of the two aircraft, identified as a Capt Tyapkov and unit commander Maj Yershov, had each flown between 13 and 15 hours in the previous 12 months due to lack of funding for fuel and maintenance, the Russian Air Force press centre revealed.
Both pilots ejected safely with minor injuries and were soon picked up by rescue helicopter.

Russia stalls Rybinsk Motors sell-off again

Russia's State Committee for the Management of State Property has deferred an auction to sell a 37-per-cent state-owned stake in aero engine manufacturer Rybinsk Motors until 13th May, with the results of bidding to be announced the following day.
Company lawyer Georgy Yudin said the decision could have been prompted by a Moscow City Court ruling banning transactions with the state-owned package of shares until the court reached a definitive verdict on the company's case against the government. nterfax news agency earlier said that Rybinsk Motors was challenging the inclusion in the state-owned package of shares of 5 per cent of company stock owned by its staff.
Managing Director of Rybinsk Motors Valery Shelgunov said the delay in setting a price for the state-owned shares had already caused the company "serious damage" and cost it a US$19 million deal for the sale of 19 aero engines to China. An investment p oject to set up a joint venture with General Electric to make and service engines, which has been under negotiation for more than 12 months already, could also be jeopardised, he said.

PVO commander rounds up foreign spy plane activity in Far East

The air defence commander responsible for Russia's Far East has said there have been no border violations by foreign aircraft for two years, but foreign reconnaissance and espionage activity from outside Russian airspace continues unabated.
In an interview with the 'Krasnaya Zvezda' army newspaper, Air Defence Army Commander Lt-Gen Uruzmag Ogoyev said that in 1995 his sector tracked 4,263 foreign aircraft, of which 557 were reconnaissance aircraft. Anti-aircraft missile units were placed n combat alert 23 times, and duty interceptor crews 890 times.
In the first 40 days of 1996, Ogoyev continued, 402 foreign aircraft were tracked, of which 69 were reconnaissance aircraft flying in close proximity to the Russian borders. Air defence missile systems were placed on heightened readiness five times and fighter aircraft seven times.

CIVIL

Sokol plans run of 10 M-101s in 1996

The Sokol aircraft plant in Nizhny Novgorod is to produce 10 new Myasishchev M-101 Gzhel light aircraft in 1996, according to a Myasishchev official.
Aleksandr Savokhin, head of the design team at the Myasishchev Experimental Engineering Plant in Zhukovsky, hopes that the Gzhel, designed for 5-7 passengers, can undercut direct competitors like the Socata TBM 700 on the world market. According to Sav khin, the Russian aircraft will cost US$1.2-1.4 million - revised upwards from the original estimate of $950,000 after soaring parts costs forced Sokol to try to source components abroad.
Sokol is currently testing two Gzhel prototypes it assembled last year and hopes to complete certification by the end of the year, Savokhin said.

Sheremetyevo runway refit nears completion

The seven-year reconstruction of a runway at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport is nearing completion, according to Sheremetyevo director Vasily Akporisov. The last 150 metres of runway remain to be fitted with lights and certified, which should happen by 1st September, he said.
Surface repairs on the second runway, the only one currently in use, should begin on 19th March without disrupting traffic. Full reconstruction of the second runway is scheduled to begin later in the year and last until 1998. Akporisov said 78% of Sheremetyevo's revenues come from aviation services and the remainder from other services, as opposed to airports in the rest of the world where the ratio tends to be closer to 50:50. A total of 110 airlines, 51 of them foreign, f y from Sheremetyevo, he said.

Tu-324 to be made in Kazan

The new Tupolev Tu-324 is to be produced at the Gorbunov Aircraft Production Association in Kazan.
The Tu-324 is designed to replace the Yakovlev Yak-40, Tupolev Tu-134 and Antonov An-24 and An-26 on Russia's regional routes. Valentin Dmitriyev, a senior designer at Tupolev, has said the Kazan plant will produce a VIP modification for one to four pa sengers, a business jet for 8-10 passengers, a 50-seat regional airliner with a range of 2,500 km and a 3-tonne transport with a range of 5,900 km.
The aircraft is to be fitted with the R126-300 turbofan engine designed by the Moscow Soyuz corporation, and is expected to carry a unit price of US$19-23 million.

Transaero boosts turnover

Transaero saw turnover increase steeply in 1995 to US$165 million, $98 million more than 1994, the company reported on 1st March.
Transaero made 12,137 flights in 1995, including 10,408 scheduled services, and carried 1,182,000 passengers, Transaero chief Aleksandr Pleshakov announced at the launch of the airline's spring and summer schedules.
The company launched five new services in the course of the year, to Berlin, Frankfurt, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and opened offices in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Tashkent, Vladivostok, Chicago and New York. In 1996 the company plans to increase passenger volume to 2.2 million, open five new regular services, increase its fleet to 16 aircraft and expand its workforce from 1,800 to 2,500, Pleshakov said.
Of the 11 aircraft Transaero currently operates, it leases five Boeing-737s and five Boeing-757s, and owns just one aircraft - an Il-86.

Sumitomo to help upgrade Russian airport on Sakhalin

Japan's Sumitomo Corporation and Russia's state-owned Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk airport on the island of Sakhalin off Russia's Pacific coast have signed an agreement to upgrade the airport to international standards, the Russian news agency Interfax reported f om Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
The agency quoted an official from the local administration as saying the two sides would pool their efforts to find funding for the project, which is expected to include a loan from the Japanese government. The cost of upgrading the runway and buildin a passenger terminal and other facilities for the international airport is put at 50m dollars, the official said.

Cheboksary airport granted international status

Cheboksary airport in the Russian republic of Chuvashia has been granted permission to receive and despatch international flights after two years' work to set up border and customs services.
Runway upgrades accounted for a large percentage of capital investments in the airport upgrade, and Cheboksary is now able to take all sizes of aircraft.

UKRAINE

An-38 to start series production in 1996

Russia's Chkalov aviation plant in Novosibirsk is expected to start series production of the Antonov An-38 light multipurpose airliner before the end of 1996, the Russian news agency Interfax reported from Kiev, quoting Dmytro Kiva, chief designer at t e Antonov design bureau.
The joint venture set up by Antonov and the Chkalov plant late last year is to build at least 50 An-38s, Kiva said. Three prototypes are currently being tested, two in Ukraine and one in Russia. The Kiev-based Antonov bureau will provide a licence for roduction and the know-how, while the Russian enterprise will carry out serial production and marketing. Some of the equipment for the new aircraft, including flight recorders and radar, are manufactured in Ukraine, while the engines are produced in th USA.
The new Antonov is expected to sell for about 4m dollars. The joint venture hopes to sell the aircraft in Ukraine, Russia, India, South America and the USA. The aircraft is to be available in passenger, cargo and mail versions. It can carry up to 27 passengers, has a maximum payload of 2,500 kg, cruising speed of up to 380 kph and flight range of 900 km, Interfax said.

Motor-Sich to repair helicopters in South Asia

Ukrainian engine builders Motor-Sich are soon to sign a contract for the repair of 40 Soviet-made combat helicopters in an unspecified South Asian country and supply spare parts for them, according to company director Vyacheslav Bohuslayev.
Initial agreement on the contract was reached at Asian Aerospace '96 in Singapore in early February. Bohuslayev is as yet unwilling to reveal the price of the contract or the country with which it is to be signed.

Black Sea Fleet air regiment relocates to central Ukraine

A Black Sea Fleet Guards air regiment which was allocated to Ukraine under the treaty on division of the fleet has redeployed from Crimea to Poltava in central Ukraine.
The regiment of 20 Tupolev aircraft of unspecified type redeployed at the beginning of March. Regimental commander Guards Colonel V Vereskul was quoted as saying that his aircraft were in good condition despite having "stood idle" since being manufactu ed in Kazan six years ago.

BYELORUSSIA

Byelorussia scraps last aircraft under CFE terms

The last Byelorussian aircraft to be scrapped under the terms of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty was dismantled at Lyasnaya, near Baranovichi, on 1st March. The scrapping was witnessed by seven Norwegian, one Danish and one Belgian officer.
Byelorussia has now met its CFE obligations for aircraft, and has until 26th April to reduce all other types of combat equipment to the treaty maximums.

KAZAKHSTAN

Funding dries up for Kazakh capital airport refit

The reconstruction of Alma-Ata airport has ground to a halt owing to a lack of funding, according to local media.
The government, which is financing the project, now owes Codest and local subcontractors over US$5 million and 600 million Kazakh tenge for work, started in 1991, to bring the airport up to international standards.
The local builders themselves are heavily in debt after taking out commercial loans totalling 88 million tenge to finance their operations. No funding was received from the government for runway construction for the whole of 1995, and wage arrears amou t to 33 million tenge and 47 million tenge are owed in back taxes.
Construction was originally scheduled to be completed in 1995. The Kazakh government is now considering rebuilding the airport at what is soon to be the new national capital, Akmola.

HUNGARY

Israel offers to modernise Hungarian MiG 21s

On a recent visit to Tel Aviv, Hungarian Defence Minister Gyorgy Keleti received offers from Israeli defence firms concerning the modernisation of Hungary's MiG-21bis fleet and T-55 tanks.
"We have not agreed on anything, since we only learned about this offer here. The purpose of these visits was simply to show us the equipment and make us offers. Naturally, no decision has been taken," he said at a press conference in Tel Aviv.

POLAND

LOT sells off surplus Soviet-built aircraft

LOT has sold off its entire fleet of Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-154M airliners, mostly to carriers in the CIS.
Eleven aircraft have been sold to five airlines in Russia and Azerbaijan at a reported price of 3.5m dollars each. One Tu-154M was purchased by the Polish government, while another was retained for use by the Polish president. LOT still has seven Tupolev Tu-134 aircraft for sale, but they are more likely to be dismantled and sold for spare parts.
LOT celebrated its 67th anniversary on 1st March. The airline says its fleet of ATR-72s and Boeing types is the youngest in the world, and it carries an average of 5,000 passengers per day. LOT employs over 320 pilots and 780 stewardesses and flies to 1 towns in 40 countries.

Private aircraft sector taking off in Poland

Poland now has 184 privately-owned aircraft and 47 helicopters, whereas in 1989 there was only one private aircraft in the country.
Poland expects a boom in private aviation over the next few years: high-speed road and rail transport is limited, but the country has a well-developed network of small airfields.

FINLAND

Finnish Air Force Arrow crashes

Two crew were killed when a Finnish Air Force Piper Arrow collided with an electricity cable at Asikkala, near Heinola in southern Finland. The aircraft crashed onto the ice of a frozen lake.

CZECHO

Czech Army boosts aircraft maintenance budget

The Czech Army is to spend about 1 billion Czech crowns in the near future on purchasing spare parts for the Air Force and funding appropriate repairs to improve the technical state of aircraft, a senior Air Force official said at the end of February.
General P. Strubl, Air Force and Air Defence Inspector-General, said that since 1990 only 50 per cent of pilots' requests for repairs and spare parts had been met. He added that the objective of the Defence Ministry was to guarantee an average of at le st 50 hours of flying training per pilot in 1996.

SAAB offers Czecho cut-price Gripens

The Czech Air Force is considering a new option for replacing its MiG-21 fighters, after SAAB offered to supply brand-new JAS-35 Gripens at the same price as the other contender, upgraded ex-USAF F-16As. The Gripens would have a GE-Volvo engine, manufa tured locally under licence, which is seen as further increasing the attractiveness of the offer to the Czech Defence Ministry. SAAB is proposing sales of seven Gripens each year in 1999-2000, until when the Czech Air Force would use MiG-21s with upgraded avionics.

ROMANIA

Romanian Defence Ministry sets Cobra quota

The Romanian Ministry of National Defence has determined the number of locally-built Cobra attack helicopters which it wishes to acquire for the Army. The ministry wants to buy 96 Cobras built in Romania under a licensing deal with Bell Textron. Although the US$1 billion cost will severely tax the nation's defence budget, acquisition of a helicopter with good anti-armour capabilities is seen as essen ial.

ANGOLA

Russian An-12 crashes in Angola after possible shootdown

An Antonov An-12 was destroyed in a possible shootdown in Angola on February 28, killing five Russian crew and three local civilians. The aircraft crashed in the northern Lunda Norte province, controlled by the opposition UNITA movement, and a governme t armed forces communiqu said it was shot down as it was coming in to land. UNITA have denied responsibility.

NAMIBIA

Russian aircraft confiscated in Namibia

A Russian Antonov An-12, registration RA-11658, has been confiscated in murky circumstances by the authorities in Namibia and the crew detained.
The aircraft had been flying at night between South Africa and Angola via Namibia since mid-February, without clearances or permission to cross national borders. The aircraft had been hired by a South African firm ostensibly to transport fuel, dried fih and corn to Angola, but it had only been carrying fuel, to unknown destinations, by the time it was arrested in the town of Hrutfontein. Russian media have speculated that the aircraft was involved in ferrying arms to warring factions in Rwanda.