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By Vovick Karnozov
Aeroflot, Boeing and the Mi-28N Combat Helicopter -
Nothing In Common Except Big News
 
Last week, Aeroflot - Russian International Airlines and Boeing signed a $400 million contract for the flagship carrier to buy ten 737-400s. Deliveries will begin in April of 1998 and end toward the beginning of 1999. Each aircraft will have a two-class cabin for 131 passengers.
According to Nikolai Glushkov, first deputy to ARIA and general director of financial matters, the recent contract involves a purchase in the form of financial leasing.
This is the first actual purchase of Boeing jets by a Russian carrier. Signing the 737 deal is the first serious act made by Valery Okulov, who replaced Marshal Eugeny Shaposhnikov as Aeroflot General Director on March 12. Valery, 45, is married to Boris Yeltsin's daughter Elena. Qualified as navigator, Okulov flew various civil types before becoming a deputy director at Aeroflot in 1996. "The most important problem for the company now is modernization of its existing fleet," he said. "Our strategic goal is to have fewer types in service. We have nine now, which is too many; the optimal figure is three or four... or five at maximum," Okulov added.
It took Boeing and ARIA a year to prepare the deal. Signed at Farnborough '96, the appropriate letter of intent met with a storm of criticism from the Tupolev design bureau and the leadership of Tatarstan republic. Tatar President Mentimer Shaimiev and Prime Minister Farid Mukhametshin tried hard to make ARIA obtain-- rather than the 737-- the 210-seat Tu-214 in production at Gorbunov's KAPO factory in the Tatar capital. Somewhat heavier, the Tu-214 has some minor advantages over the basic Tu-204 built at Aviastar in Ulianovsk.
In October, when the scandal was at its height, the three main ARIA arguments in favor of the 737 were absence of the certificate of type for the Tu-214, existence of the plane in only one actual airframe and immature Perm Motors PS-90 engines. By now all three "obstacles" have been taken care of. The Air Register issued the type certificate in early April. The second and third airframes near completion at KAPO, which has started assembly of a fourth aircraft. Under the "power-by-hour" agreement with Aeroflot, Perm Motors' mechanics keep PS-90s on the wings of the operator's Il-96-300s in a working condition.
"We are very interested in the Tu-204," remarked Okulov, adding that "Aeroflot is the only operator who has really supported the Tu-204 program. We invested US$ 23 million into it but, as of today, we have no money and no aircraft..." Ironically, ARIA has made the Tu-204 unavailable by itself. Unhappy with the national flag carrier's intention to buy 737s, Tupolev, KAPO and Aviastar have found other customers, including Vnukovo Airlines, Egypt's KATO Aromatic, Tatar Air Lines, Aviastar Asia and Iran Air. Should ARIA place an order for Tu-204/214 airliners today, it would have to wait in a queue for several years before getting its aircraft. Alternatively, Aeroflot may take Tu-204-120s on operating lease from KATO Aromatic, but this particular version, powered by RollsRoyce engines, has not been certified yet.
"We need a mid-range airliner like the Tu-204," Okulov said.Why? The Russian media answers, "Because the recent order for ten 737s is an essential part of a complicated, half-political, half-financial deal between US and Russian politicians, financiers, industrialists and aviators." By signing the contract Boeing has removed the last wheelblock from the Il-96M, a new airliner from Ilyushin powered by Pratt & Whitney engines and fitted with Rockwell Collins avionics.
Mi-28N Seen Flying
The Moscow Helicopter Plant, also known as the Mil design bureau, has publicly shown its newest combat helicopter in flight. Aircraft #014, which is the first development prototype of the Mi-28N all-weather anti-tank helicopter, made a ten-min flight before journalists' eyes during which the Mil test-pilot Yudin immaculately performed rather difficult maneuvers at a height of 10 - 20 meters.
The effect made by the display flight was so powerful that Colonel General Vitaly Pavlov, the Commander of the Russian Army Aviation, decided to test the aircraft himself. Honored Military Pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union for actions in Afghanistan on the Mi-24 and Mi-8 combat helicopters, Pavlov lifted off Aircraft 014, kept it at a height of about one meter, made a 70-degree turn and landed.
"The child has been born!" exclaimed the General upon climbing out of the cockpit. "It is a pity I was limited on fuel to only one minute," he grumbled. "The readiness of the helicopter is very high," the General carried on, "and we will continue to finance the  program." Vitaly Pavlov added that the final decision on whether to put the Mi-28N in service with Russian Army Aviation
will be made by the test-pilots of the 30th Institute and army pilots of the 344th Center.
Georgy Sinelshikov, the newly-appointed General Director and General Designer of the Moscow Helicopter Plant, says, "This particular aircraft [#014] has a new fully-digital flight control/navigation complex of the four plus generation. Sadly, I cannot open the cockpit for journalists for security reasons. The cockpit meets all modern requirements. Data are displayed on
color, multi-functional, liquid-crystal screens. The fully-digital on-board complex allows automatic terrain-following flights at a height of 5 meters with the aid of a digital map loaded into computer memory."
The Mi-28N carries on its stub wings 16 Ataka anti-tank command-guided missiles, Igla air-to-air missiles, 80- and 130-mm unguided rockets. A single-barrel 30-mm 2A42 cannon with 250 rounds is mounted on a movable platform under the nose. "The helicopter can fly and fire in good and bad weather by day and night," Sinelshikov states. Night-flying is carried out with the
help of a mast-mounted radar, Geofizika night goggles and infra-red sensors.
The radar from NPO Almaz not only allows detection of armored vehicles at a distance of up to 10 km, but solves navigation functions as well. During night flight it helps the pilot avoid such obstacles as houses, lamp-posts and trees. Details on the FLIR remain scarce; Mil people only say that 99% of the components in the on-board complex are Russian-made.
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