New MC-21-300 commercial airliner has completed maiden flight

On 28 May, 2017, the maiden flight of MC-21-300 commercial aircraft took place at the airfield of Irkutsk Aviation Plant, the affiliate of Irkut Corporation (a UAC member).

The duration of the flight was 30 minutes at the altitude of 1000 meters, at the speed of 300 km/hour.

The flight plan included checking of in-flight stability and controllability, and also the controllability of the power plant. According to the program, during the flight a simulated landing approach was performed, followed by a flight over the runway, climbing and turning. This technique is typical for the maiden flight of new types of aircraft.

The aircraft was piloted by the crew commander Oleg Kononenko, test pilot, the Hero of Russia, and the copilot Roman Taskayev, test-pilot, The Hero of Russia.

Oleg Kononenko reported, “flight mission is accomplished. The flight went in the normal mode. There are no obstacles revealed preventing the tests continuation”.

Roman Taskayev noted, that ''characteristics and operational modes of the power plant are confirmed, all aircraft systems operated without glitches.''

Oleg Demchenko, the President of Irkut Corporation, stated, ''today is the historic day for our personnel and the whole big team, which works on creation of MC-21 aircraft. We put the most advanced technical solutions in our aircraft, to provide enhanced comfort for passengers and attractive economic characteristics for air carriers. I am happy to declare the maiden flight of the MC-21 aircraft has been successfully accomplished. I congratulate all project participants on our common holiday!''

Yury Slyusar, the President of United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), stressed, ''MC-21 is created in a wide cooperation, where together with Irkut, other enterprises of the United Aircraft Corporation are actively participating, namely Aerocomposite company, Ulyanovsk and Voronezh aircraft plants, UAC Integration Center in Moscow. This is an important stage in the formation of the new UAC industrial model. According to our estimates, the global demand in the MC-21 segment will be about 15,000 new aircraft in the next 20 years. I'm sure the airlines will appreciate our new aircraft''.