The Russian MS-21 airliner will be certified and enter mass production by the end of 2024, said Sergey Chemezov, president of the Russian State Technology Group.
“We plan to start testing other systems of the aircraft in 2023 in order to certify and start mass production by the end of 2024. Some of these systems have already passed bench testing.”
The Irkut MS-21 (also known as MC-21 and Yak-242) is a Russian twin-engine narrow-body airliner developed by the Irkut Group, a subsidiary of United Aeronautics Manufacturing Corporation of Russia, and the Yaklev Design Bureau, with the first prototype publicly unveiled on June 8, 2016, having made its maiden flight on May 28, 2017, according to publicly available information.
This is the second large civil aircraft project developed in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, following the Sukhoi Superjet 100, which is a medium- and long-range narrow-body twin-engine airliner.
It is worth noting that the Sukhoi Superjet 100 is currently Russia’s leading domestically produced airliner, but can usually accommodate less than 100 passengers. The medium-range Irkut MS-21 / MC-21 has a potential capacity of more than 200 passengers and uses Russian-made Perm PD-14 turbofan engines.
The full name of MS/МС-21 is “Магистральный Самолёт 21 века”, which means “mainline aircraft of the 21st century”, and the Latin letter transcription of Kirill’s letter МС-21 is MS-21, but since Kirill’s letter “С” and the Latin letter “C” have exactly the same appearance, Irkut Group decided to make a mistake and sell it directly under the name “MC-21”.
