Russia's Aviation Come-Back
Date: Friday, 29 February 2008 @ 06:44:27 EST
Topic: Business
Russia is hoping to make a giant come-back in civil and military aviation.
It has pledged to spend billions of dollars on boosting its defense industry, especially the air force.
The goal is to build nearly 6,000 new military and civilian aircraft, and to win 15% of the global aviation market.
Russia has set up a new government-controlled company to oversee the process, the United Aircraft Corporation. But there's a long way to go, as Russia's aircraft industry has been in the doldrums since the collapse of the Soviet-Union in the early 1990s.
President Vladimir Putin recently described Russia's aviation and space industry as "the pride of our country". His government is in the process of reorganizing much of the industry, which used to be made up of many separate firms such as the commercial aircraft maker Tupolev, Sukhoi and Mikoyan-Gurevich, which made Russia's famous fighter jets.
Now they are all part of the new state-controlled United Aircraft Corporation and that's a good thing, according to Sukhoi's commercial director, Oleg Federov.
"We've already received new orders for military fighters and for our civil products, and we are overloaded until 2015," he says. "It's good for jobs, it's good for our workshops, it's good for the future."
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