Russia, UAE to design a new 250-seat narrowbody aircraft

Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have started preliminary talks on the joint production of civil aircraft, which could be located in the UAE, Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov announced at the Dubai Air Show. “We will create a working group to discuss it further,” Chemezov added.

The aircraft would be based on Russia’s single-aisle twin passenger jet, the 250-passenger MC-21-400, which is a planned version of Irkut Corp.’s MC-21 family.

The MC-21 was rolled out on June 8, 2016 and made the first flight May 28, 2017. The aircraft type is currently available in two versions—the -200 and -300—which seat 132 and 163, respectively, in a standard two-class layout, or 165 and 211 in a high-capacity configuration.

In September, Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. revealed plans to develop long-range wide-body aircraft—called the CR929—which is being jointly developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (COMAC) and Russia’s United Aircraft Corp.

(Polina Montag-Girmes - ATWOnline News)