The An-70 and An-140 projects are "on the critical edge," declared
Minister of Industrial Policy Vasyl Hureyev at a Cabinet session.
Due to insufficient funding in 1998, the projects' development is moving
slowly, which threatens to disrupt the An-140's certification process,
planned for 1999, and its manufacturing late next year. According to Hureyev,
financing difficulties prevented carrying out stable testing of prototypes.
Interfax-Ukraine learned that as of November 10, the An-70 prototype had
made 102 flights out of 824 needed to complete the testing program, while
two An-140 prototypes had made 187 flights of 936 planned. This is explained
by the fact that in 1998 the projects received Hr 3.5 million from Ukraine
instead of Hr 16 million, and Russia submitted only Rbl 10.4 million instead
of the needed Rbl 150 million.
The difficulties, which arose, can hamper Ukraine's cooperation with
European countries on developing a modern military transport plane based
on the An-70, which has begun to take shape. Representatives of Russia,
Germany and Ukraine are to meet in Kyiv on December 10 to solve the question
of An-70 project participation in the European tender. Hureyev believes
it will be very hard for Ukraine to participate in the tender without presenting
the product.






