MC-21 aircraft ‘freed’ from foreign composites — UAC

Yakovlev MC21 aircraft

Rosaviatsia has granted Yakovlev (part of the United Aircraft Corporation, UAC) approval for a major amendment to the type certificate of the Russian medium-range aircraft MC-21, which provides for the use of import-substituted composite materials in the vertical fin and horizontal stabilizer.

Obtaining this approval marks the completion of a key stage of import substitution and a series of works on integrating Russian composites into the MC-21 structure, the regulator stated.

The serial production of fin and stabilizer box structure from domestic composite materials is carried out by KAPO-Composite (part of the Aerocomposite company, itself part of Yakovlev).

“We have completely freed the aircraft from foreign materials and confirmed the reliability of domestic alternatives during testing. A large cooperation of scientific centers and manufacturing enterprises was involved in this work,” Vadim Badeha, UAC CEO stated.

In 2022, Rosaviatsia approved the use of wings made from domestic composite materials on the MC-21.

The need to create domestic materials arose in the Russian at the end of 2018, when foreign suppliers of raw materials for composite production — the US’ Hexcel Corporation and the Japan’s Toray Industries — stopped deliveries to Aerocomposite and ONPP Tekhnologiya, Russian composite manufacturers, after the latter were added to the US Department of Commerce’s sanctions list.

Currently, several MC-21-310 prototype aircraft with varying degrees of import substitution are undergoing certification tests. The certification of the fully Russian modification is planned to be completed by the end of 2026.