Soviet Aircraft Separated from Europe

16.04.2008 (13:47) | Kommersant

Urged by the EASA, the European Commission may soon ban Europe’s airlines from operating the planes of Soviet make, which number exceeds 250 in EU now.

The reason of the prohibition is the certification failure of such aircraft. As to the new jets of Russia, the certification of Tu-204 has been in progress for eight years already.

The term of applying to European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for certifying the planes of Soviet make expired in late March, that is the companies in Europe may no longer operate such aircraft. According to EASA, the EU airlines currently operate some 260 planes of Soviet make and the ban will extend to An-24, An-72, An-74, Tu-154, Yak-40 planes and Ka-26, Ka-32AO, Ka-32S and Ka-32T helicopters.

There is no way for the Soviet aircraft to pass the EASA certification as the applied requirements didn’t exist when they were designed and made, said Tupolev Deputy Chief Designer Valery Solozobov. The certification should extend only to the jets to be manufactured large-scale in the nearest years, Tu-204 and Tu-214, for instance, the official said.

“Tu-204-120 has passed all necessary tests and we are at the final stage of certification under the European standards,” Solozobov pointed out, adding that once Tu-204 gets the certificate, obtaining it for Tu-214 will be much easier, as most of the tests won’t be needed. The tricky point is that the certification continues for nearly eight years already, and it is Tu-204 with Rolls-Royce engines (out of production) that is being certified instead of the jet with Perm PS-90 engines that are the basic ones.

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