Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv) has said that it is not participating in designing of a new aircraft of Ilyushin Design Bureau (Russia, Moscow), and demands that the aircraft is named without using the An brand, the Ukrainian enterprise has said on its website.
Since 2017, Ilyushin Design Bureau has been developing a deeply modernized heavy military transport aircraft based on the An-124-100 Ruslan, which is planned to be named the An-124-100M.
“Antonov State Enterprise’s specialists do not deny the technical possibility of deep modernization of the An-124-100 Ruslan transport aircraft. However, the selection and installation of new modern equipment by Ilyushin Design Bureau will lead to a significant change in the aircraft’s flight performance compared to the base model. Thus, a new aircraft will appear in the history of modern aircraft industry. Accordingly, it should receive a new name without the use of the An brand, since Antonov State Enterprise is not involved in its development and will not be responsible for its safety,” the company said.
In addition, the Ukrainian aircraft concern reported that in the period from 2004 to 2007, Antonov has developed and certified three modifications of Ruslan, one of which has already received the name An-124-100M. The other two are named An-124-100-150 and An-124-100M-150 and are characterized by an increased payload of up to 150 tonnes and the ability of carrying single cargo weighing up to 120 tonnes.
Antonov said that in global practice new modifications and variants of aircraft are usually created on the basis of devices of own design.
