New generation Ruslan planes to be produced in 2016-2018

MOSCOW, February 20 (Itar-Tass) -- Regular production of the Ruslan
new generation will start in Ulyanovsk in 2016-2018, Director General of
the Volga-Dnepr Company Valery Gabriel said.
"The Volga-Dnepr company will place an order for 20 planes, and there
is an option for 20 more," he said. "The project will repay itself if we
have orders for 50-60 An-24 Ruslan planes of the new generation."
"I am sure that the order for this model, which is unique in the
world, will come from Russia's Air Forces," he added.
The project is implemented jointly with aircraft specialists from
Ukraine.
In 2017-2018 the international aviation commission will raise its
requirements to the engines and board equipment. The programme to
modernise the Ruslan to answer the new requirements, would need 400
million dollars, Gabriel said.
Modernised Ruslan will have a cargo capacity of 150 tonnes.
"Not a single foreign aircraft even approaches Ruslan, their maximum
capacity is below 100 tonnes," experts say.
For a time the massive An-124 held the mantle of the world's largest
aircraft before the arrival of the An-225, a stretched six engine
derivative. It is commonly used for oversize freight charters. Developed
primarily as a strategic military freighter /in which role it can carry
missile units and main battle tanks/, the first prototype An-124 flew on
December 26, 1982. A second prototype, named Ruslan /after a Russian folk
hero/, made the type's first western public appearance at the Paris
Airshow in June 1985, preceding the type's first commercial operations in
January 1986. Since that time the An-124 has set a wide range of payload
records, a recent achievement being the heaviest single load ever
transported by air - a 124 tonne powerplant generator and its associated
weight spreading cradle, a total payload weight of 132.4 tonnes, set in
late 1993. Notable features include nose and tail cargo doors, 24 wheel
undercarriage allowing operations from semi prepared strips, the ability
to kneel to allow easier front loading, and flybywire control system. The
two major An-124 variants are the basic An-124 and similar Russian civil
certificated An-124-100.