This article was first published by VPost.
It took 21 years for President Vladimir Putin to step aboard Russia’s new MC-21 passenger jet, the long-delayed plane that Moscow hopes will replace the aging Airbus and Boeing aircraft underpinning its commercial fleet.
But the plane Putin inspected at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant in July was markedly different from the aircraft that was originally envisioned. Western sanctions imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine forced manufacturer United Aircraft Corporation to replace its foreign-made engines, composite wing and other components with Russian alternatives.
The MC-21’s troubled development reflects the mounting pressure on Russian civil aviation after sanctions forced manufacturers to redesign aircraft using heavier and costlier domestic components, while airlines increasingly rely on aging Western-made planes kept flying through improvised supply chains.
Industry insiders say Russia has so far avoided a safety crisis, but warn that its fleet will continue to shrink — and that the MC-21 is unlikely to be produced quickly or cheaply enough to reverse the decline.
