Russian President Vladimir Putin familiarized himself with the progress of the MC-21 program during the MAKS-2017 airshow
On July 18, during the visit to the Moscow International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS-2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin familiarized himself with the implementation of the new MC-21 commercial airliner program.
The head of state listened to a brief report of Oleg Demchenko, the head of the Irkut Corporation, about the MC-21 aircraft progress. The test pilots, Heroes of Russia Oleg Kononenko and Roman Taskaev, shared their impressions of the new airliner with Vladimir Putin. According to them, the first flights left the most favorable impression.
The President of Russian Federation watched videos of the recent test flight of the MC-21-300 aircraft over Lake Baikal. These videos from the escorting aircraft were demonstrated for the first time.
The flight simulator of the MC-21-300 aircraft and a model of the new VIP version of the airliner are exhibited at the UAC stand in the F-1 pavilion.
MC-21-300 test aircraft, which performed the maiden flight on May 28, 2017, is being tested at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, a branch of Irkut Corporation.
As of July 18, 2017, MC-21-300 test aircraft successfully completed 9 test flights. The processing of information obtained during the tests is being conducted.
Preparations for strain-gage testing began. More than 500 sensors are glued onto the MC-21-300 aircraft, which will record the loads acting on all elements of the airframe. Then, ground-based strain-gage calibration will be carried out, during which sensors record the effect on the aircraft of various combinations of reference loads. This calibration will ensure the required accuracy of the sensor readings in subsequent flights. As a result, designers will be able to compare the actual loads acting on the glider in flight, with the loads taken during the design of the aircraft.
The MC-21-300 aircraft will perform more than 30 flights in Irkutsk within the framework of factory testing. After that the plane will fly to Zhukovsky airfield for passing the certification tests.
In 2018, three more MC-21-300 aircraft will join test flights, which are currently being built at the Irkutsk aviation plant, a subsidiary of Irkut Corporation.