Putin Unites Russian Aircraft Makers
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed the decree “On Open Joint Stock Company United Aircraft Building Corporation,” the presidential press service reported. The federal government will have a 75-percent stake in the new corporation.

The United Aircraft Building Corporation will include Russia’s leading aircraft makers: the Sukhoi Aviation Holding Company (Moscow), the MiG Russian Plane Building Corporation (Moscow), the Ilyushin Aviation Company, the Tupolev Company (Moscow), the Kazan Aviation Production Association, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Production Association, the Nizhny Novgorod Aircraft Building Plant Sokol, and the Novosibirsk Aviation Production Association.

All these companies were removed from the list of Russia’s strategic assets. The MiG Russian Plane Building Corporation and the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Production Association will be transformed into open joint stock companies fully owned by the government.

Within the framework of the project, a government commission will be set up to ensure integration of Russia’s aircraft building sector.

The United Aircraft Building Corporation will “develop, produce, sell, provide maintenance services, modernize, repair and recycle civil and military aviation equipment in the interests of state and other customers, including foreigners, and it will also introduce new technologies and designs in the area of aircraft building,” the decree says.

Earlier reports said it would take from nine months to one year for the country’s aircraft builders to unite. The head of the single corporation will be determined before the end of this year.

The united corporation will have four business units, called Combat Aviation, Civil Aviation, Military Transport and Special Aviation, and Hubs and Components. The annual turnover of the corporation is expected to be between $8.2 billion and $8.5 billion.

The decision to set up such a company was made back in 1999, but words did not translate into action until 2004, when the first steps were made to implement the project. The single corporation could be established before the end of next year. It may be modeled on America’s Boeing or the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

The creation of the single aircraft building corporation will allow Russia to produce up to 120 civil aircraft a year. Today, the country’s aircraft making industry makes only nine planes a year.