Xi’an to Produce Antonov’s Biggest Transport Jets?
At Xi’an, the Xi’an Aircraft Industry Company Ltd. has for many years built its Y-line cargo planes. The Y-7, Y-8 and Y-9 are based on Soviet-era, mid-size Antonov cargo models.
Now, Xian’s parent company, Beijing-based Aviation Industry Corporation of China, wants to move into production of Antonov’s strategic air lift jet models; the An-124-100 ‘Ruslan,’ the largest military transport aircraft in the world.
The Ruslan can carry 150 tons of cargo, about three times the capacity of China’s largest transport plane, the Y-20 ‘Chubby Girl’ cargo jet. The largest cargo jet of the American military, the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy can carry a 120 ton payload.
The Chinese also are setting their sites on the biggest plane in the world, Ukraine’s An-225, or ‘Mriya’, which can carry 250 tons. An outgrowth of the Ruslan, only one Mriya, or ‘Dream’ has been built. It sits in a hangar at Antonov’s Gostomel airport, about 40 km nw of central Kyiv. A half-finished second Mriya sits in a nearby Antonov factory.
Last summer, after seven years of negotiations, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, or AICC, told Chinese CCTV state television that they had signed a deal with Antonov to produce the Ruslan and Mriya in Xi’an.
Antonov denied they had agreed to sell plans to the Mriya, saying they are negotiating “a contract under which the completion and modernization of the second An-225 Mriya will be carried out at the facilities of the Antonov state enterprise.”
Antonov is considered financially vulnerable, During the first half of this year, its profit was down by two thirds compared to same period in 2016, falling to slightly less than $1 million.
In this case, the sale of Ukraine’s half-built, second Mriya would be similar to China’s purchase in 1998 of the Varyag, a 2/3 completed aircraft carrier owned by Ukraine. Rebuilt and modernized by China’s military, the carrier was rebaptised the Liaoning. Last November, the Liaoning, China’s first aircraft carrier, was declared ‘combat ready.’
