Russia's Irkutsk Aviation Plant, an affiliate of Irkut Corporation, revealed that the maiden flight of its MC-21-300 commercial aircraft took place yesterday (May 28) at the plant’s airfield.

Irkut Corporation is a Russian aircraft manufacturer and member of the United Aircraft Corporation.

The duration of the flight was 30 minutes at the altitude of 1000 m, at the speed of 300 km/hour, said a statement from the company.

The flight plan included checking of in-flight stability and controllability, and also the controllability of the power plant, it said.

According to the programme, 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, it added.

The new aircraft is Russia's first post-Soviet foray into production of a mainline commercial aircraft which it hopes will rival those of its Western competitors usch as Boeing and Airbus.

The test flight comes just three weeks after China staged the maiden flight of its new C919 passenger jet, highlighting the growing competition to industry heavyweights Boeing and Airbus, said a Reuters report.

Russian officials have said the MS-21 is superior to its Western-made counterparts in many respects, but Western analysts say both Russia and China face a huge challenge to shatter the transatlantic airplane duopoly, Reuters added.

The MC-21-300 aircraft was piloted by the crew commander Oleg Kononenko and copilot Roman Taskayev.

Kononenko said: “Flight mission is accomplished. The flight went in the normal mode. There are no obstacles revealed preventing the tests continuation.”

Roman Taskayev said: “Characteristics and operational modes of the power plant are confirmed, all aircraft systems operated without glitches.”

Oleg Demchenko, president of Irkut Corporation, said: “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,” he said.

“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,” he added.

Yury Slyusar, president of United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), said: “MC-21 is created in a wide cooperation, where together with Irkut, other enterprises of the UAC are actively participating, namely Aerocomposite company, Ulyanovsk and Voronezh aircraft plants, UAC Integration Centre 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,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service