Russia sets up company to build and sell new airplane

Russia has set up a new company, Natsionalny Proekt 334, that will start mass production and sale of the new Russian airplane Tu-334. Establishers of the closed joint-stock company are seven firms, the largest stock packages belong to airplane building corporations MiG and Tupolev (27.75 per cent each) and the Blizhnemagistralny samolet company (26.5 per cent).

"In the new project the designer and the producer have united their efforts with the aircraft operators. Today only close cooperation with airlines allows producing equipment that will be in demand on the market," Nikolai Nikitin, head of the Tupolev corporation and member of the new company's board, said at a briefing in Moscow on Tuesday.

The new airplane will be produced in the settlement of Lukhovitsy near Moscow. The serial production will start already at the end of the year, Nikitin said.

The short distance liner Tu-334 will be produced in several modifications. The passenger one is designed for transporting 102 passengers. The flight range of a standard configuration plane at a speed of 820 km per hour and full load is over 3,100 km.