On Wednesday, June 8 at 6.30 Moscow time, the Irkutsk Corporation Irkut (part of the United Aircraft Corporation, UAC ) rolled out (the first public presentation of a flight model of the new aircraft) the Russian short-medium-haul aircraft MS-21 (full name “Long Range Aircraft of the 21st Century”). This is the first Russian short-medium-haul aircraft, a potential competitor to the most common models on the global and Russian market - Boeing 737 and Airbus 320/321.

The corporation has advanced contracts for approximately 200 MS-21s, say managers of two leasing companies: including 50 ordered by Aviacapital Service (owned by the Rostec state corporation) for Aeroflot, 50 by IFC Ilyushin Finance, several dozen each - “Sberbank-Leasing” and “VEB-Leasing”.

Before the plane was rolled out, pianist Denis Matsuev, a native of Irkutsk, performed in front of the corporation’s employees, its partners, officials and journalists. The creative process of creating an aircraft was shown to viewers in an animated film. At the end of the film, the curtain was removed, and a plane named after the Soviet general designer Alexander Yakovlev and having tail number 21001 appeared before the audience.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who is in Irkutsk on a working visit, said that the first MS-21 aircraft will take to the skies next year. “This aircraft will become the pride of Russian aviation. I am sure that people will be happy to fly on the MS-21 airliner,” said the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers. Deputy General Director of Irkut Sergei Yamanov said that by 2018 four aircraft will be produced, then production will gradually increase, from 2020 - 20 aircraft per year, from 2023 - 70.

The capacity of the presented model MS-21-300 is 211 seats. The rolled-out copy is equipped with an American Pratt & Whitney 1400 engine, but a Russian PD-14 engine is also being created for the vehicle. The day before, journalists at the plant were shown the MS-21 fuselage, which is in a state of high readiness in the final assembly shop and intended for static testing.

The aircraft project has been underway since the early 2000s, but serious government funding for the project began in 2008 and will last until 2022-2023. Investments in the project are not officially disclosed. A person close to the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the state invested about 75 billion rubles, and Irkut invested the same amount from its own funds and loans.

400 medium-haul aircraft are operated in Russia, and the need for Russian air carriers in the next 20 years is about 800 aircraft, estimates a representative of Irkut.

The catalog price of the MC-21 is about $90 million. But the catalog price is used only when calculating advances and penalties for the customer; in fact, all aircraft in the world under more or less large contracts are sold at a discount of approximately 50% from the catalog price, explains a top manager of the leasing company .

Photo gallery: MS-21 aircraft shown in Irkutsk View / 8 photos

Irkut showed the first flight model of MS-21