MOSCOW, May 28 (APP/AFP): Russia on Sunday held
a successful test flight of its new MC-21 medium-haul passenger jet that it hopes will revive its troubled civil aviation industry and challenge giants Airbus and Boeing.
The plane, whose prototype was unveiled last June, flew for 30
minutes at a height of 1,000 metres and a speed of 300 kilometres (186 miles) per hour, said its makers, the Irkut Corporation aircraft manufacturer.
The plane took off from the Siberian city of Irkutsk where the Irkut
company is based, said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, writing on Twitter.
Rogozin, who oversees aviation and space, wrote as he watched at the
scene: “We’re flying!”
President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told RIA
Novosti state news agency that Rogozin “by phone reported to Putin that our medium-haul plane took wing, carrying out its first test flight.”
The president of Irkut, Oleg Demchenko, said in a statement that
“today is a historic day for our staff and for all the big team that worked on creating the MC-21.”