An-124 Ruslan Industry Team Discussed the Nearest Future of the Aircraft

Released on Thursday, July 24, 2008

On July 24, 2008 the Conference of designers of AN-124 Ruslan and its components, operators and manufacturers of these heavy transports took place at ANTONOV ASTC. Representatives of Antonov Airlines, Volga-Dnepr, Polyot, Russian Federation's Air Force airlines as well as Ukrainian and Russian industrial enterprises such as Aviastar JS, Aviapribor-holding, Techpribor, Nauka, Teploobmennik, Electroprivod, Voshod, Spectr, Hydromash, Kotlin-novator, KhADB and others took part in it.

According to the experts the world volume of transportations of large sized and super heavy cargoes growth with the tempo of 12% per year. Thereupon rise of the effective use of the existing fleet of these airplanes as well as their modernization and serial production resumption became the main subjects of the Conference which had especial topicality.

Having discussed practical questions of prolongation of the operation term and further improvement of the existing fleet of Ruslans, participants of the Conference signed "Decision of the Conference of the representatives of suppliers of AN-124-100 components and the aircraft operators". According to that document no later than in 2010 works on extension of designed specified service life of the operated AN-124-100s and their modifications till 45000 flight hours, 10000 flights and 40 years of service have to be fulfilled.

The components for the airplane modernization according to the new ICAO and Eurocontrol requirements as well as for resumption of Ruslan serial production will be developed.