Russia and Belarus are working on the issue of creating a joint passenger aircraft

Russian and Belarusian enterprises of the aircraft industry are working on launching a project to create a joint passenger aircraft, declared chief engineer of the Belarusian “558 Aircraft Repair Plant” Andrei Tuchin in an interview with STV.

“Of course, I think that this is a fairly short-term perspective. This year, the study of the issue has begun, now it is at the stage of intergovernmental coordination. As soon as the decision on financing the project is made, I think that this year the work will go faster. But, without even waiting for a decision, our company is working with our Russian partner on all the technical issues, options for cooperation. And we are already delving even into the details,” he said.

The chief engineer added that recently the plant began to receive a much larger number of orders from Russia, in particular, the company is now working on concluding agreements on the production of parts for the Tu-214, MS-21, Sukhoi Superjet, Il-76 and other Russian aircraft.

“That is, we currently have orders for a very large range of passenger aircraft,” Tuchin said.

On July 10, the State Military-Industrial Committee of Belarus said that the republic and Russia had signed a comprehensive program for cooperation in the field of aircraft manufacturing. In particular, the parties agreed on the joint development and organization in Belarus of serial production of a twin-engine 19-seat aircraft. It is planned that the Ural Civil Aviation Plant and the 558th Aviation Repair Plant will work on the project.

On July 11, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry Denis Manturov announced that the twin-engine 19-seat aircraft, on the joint development and production of which Russia and Belarus have agreed, will enter commercial operation in 2028.

Whether this is the aircraft in question is not specified in the STV report.