At a press conference held after the inspection of the enterprise and the test station, Denis Valentinovich talked about what is now being implemented on the sites of Perm enterprises and the implementation of the MC-21 aircraft test program:

Literally now, the general designer Alexander Aleksandrovich Inozemtsev reported to me on the progress of those works related to the use of the PD-14 engine on the MC-21. I can say that in the near future we should install it on an airplane, and the engines are already in Irkutsk in order to start testing this year. The second aircraft (with PD-14) will appear next year - we are remotorizing for PD-14 the first experimental aircraft MC-21, which next year will complete all its tasks in terms of test flights, in order to complete all certification procedures. Thus, we optimise the test program.

Regardless of the situation in the fight against coronavirus, of course, each region has its own limitations, rules and requirements that are set by Rospotrebnadzor. But our colleagues (at enterprises) are trying to satisfy all the requirements of Rospotrebnadzor as much as possible, find solutions, and we are connecting to this so as not to limit the movement of teams. Because the main thing in testing aircraft is people. That is, if it is possible to design in digital and be in a remote format of work, then it is impossible to do this in tests. There must be a person there.

Moreover, it is also about international certification. Therefore, we are tied here with our colleagues from Europe, with flight personnel, and are constantly in manual control mode. We agree on who, when, where is moving, how are the corresponding regimes ensured. Because if everything happens with strict quarantine restrictions, we, of course, will fly out very much in time. Therefore, while preserving all safety requirements, we must keep in mind the maximum preservation of the initial test schedules so that we can complete the main work this year and receive a certificate next year and begin shipping this aircraft to our main consumers. And, first of all, it will be our Russian companies.

I can tell you frankly, I don’t want to repeat the mistake that we had with the Superjet when we went widely to deliver to international markets, and at some point got a little stalled due to the unavailability of the after-sales service system. Therefore, we have now parallelised everything and, first of all, we will create a sufficient number of replacement engines and spare parts. We pre-pledged a sufficient number of them so that we have all the warehouses, all service centres were prepared so that the newly formed airline fleet is clearly and timely serviced. This does not mean that we are not talking about the development of foreign markets.

We are working, we have pre-orders from foreign suppliers, but, first of all, we will ensure delivery, and we have enough orders for Russian airlines. And then we will move to the external circuit. We agreed with the UEC management, in fact, this is one of the tasks that I wanted to solve today by visiting the test complex - to make sure how the work on the main project - PD-14 is going. And also see how colleagues are ready to develop new niches - PD-8 and PD-35. Such an engine as the PD-35 was not designed or produced either in Soviet times or after. This is a serious design, engineering challenge for our aircraft propulsion enterprises.

Today we agreed that the funds provided for in the program will be, first of all, sent to the construction of a modern testing center, which will test both experimental engines and serial ones. In addition to the complex that we examined today, which are the test benches PD-14 and PS-90, we also have the task of constructing complexes for testing the PD-35 and PD-8, including other promising models. That is, we want to immediately lay such an infrastructure of the test center, which will provide testing of engines with power up to 50 tons of thrust. It will be the most modern aircraft engine test center in Europe.

As for the MC-21, the most critically dependent component of the aircraft on foreign partners is the black wing, which will now be made of Russian composites. I am very sorry that the foreign colleagues themselves refused the possibility of supplying these products to our joint project. But to us this, in a sense, is a plus. It was a challenge, but we coped with this challenge, given the fact that my colleagues from Rosatom had long been planning a project to launch the production of composite yarns in Tatarstan, in Alabuga.

And today I can report that a center section made of Russian composites has already been installed on the MC-21. Thus, we have already dealt with the first part of this task. In July, we put in TsAGI a full-fledged domestic composite wing for static testing. And I’m sure that all the parameters that we originally laid down in the design of the aircraft, with replacement for materials from the Russian manufacturer, will be fully met.