AeroComposite (Moscow / Russia), a subsidiary of Russian conglomerate United Aircraft Corporation (UAC, Moscow; www.uacrussia.ru/en), plans to build a plant for aircraft bodies made of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) on the site of the Kazan Aircraft Production Association (Kazan / Russia; www.kcn.ru). The new facility will come at an investment cost of USD 80-100m, with AeroComposite planning to revert back to the existing technologies employed by its partner organisations as opposed to developing entirely new processes.

“We intend to form a joint venture with a foreign partner,” said AeroComposite president Leonid Gaidansky. Scheduled to start up in 2012 or 2013, the company’s goal in launching the new plant is to increase the CFRP content of the latest civil aviation aircraft, including the recently introduced medium-haul transportation plane “MS-21”, from 30% to 40%. Aside from the body, CRFP content will also be increased in the wings. Technology partner FACC (Ried / Austria; www.facc.at) currently is working on a wing box with an integrated tank suitable for serial production. The assembly will occur using the Resin Infusion Moulding (RIM) method.

UAC incorporates several different Russian aircaft manufacturers, including Iljuschin, Tupolev and the military Sukhoi wing. Whereas UAC owns 48% of the shares in AeroComposites, Sukhoi is in the possession of 26%. The remaining 26% are held by the Progresstech group (Moscow / Russia; www.progresstech.ru).