REUTERS
Production of An-124 Ruslan aircraft under the Antonov brand without the participation of the Ukrainian design bureau is impossible, the press service says.
Antonov State Enterprise does not intend to restore cooperation with the Russian side for the production and modernization of An-124-100 Ruslan aircraft.
"The question of the resumption by the specialists of SE Antonov of mass production of An-124-100 Ruslan aircraft together with the Russian side is not on the table," Antonov press service stated in a response to an inquiry by Obozrevatel.
On the possibility of Russia to independently manufacture and modernize the Ruslan aircraft, the press service reported that an industrial complex Aviastar had been set up in Russia's Ulyanovsk precisely for manufacturing Ruslans.
With the help of Antonov State Enterprise, the batch production of these aircraft had been launched and 36 aircraft were eventually manufactured.
Read alsoRussia set to build An-124 Ruslan aircraft under another brand
"When it comes to modernization, changes are required to the typical design. At the same time, it is only the aircraft developer, Antonov, which has all technical data and necessary information on the design, properties of the resource, service life and airworthiness of the AN-124-100 aircraft, including the data of tests and analyses required to preserve the integrity of the design. Thus, the production of An-124 aircraft under the Antonov brand without the participation of Antonov SE is impossible," the report said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Russia sought to resume production of the Ukrainian An-124 Ruslan aircraft under a new brand.