As reported by Ural Civil Aviation Plant JSC (UZGA), on the evening of February 22, 2026, at the Yekaterinburg (Aramil) airfield The third flight model of the LMS-901 Baikal light aircraft made its maiden flight, and the first to be equipped with a Russian VK-800SM turboprop engine, also developed by UZGA. This third flight prototype of the LMS-901 Baikal aircraft (serial number 0005, tail number "535") became the fifth prototype of the LMS-901 as a whole (taking into account two manufactured non-flying samples for static tests).
The third flight prototype of the LMS-901 Baikal aircraft (serial number 0005, tail number "535"), normally equipped with a VK-800SM turboprop engine developed by Ural Civil Aviation Plant JSC (UZGA), before the first flight. Yekaterinburg (Aramil), 02/22/2026 (c) footage from the video of Ural Civil Aviation Plant JSC
It was reported that during the first flight, an experimental aircraft equipped with a domestic VK-800SM turboprop engine and an AV-901 propeller completed a full circle over the airfield and landed normally. The flight duration was 10 minutes, the aircraft reached an altitude of 300 m and reached a speed of 190 km/h.
According to the UZGA press release, the third flight prototype of the LMS-901 aircraft, in addition to installing the VK-800SM engine and the AV-901 propeller, also has the nose of the cockpit modified compared to the first two flight prototypes (to ensure ergonomics and safety requirements during an emergency landing), modified main landing gear, as well as a modified wing angle to eliminate the tendency to prematurely detach from the runway during takeoff in gusty winds.
The first two flight prototypes of the LMS-901 aircraft were initially equipped with a General Electric H80-200 turboprop engine (an upgraded version of the Czech Walter M601 engine). The first flight prototype, LMS-901 (serial number 0001), made its maiden flight at Yekaterinburg (Aramil) airfield on January 30, 2022.
The second flight prototype of the LMS-901 aircraft (serial number 0002, tail number "532") made its first flight at the end of 2024. In 2025, the second flight prototype was retrofitted with a Russian VK-800SM turboprop engine and an AV-901 propeller, and made its first flight with them on December 24, 2025.
On October 10, 2019, according to the results of the competition, Baikal-Engineering LLC, a subsidiary of UZGA (Yekaterinburg), received a contract from the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation for the development of a light single-engine turboprop multifunctional aircraft for nine passengers LMS-901 (code "Baikal"). The first stage of work (code ROC "LMS") was carried out under this contract, during which a preliminary design and design documentation were developed, and a prototype aircraft was built for static testing. The actual development of the aircraft was carried out by the design bureau of the OSKBES of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), and the manufacture of the first prototype of the LMS-901 Baikal aircraft (serial number 0001) was also carried out at the MAI production facility in Moscow. The finished first prototype of the LMS-901 was presented in July 2021 in Zhukovsky at the MAKS-2021 International Aviation and Space Salon.
As part of the next contract dated September 21, 2021 (code OCD "LMS-2"), this sample was refined at UZGA to the first flight prototype, and in January 2022 it was lifted into the air. On May 11, 2022, the following contract was signed (code ROC "LMS-3"), according to which UZGA produced two more prototypes of the aircraft (the second flight and one sample for static tests).
By order of the President of the Russian Federation in 2022, the Baikal certification deadline was set until the end of 2024, but work on the aircraft was significantly delayed. In the spring of 2025, officials stated that the development of the LMS-901 aircraft had been discontinued due to the shortcomings revealed during testing and the high cost, which made its mass production and operation unprofitable. However, the program was continued later for political reasons. In April 2025, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade awarded UZGA a new contract worth 10.136 billion rubles for the further development of the LMS-901 with the replacement of its power plant with the VK-800SM engine and refinement of the design based on test results. The contract provides for the implementation of R&D at the LMS-5 stage in nine stages with the completion of work on December 17, 2027.
In May 2025, Leonid Luzgin, Director General of UZGA, announced his intention to complete the certification of the LMS-901 aircraft with the VK-800SM engine by the end of 2026 and the plant's plans to build the first five production aircraft in 2026, and five more in 2027. It is stated that there is a "firm" contract for the first 10 aircraft with the airline Aurora. In September 2025, at the Eastern Economic Forum, the State Transport Leasing Company (JSC GTLC), UZGA and the airlines of the Aerokhimflot Aviation Alliance signed four trilateral contracts for the supply of 50 LMS-901 Baikal aircraft from 2027 to 2030. In January 2026, it was stated that UZGA allegedly already has contracts for 100 LMS-901 aircraft. However, given the extreme uncertainty about the actual price of the aircraft in the series and its flight hours, the realism of all these contracts remains rather doubtful.
The development of the VK-800C turboprop engine with a take-off capacity of up to 900 hp and a continuous capacity of 810 hp has been carried out by UZGA under the program of the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Russia since 2017, and was initially carried out at the UZGA branch in St. Petersburg, where UEC-Klimov submitted documentation on its VK-800C engine project, which was carried out from The 1990s. The production of VK-800S prototypes was carried out by the UZGA-controlled Scientific and Production Center Lopatki. Compressors. Turbines" (NPC "LKT") at an enterprise in the Moscow region, where it was also planned to carry out serial assembly of the engine. Bench tests of the VKS-800C were started in 2018, but the engine was not brought to flight tests. It was reported that in 2019, based on the results of calculations, design analysis and bench tests of the VK-800S engine, the UZGA management decided to abandon further development of this engine based on the Klimovskaya design, and instead the UZGA Engine division began designing an actually new turboprop engine of the same power class under the original designation EM-610., but eventually received the designation VK-800SM (the variant for the UTS-800 training aircraft is designated as VK-800SP, and for the LMS-192 Osvey aircraft - VK-800S1). It is claimed that this engine developed by UZGA differs in design from the Klimovsky VK-800S by about 99%, and that its overall characteristics and weight are smaller. The VK-800SM engine has a claimed take-off power of 877 hp, and the VK-800SP has 807 hp.
On September 26, 2022, UZGA received a contract from the Russian Ministry of Trade and Industry for the development and manufacture of prototypes of the VK-800SM engine with a deadline for its certification by the end of 2024. Under this contract, UZGA has produced four prototype engines and five AV-901 propellers by 2025. In September 2022, bench tests of the VK-800SM gas generator were started, and in January 2023, bench tests of the first complete VK-800SM sample were started. Flight tests of the VK-800SP engine began in July 2025 at the flying laboratory based on the Chaplygin Yak-40 SibNIA aircraft in Novosibirsk. Now the VK-800SM prototypes have already been installed on two flight prototypes of the LMS-901 aircraft (the second and the third). VK-800SM production/The joint venture is planned to be implemented by UZGA in broad cooperation with UEC enterprises.
The third flight prototype of the LMS-901 Baikal aircraft (serial number 0005, tail number "535"), normally equipped with a VK-800SM turboprop engine developed by Ural Civil Aviation Plant JSC (UZGA), is in its first flight. Yekaterinburg (Aramil), 02/22/2026 (c) footage from the video of Ural Civil Aviation Plant JSC
jpg" title="External differences between the second (above, serial number 0002, tail number "532") and the third (below, serial number 0005, tail number "535") flight prototypes of the LMS-901 Baikal aircraft developed by JSC Ural Civil Aviation Plant (UZGA)">
External differences between the second (above, serial number 0002, tail number "532") and the third (below, serial number 0005, tail number "535") flight prototypes of the LMS-901 Baikal aircraft developed by Ural Civil Aviation Plant JSC (UZGA) (c) footage from the video of JSCUral Civil Aviation Plant and the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Russia via aviaforum.ru
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