How the Russian Federation, for the first time in the modern global aircraft industry, assembled its medium—range aircraft inside one country - from a black composite wing to Russian avionics. Why the new MC-21-310 will be more comfortable than the foreign Boeing-737 and Airbus A320/321 aircraft we are familiar with today: lower cabin pressure, wide aisle, large luggage racks and other details.
Anatoly Gaidansky, First Deputy Managing Director and Director of the Yakovlev Engineering Center (part of Rostec UAC), General Director of Aerocomposite JSC, spoke about the development of the fully Russian MC-21 aircraft in the podcast of the Moscow Aviation Institute "How it Works" . We took the main theses:
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| Anatoly Gaidansky. |
| Source: Frame from the MAI podcast |
What is the MC-21 aircraft?
The MC-21 is an aircraft that is designed and manufactured in the class of medium—range single-aisle aircraft. Our aircraft's competitors are the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320/321, the most massive aircraft in the global aviation industry. The maximum passenger capacity of our aircraft is 211 passengers. It is equipped with modern engines, modern avionics and must fly at a range of up to 4,500 kilometers.
How is the MC-21 fundamentally different from the Soviet Tu-154 and Yak-42 aircraft?
In general, an airplane does the same thing as those planes: it transports a certain number of passengers from point A to point B, but it is fundamentally different. Firstly, of course, the comfort for passengers. Secondly, it is economical and, most importantly, safe, because if you compare a modern aircraft with the Tu-154, it's like comparing a "penny" from the seventies and the most modern, sophisticated sports car of the current generation, which has entertainment systems, air conditioning, climate control, security systems, active and passive. That is, it seems that we have the same thing: we move the passenger from one point to another, but with much greater comfort and a much greater degree of safety.
What stage is the MS-21-310 project at today and when will regular passenger flights begin?
The project is at the stage of final refinement. In other words, we are carrying out certification flights and certification work and plan to complete them next year. In parallel, serial production has already been launched at our Irkutsk Aviation Plant and at the factories of our related companies. And next year, by the end of the fourth quarter, we plan to transfer the first 8 production aircraft to Aeroflot.
How many such airliners are planned to be produced in Russia per year?
We plan to increase our production capacity to 36 aircraft per year over the coming years.
What innovations and technologies are used in MS-21?
The first innovation is a composite wing, which was first used in the world for an aircraft of this size. It provides improved aerodynamics, a good resource and improved weight characteristics. The second is a wider fuselage, which allows passengers to be accommodated more comfortably, have a wider aisle, large luggage racks for cargo storage, as well as larger portholes for passenger comfort. The third is the active side handles that we use, they improve the safety of piloting the aircraft. Fourth, we have a more comfortable cabin pressure compared to our competitors. That is, for competitors, this is an analogue of approximately the height in the mountains of 2200-2300 meters, for us it is about 1800 meters. In other words, the passenger is flying in a more comfortable situation. And the most important thing is the most modern digital control systems, which can dramatically increase the reliability and safety of the aircraft.
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| MS-21. |
| Source: UAC |
Which engineering solution in this aircraft is your main pride?
A modern power supply system that allows for a high degree of safety in the distribution of electricity flows in the event of a failure of certain generation systems. This is a composite wing, of course, which was first developed in the Russian Federation and used on our aircraft. And, of course, it is very respectable that our industry has been able to create fully Russian avionics, which has now been implemented and allows us to certify this machine.
What makes the interior of the MS-21 more spacious than that of its competitors?
The simplest thing is the larger fuselage diameter: it is significantly larger than that of a Boeing, and even larger than that of an Airbus, which makes it possible to comfortably accommodate passenger seats. And in the aisle of the cabin, a man with a flight attendant's cart can easily disperse. It's quite difficult to disperse on the same Boeing-737. We have no problems. It also allows you to make larger luggage racks for cargo storage. And the larger volume of the fuselage creates space for the passenger — the passenger will feel comfortable on a fairly long flight. This is purely for comfort. We are losing certain weight indicators on this — yes, the fuselage is getting a little heavier. We are introducing additional aerodynamic drag solely for comfort and in order to ensure an increase in the turnover rate of passengers at the airport, that is, people get off faster, enter faster, board faster, and clean the plane easier.
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| MS-21. |
| Source: UAC |
How does the MS-21 climate control solve the problem of noise and dry air?
Our air conditioning system is made at a very high technological level. It is also one of the systems that we are proud of. We did it with our partners, the Heat Exchanger company. It is built very complexly. Unfortunately, I will not be able to tell you in a short interview how it is made and constructed. But, believe me, this is done at the highest global level in order to maximize the passenger's ability to feel comfortable in the cabin. I've already talked about air pressure.: For us, this is approximately the equivalent of an altitude of 1800 meters, which is much lower than that of our competitors, who have 2,300 meters. The higher you are in the mountains, the less comfortable you are. First of all, the result is obtained due to the higher strength of the fuselage. We did this in order to provide a comfortable value for the passenger. We had to make certain decisions, which, unfortunately, naturally lead to some weight gain, but for the sake of passenger comfort, we went for it.
What is the use of composites in the aircraft industry, and what effects have already been confirmed?
The first is the wing of the so—called greater elongation, which improves the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft. With aluminum alloys, it is quite problematic to make a wing of such an extension for many reasons, but this is also the main function. The second is a reduction in weight compared to aluminum: a composite wing can be made lighter than a similar aluminum wing due to the unique rigidity and strength characteristics of the composite. The third is the absence of corrosion, which is present on aluminum alloys, the composite is not susceptible to them. And the fourth, and one of the most important, is the almost infinite resource of the composite, which makes the airframe's resource characteristics comfortable enough to operate.
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| MS-21. |
| Source: UAC |
What is the MS-21 black wing made of and how is this material produced in Russia?
The first is that the carbon fiber that forms the basis of the composite wing is made at Rosatom plants. It is made, so to speak, from oil. Oil is processed at Russian petrochemical plants, so—called acrylonitrile is obtained, then a polymer is obtained from this acrylonitrile - polyacrylonitrile, the so-called white fiber. After that, black fiber is obtained from white fiber by firing, which goes to the next redevelopment of our company, also by our partners, who apply appropriate additives to it and make it tougher. This fiber goes to the factory in Ulyanovsk, our composite plant, where the laying of this tape is carried out using automatic laying. After that, under the influence of vacuum, this tape is impregnated with a binder and baked in a thermal tool — this already turns out to be a composite structure, that is, panels, spars, which are then assembled into a wing caisson in the same place, in the city of Ulyanovsk, at our factory. At the same time, our plant in Kazan manufactures mechanization elements: all flaps, ailerons, air brakes, interceptors, rudders, elevators, which also go to assemble the aircraft, to the wing. Now it is a completely Russian process, all the technologies are Russian, the material is completely Russian. As you know, we have been operating in the sanctions regime since the end of 2018, so in 2019-2020 we completely replaced the material with imports, and this wing with Russian materials was already certified as part of the MC-21 aircraft in 2022.
What is the percentage of Russian parts in the MC-21 today and how long did the import substitution take?
If we talk about the composite wing, we started at the end of 2018. We started import substitution in terms of aircraft systems in 2021, but with the introduction of sanctions in 2022, this work has accelerated dramatically. Well, we're in the middle of 2026 now. At the moment, we have two aircraft flying: the 12th car is partially import-substituted, and the 13th car is fully import—substituted. Now, at the moment, all the systems that are on the plane are Russian, that is, there is not a single imported system in the MC-21 aircraft that will be [installed], and also not a single imported system will go into the first supplied aircraft for Aeroflot — everything will be Russian.
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| MS-21. |
| Source: UAC |
What was the most difficult thing to replace in the MS-21 and how did the engineers solve this problem?
There are a lot of complex systems in an airplane. We have an extremely complex air conditioning system, which was very difficult to achieve. It was difficult to create an electricity supply system, an electricity distribution system, a generation system, an APU launch and generation system, avionics with all the ensuing consequences. This is the work of hundreds and hundreds of enterprises, first-level cooperatives, thousands of enterprises, second-level cooperatives, tens of thousands of third-level cooperatives. In other words, this is a huge job for hundreds of thousands of people, hundreds, or even thousands of enterprises, who worked together with our design bureaus during these years, from 2021 to 2026. We set technical specifications, we watched with them, worked out the RCDs, worked out prototypes, conducted joint tests, stumbled upon failures, went back, redesigned the systems. Now we believe that most of the systems have already been developed. Software development was extremely difficult. A modern aircraft is not only about electronics, not only mechanics and drives. There are also hundreds and hundreds of complexes that control these digital drives and systems. We fully have our avionics control system, which is also being developed at Yakovlev, and our collaborators are developing the most complex systems, such as the braking system, which is extremely complex on an airplane. All of this is influenced by certification, requirements, failures, and security. Therefore, a modern civilian aircraft is not just a manufactured product, it is a whole range of aviation tasks that are being solved.
How has the creation of the MC-21 changed and upended the Russian aviation industry?
I believe that the MC-21 has fundamentally changed us. I'll explain why. Firstly, it is the first time in the world that a modern aircraft of this level is being built within one country. Neither our esteemed colleagues Boeing, Airbus, nor anyone makes an airplane inside one country — all the best international cooperation works for them: Japanese, Europeans, Chinese, Americans. The same applies to Chinese aircraft. They design the modern aircraft in their design — they design the airframe itself, and then the systems are supplied by those companies that, sorry, ate the dog on this. They have been working on their technological solutions for dozens of years on tens of thousands of aircraft flying in the world. Here we are faced with the need to do all this from scratch in the shortest possible time. Therefore, for the first time we were able to create an aircraft of this level within one country. Of course, we are proud of this, and now we are completely import-independent on all systems and can sell our aircraft all over the world absolutely openly. No one can forbid us from this sale, because we are not dependent on any of them. Plus, we have created competencies, a design school has been created, factories have been created, and most importantly, we have grown, of course, a powerful cooperation together. That is, there were systems that were unique all over the world. Let's say that a waste disposal system and a water supply system for the entire global aviation industry are made by one company, Monogram. We have now grown our supplier. The same applies to emergency ladders. The same applies to mid-air collision warning systems. Well, such systems can be named, named and named. That is, we already have industry and design schools that allow us to solve any problem. That is, if the task now is to make a wide—body long-range aircraft, we will be able to easily cope with this task.
