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The Ukrain's Antonov aircraft company works in close co-operation with its Russian neighbours on many projects including the An-70 transport aircraft

Photographs Tim Ripley

Russian aircraft

back on course

Challenges in the east force intriguing developments

Jon Lake offers a

definitive view of

Russian aeronautical

challenges and of high

fliers in arms sales

that could offer a way

forward for the

Russian aircraft

industry.

Russia's aviation industry was once in an enviable position, enjoying a huge captive market. Aeroflot served a country whose climate and geography made air transport a necessity and the USSR placed heavy reliance on aircraft for defence.
However, within a command economy the industry, isolated from market disciplines, was inefficient and subject to political interference. When the Russian air forces wanted a new fighter or Aeroflot a new airliner money was no object and economic competitiveness was an alien concept. In addition to the Russian market, many Soviet client states took the industry's products and if such customers were not actually paying for their goods, it was of little consequence. The money kept rolling in from central government.
As a result of such interference the aviation industry suffered from collective inefficiencies and was bureaucratically bloated. The requirements of a particular five-year plan were accorded a much higher priority than meeting customer requirements. Despite purges that decimated the Soviet aviation industry in the 1930s, there was an impressive recovery during the Great Patriotic War and by 1945 Red air forces had some of the most effective combat aircraft of the era. Post-war Russia's aviation industry built up an enviable reputation.

Some of its products set new world records, sometimes in spectacular fashion and Soviet aerospace put the first vehicle, animal and man in space and until recently kept up with the west.
Russia has produced world-beating combat aircraft, for example the MiG-15 was in many ways superior to the F-86 Sabre, a development that allowed the Russians to produce the top-scoring aces during the war in Korea. In the civil field Russian airliners have also set high standards. The Ilyushin 11-18 was one of the world's first and best turbine airliners and the Tupolev Tu-104 entered service just after the record-breaking de Havilland Comet. Recently, aircraft such as the MiG-29 have attracted disputed claims of superiority over western equivalents. Such claims are of course open to argument but there is no doubt that this and many other aircraft are products of an industry capable of excellent work.
At the end of the cold war and the unleashing of the forces of perestroika and glasnost, the industry underwent massive change, armed forces declined in size and importance and cuts were imposed. Air forces found them selves unable to fund many of their new aircraft programmes and aircraft companies were encouraged to explore conversion to civilian production as a political rather than an economic imperative. The manufacturers of civil aircraft were also affected. Many of Aeroflot's former constituent companies began looking to the west for new aircraft that were better able to sustain operations in the cut throat free market. Russian aircraft also lost their attractiveness to foreign customers as prices rose and subsidies disappeared.
There was little experience of marketing and many of the industry's products had been produced to service an entirely different operating philosophy. Airliners were optimised to operate from Russia's primitive airports as a subsidised form of public transport rather than for maximising seat/mile revenue. In some cases this made them difficult to sell to customers used to western airliners and operating procedures.

Bouyant Russian arms sales during the past few years offer the country's aircraft industry a way back to pre-eminence

Military aircraft also were built to serve a different philosophy. They were rugged, battle-damage tolerant and easy to service, but had short airframe lives and short overhaul periods. Fighters were designed to be part of an overall air-defence system with little autonomous capability and attack aircraft had little all-weather or precision-attack capability but all had to compete outside their traditional markets and in environments where soviet operating philosophies were completely alien. A number of organisational changes have been made that it is believed will help to improve competitiveness and win new markets and joint ventures with western companies have been established to correct known deficiencies. There have been attempts to group previously independent design bureaux with production plants and component suppliers and others have conducted their own marketing and sales operations.

Advanced characteristics that met Soviet demands are apparant in many of the aircraft designs that were on the stocks when the cold war ended

The umbrella organisations looking after the industry's marketing and sales organisations have been refined and reconstructed. Under the aegis of the Ministry of the Aviation Industry, Aviaexport will continue to oversee civil aircraft sales. Responsibility for military sales has passed from Aviaexport to Oboron export and now on to Rosvoorouzhenie.

This now appears to have been sustained and the industry has become essential in the drive for exports to win vital foreign currency to fuel Russia's recovery.
Although Russia sells military equipment to 51 countries, China and India provided more than 50 per cent of the revenues earned during 1995. Rosvoorouzhenie is determined to build a more stable basis for expansion and has organised seven regional sales programmes covering India, China, south-east Asia, Europe, the middle east, Africa and Latin America. Economically driven exports will replace the ideological and aid-based aircraft export programme that are no longer viable. The Gulf war and the consequent embargo on Iraq, had a disastrous effect on Russian sales, its regional market share slumped to five per cent. This was offset by growth in the Asian market where Russia exploited instability in the Korean peninsula, continuing problems between China and Taiwan and uncertainty over the Paracel and Spratley Islands.

The An-124 proof that the Soviet air industry could turn out excellent performers

In 1994 Russia took a 7.5-per-cent share of the world's arms sales and raised this to 13.4 per cent in 1995. This put Russia ahead of Britain, France and Germany but still behind the US in the arms market.
In 1995 aircraft accounted for 52 per cent of Russian arms sales and the director of Rosvoorouzhenie has announced his ambition to reach an annual figure of US$1O-12bn. In the long term the industry has many problems to overcome.

Its transport aircraft are not as efficient as those produced in the west and combat aircraft lack modern avionics and continue to struggle on the export market despite their excellent handling and performance characteristics. Many types are handicapped by having been designed to meet Soviet requirements that placed greatest emphasis on operability from austere airfields with minimal maintenance but little

importance on life-cycle costs, longevity and long time-between-overhauls figures. Aircraft such as the MiG-29 are not inferior to their western equivalents but are very different in concept. Russian avionics, displays, sensors, computers and processors are beginning to catch up with those already in service in the west but until they do Russian aircraft will continue to suffer a credibility gap.
Russia's economic situation has had a disastrous effect on future programmes and neither the air force nor Aeroflot have resources to fund long-term replacement aircraft programmes beyond interim developments of existing types. The future of such aircraft as the MiG 1-42 remains uncertain and lack of funding and long-term planning could have serious repercussions, but elsewhere there are encouraging signs that could bring substantial benefits to the aircraft industry.

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