Scout Tu-214P may become another victim of the campaign against the Russian aviation industry.
4 January this year, "Izvestia" reported that "the Ministry of Defense plans to abandon the purchase of a reconnaissance aircraft Tu-214Р." Referring to the unnamed "source in the General Staff of the Armed Forces." According to this source, the Main Intelligence Directorate, to which the aircraft belongs, remained displeased with the machine first of all during the flight and prepares a letter with complaints addressed to the minister with a proposal to refuse further purchases of the Tu-214Р. This already sounds strange, since the duration of the flight was known to the military even before placing an order for the plane. However, this does not end the list of claims, according to the same “source”, for the on-board equipment to work, “the car must perform the flight very smoothly”, and the Tu-214 has an inappropriate airframe for it - at low speeds it allegedly loses stability and begins to “scour” and "pilots have to spend a lot of strength to hold it." At the same time, the “source” cites for comparison the turboprop Il-20, which is now in service with aerial reconnaissance, and which “is capable of circling around the target at ultralow speeds of up to five hours”. Apparently the military customer was not aware of the differences between jet and turboprop aircraft, once ordered a jet, but requires the features of a turboprop from it ...
In fact, all these voiced claims do not show the flaws of the new Tu-214Р, which, as Izvestia has repeatedly noted, was photographed by the Japanese (apparently hinting that it was these flaws that allowed him to photograph), but the incompetence of the source. Either it is a lie of the newspaper itself, since the source is not called. We have our own alternative source, much closer to testing. I also will not call him, let the reader himself think whose words should be trusted more. He stated the following:
"I personally know and talked with the very commander of the reconnaissance detachment and his navigator, who conducted the crew along this route along the shores of Japan. And I can say that the crew liked the plane, they are delighted with it. Some technical details should be improved, but these are trifles A special mode of operation of the engines and autopilot will be introduced for low speeds, although low speeds do not need it, cruising is quite suitable because it is a strategic reconnaissance aircraft (IL-20 tactical front-line reconnaissance aircraft). ota is very good, you can fly around Japan, 10-14 hours. To abandon it is not speech, lie "Izvestia". "
Well, about what is happening in the depths of the General Staff, my source cannot know. This is a pilot, not a staff officer. But he knows for sure that the tests were successful, that the crew is satisfied with the plane. And the difference in the appointment of IL-20 and Tu-214Р understands very well, because he flies on IL-20. And the question arises - who is lying here? Who is cunning? The article itself in "Izvestia" gives a hint:
Oleg Panteleev, editor-in-chief of the Aviation Portal industry portal, explained to Izvestia that the military are cunning, making claims to the aircraft designers. - The military from the very beginning knew the parameters of the base model Tu-214, its minimum locking speed, flight range, time spent in the air. Therefore, if something did not suit them, it was necessary to immediately talk about it. It makes no sense to expect from a jet aircraft the same characteristics as from a turboprop. Therefore, the only option here is not to bother the designers, but to take another plane, ”explained Panteleyev. http://izvestia.ru/news/542493
Here I would not follow the prompt of "Izvestia" directly. Why should the military be cunning here? The characteristics of the aircraft were known in advance and for the strategic intelligence officer they are ideal. There are no claims to the designers, they can not be. The plane flew off perfectly and it is not “stealth”, it allows you to take pictures of yourself. Let the Japanese admire, there is no need to constantly hint at this fact, this intelligence officer simply should not enter the zone of the enemy’s air defense. The flight duration is more than 10 hours and it is much longer than that of IL-20. And he is not a substitute for him, this is a different class of machine, it has twice as many reconnaissance equipment. Yes, the IL-20 tactical reconnaissance also needs to be replaced, and therefore it is possible to talk about the IL-114, which has long been developed to replace planes of this class. But instead of producing IL-114 (quite successful and still modern today!), We prefer to buy ATR-72, which is ill adapted to the climate of Russia. 2 April 2012 of the year ATR-72 crashed near Tyumen, the main version of the reason is icing. But disasters do not teach our officials from the aviation industry. Rather, they use them for their own purposes. How? About this below.
29 last December, the Red Wings airline Tu-204 with the tail number RA 64047 of the airline rolled into Vnukovo and rolled out of the runway and crashed. The media have been savoring this catastrophe for a very long time.
Killed 5 people from the crew of the aircraft, the passengers on board was not. According to the results of the investigation of the MAC, the reason was the non-response of the reverse system. The media immediately recalled a similar incident with the Tu-204 21 December 2012 at Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport, just a week before. Then it was suddenly discovered that during December there were as many 5 similar incidents with Tu-204 Red Wings aircraft. And this allowed the “Rosavitsii” to express its intention to withdraw the flight certificate of the Red Wings. Given that Red Wings is currently the main operator of Tu-204 - in the company 8 liners of this type. And formally, everything is correct, if the operation of this aircraft is dangerous, then it should be banned. However, the Tu-204 fly is not the first year, and similar troubles with him had not previously been noticed. A Tu-214 generally flew more than a dozen years and was considered very economical and reliable. But by now all the operators of the carcasses have either gone bankrupt or have lost their license. This has already been written here.
Although I will make a small remark. The Tu-204 operators are still Vladivostok Avia (6 Tu-214) and Transaero (2 Tu-204С and 3 Tu-214), except for this 3 Tu-204С cargo trucks use Aviastar-TU. After the bankruptcy of Vladivostok Avia in November 2011, its controlling stake was acquired by Aeroflot. The national carrier wanted to make Vladivostok Avia its regional unit, which will carry out transportation exclusively in the Far East. In this regard, in the 2012, the Vladivostok Avia fleet was planned to be reorganized: long-range Tu-204-300 and А330 airliners should be decommissioned, and the fleet will consist only of the A320 and Sukhoi Superjet 100 families, and possibly , An-148. That is, Aeroflot had to fulfill the plans of Russian Technologies to eliminate the Tu-204 from the operators (these plans will be discussed a little later). However, for some reason, the implementation of these plans was delayed and the Tu-204 is still flying from Vladivostok to Seoul and Chita. Moreover, Vladivostok Avia, which ordered 204 machines, is still on the list of customers for the Tu-6CM. However, in accordance with the policy of the new owner, it is unlikely that these orders will be confirmed - Aeroflot got those new Boeings that bought Russian Technologies. Although the national carrier, fundamentally rejecting domestic technology, has not yet refused to use it in the regions. One desire was not enough, for the replacement of aircraft need more and money. But, as Wikipedia reports, in 2013, the money will certainly be found for this. To send the "carcass" for scrapping their own banks will allocate money.
About “Transaero” was also written. The company uses the Tu-214 and ordered them again, but AOK canceled the order for their own reasons by offering Superjet instead of carcasses. At the same cost, but taking on board two times less passengers and flying at a distance of two times less. Turn away from such a "lucrative" proposal Transaero could not. To this it is necessary to add that effective operation in an airline can be achieved only if there are more than a dozen planes of the same type. Then the maintenance of the aircraft is not so expensive, it is distributed to the entire fleet. Therefore, 3 Tu-214 Transaero can become a burden for the company, which, apparently, was achieved by the leadership of the KLA (the former, represented by Pogosyan). Anyway, the “last of the magikans” remains Lebedev’s Red Wings company, which now has only 8 Tu-204. For some reason, this private company is still at war with Russian officials over this aircraft. And this war did not start after the Vnukovo catastrophe, Rosaviatsiya as early as April 2012 threatened to deprive the carrier of the license. Then Rosaviation "had questions about the certification of the newly appointed general director of the carrier, Leonid Itskov." Lebedev somehow managed to answer these “questions”. But now they took him seriously.
Once again I want to note the strangeness of the situation - the state-owned company Aeroflot flies on Boeing and Airbus and enjoys all sorts of preferences from the government (for example, loans for leasing Boeing’s from VTB), and the private Red Wings company that uses domestic ones carcass, "subjected to all sorts of persecutions. And she is not alone! I gave examples of bankruptcies of companies operating Tu-214. In the wake of the 2008 crisis of the year, they could have been supported, but the government chose not to. It was concerned about the creation of a new airline under the wing of Russian Technologies, where they planned to collect all bankrupt assets. All but Tu-214, which for some reason were considered "obsolete." Airlines could not be created, but they managed to buy 50 Boeings for $ 2,5 billion. And when these "obsolete" Tu-214, which were put under the hammer, decided to purchase a small but independent airline Aerostars in their decisions, they immediately deprived it of a license. That same "Rosaviatsia" suddenly showed vigilance and activity. It turned out that the company has a violation of the rules of hours on the aircraft! The severity of such a decision contrasts with the liberal attitude towards carriers using imported equipment.
And here I will also give an example of the crash of the Airbus A310 in Irkutsk. Carefully consider the reasons - the plane "failed to stop on the runway, rolled out of its borders and crashed into a garage complex located nearby." The subsequent investigation showed that the plane "was dropped from the lane by the left engine, which suddenly switched to take-off mode at the moment when the reverse engine was turned on." Of the people on board 203, the 124 people died as a result of the fire. The accident was attributed to the pilots' error, although the IAC investigation showed that the malfunction of the A-310 reverse system was known prior to departure and for some reason this did NOT violate the rules of operation of this vessel. Although at the time of departure there were 5 unresolved failures! Were the organizational findings from the disaster, where the person's 124 burned to death? Not! And the media are not so actively relished the deaths of people, although they usually devote most of their time to this. But "Rosaviatsia" deprives the license of the carrier, where only a raid on the clock was violated. And I do not see the logic here, I see a very obvious policy. And this POLICY will surely work now for Red Wings. On the Tu-204 will be put the final cross. And with this, the cross will be put on the entire Russian aviation industry. The fact that the Superjet is another tool for its destruction, I have already written. The GSS bankruptcy is not far off, it is obvious and was originally planned. But Pogosyan’s company did its job, having played the role of a financial shunt that had withdrawn funding from the entire Russian aviation industry.
Returning to the beginning of the conversation about the scout Tu-214P, which also turned out to be a “bad plane”, I would like to note the scale of the organizational activity of the marketing department of Boeing. Well, about kickbacks in 10% of the cost of the aircraft being acquired, rumors have been circulating for a long time and are no longer surprising. Therefore, it is easy to explain the behavior of individual officials of the KLA and Rosaviation. However, it does not concern only the bribing of officials. Activities for the destruction of the Russian aviation industry, for the destruction of a potentially dangerous competitor - the Tu-204CM, are striking in their scale! Mass media, politicians, officials, banks, leasing companies, everything is involved. Let me remind you that the Tu-204CM - a fundamentally new car, despite the old name. There is a new avionics, a new engine, a new APU. And with smaller changes, Western companies give very loud names to their liners. And if the former Tupolev family of the Tu-204 family could be reproached for something (for example, a flight engineer requirement), then the Tu-204CM is no longer what. It is completely up to date, modern avionics allows it to do without a flight engineer, a very modern glider with excellent aerodynamics, economical engines. And it costs 2,5-3 times less than the western counterpart. What else is needed? And you need a bank loan for its leasing. Our airline will not receive it. But it’s easy to get an old Boeing for leasing.
And what's more, the sudden incidents with Tu-204 in December, which became frequent, make it possible to believe that the special services are not on the sidelines. Boeing is not a simple corporation, it is part of the US military-industrial complex, part of the state military machine. It is in her interest to destroy the Russian rival who has a developed technical school since the time of the USSR. And the special services for this may well be involved. For them to arrange minor problems in the system of the reverse of the aircraft is not difficult. It should not be like a terrorist attack, it should be like a malfunction. And because spoil the grease in the engines of the Tu-204 is not too difficult. After all, once the CIA has already used sabotage to organize the disasters of Soviet missiles, and even organized the hijacking of aircraft. Today in the tasks of the CIA is not only sabotage, but also industrial espionage, quite officially. It is clear that the participation of the special services is only a version that comes from strange coincidences, there is no evidence. But the plane has flown for many years without incident. Why now suddenly? And why does Izvestia publish their "duck" about the Ministry of Defense’s refusal of Tu-214Р immediately after stories with a disaster in Vnukovo? And these constant attempts by Rosaviation to deprive the license of the main operator Tu-204? I do not believe in random coincidences here. The victim could not accidentally fall on the same knife eight times.
And I want to remind what is actually being said. On the division of the aviation market in the tens of billions of dollars. The needs of the Russian market for Tu-204 aircraft are about a hundred cars a year! In 2011, the country's fleet replenished 150 aircraft. And, of course, not from domestic producers. The words about the fact that the airlines themselves decide here are not at all true. Leasing companies decide here and they do not make decisions on their own either - they are financed by banks. The same purchases by Russian Technologies Boeing financed an American bank. His loan was linked precisely with the purchase of specific Boeing liners. The one who pays is the one who orders the music. And if we want our own domestic aviation industry, then it will be necessary to correct the situation here not only with the eradication of corruption by officials. The credit policy of domestic banks will also have to be adjusted.
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