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Wednesday January 16 11:46 PM ET
El Salvador Commander Dies in Crash

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (news - web sites) (AP) - The top commander of the Salvadoran air force was killed Wednesday when the plane he was flying crashed east of the capital.

The crash occurre at 6:10 p.m. as Col. Milton Andrade was practicing maneuvers for an upcoming air show at the military airport three miles east of the capital, police said.

The airplane crashed into an airport runway, killing Andrade, said local police spokesman Delmy Morales.

Television reports said the airplane exploded on impact with the runway.

The military did not release any information and was refusing access to the airport.

The plane was reportedly a Fouga Magister, a French-made, two-seat military trainer war plane.

Andrade served as chief of the Salvadoran air force for more than three years.

The air show was scheduled for this weekend at the military airport.

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LAPIK to Deliver Three Il-103 Aircraft to Laos

According to the Commercial Director of the Lukhovitsy Aviaton Production and Testing Complex /LAPIK/, Valeriy Bredikhin, LAPIK is fulfilling a contract for the delivery of three four-seat Il-103 multirole light airplanes to Laos. All the airplanes for this contract will be delivered during 2002.

Besides that, the signing of a large contract for the delivery of a significant number of Il-103 airplanes is being prepared in one of the Southeast Asian /SEA/ countries. Delivery of airplanes to this non-disclosed SEA country will not be estimated for one year. One can expect the finalized form of the contract at the end of the first quarter of 2002, a source noted.

According to his same information, in all at the present time there are 23 Il-103 airplanes in service, including 4 airplanes in Belorussia and 6 aircraft in Peru. The remaining airplanes are being used in Russia.

The Il-103 airplane is sold at a price of 164,000 - 210,000 dollars each.

Source: 14.01.02, Finmarket Agency

Translated by Roy Cochrun /http://www.toad.net/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/royfc/today/acft_news.html/

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RSK MiG to Finance Additional Certification of IL-103 Aircraft

As a department chief of OAO Ilyushin Aviation Complex, Andrey Pupkov, reported, an agreement was signed recently between OAO Ilyushin AK and the Russian Aircraft Building Corporation MiG /RSK MiG/, in accordance with which RSK MiG will take on itself the financing of certification and flight tests of the Il-103 airplane for the purposes of extending its service conditions.

According to Andrey Pupkov, OAO Ilyushin AK has prepared jointly with RSK MiG a plan of measures for extending the service conditions of the Il-103. The participation of RSK MiG in the realization of the program of increasing the technical and service lev…

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Rosaviakosmos Increased Production of Aircraft by 10 Percent in 2001

The development of the Russian Federation aviation and space industry in recent times is characterized by a steady growth dynamic. According to the General Director of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, Yuriy Koptev, according to the results of the last year, 14 airplanes were built in the country and 79 helicopters, which is 10 percent more than in 2000.

Yu. Koptev notes that this year, financing of work on the development of civilian aviation will grow 2.3 times. These funds will be concentrated on 3 - 4 basic projects. Among them is work on the Tu-204, Tu-324 and Tu-334 airplanes and also on the PS-90A and PS-90A2 engines.

The growth of the totals of the Russian space branch last year, according to Yu. Koptev, was 5.3 percent. But the quantity of commercial launches at the same time went down. Only three heavy ``Proton`` boosters were launched using the funds of foreign investors. According to Yu. Koptev, this is connected with the overall tendency of the decrease in space launches throughout the world. In the next 5 years, all space powers will make not more than 32 - 32 launches a year into geostationary and 7 - 8 into medium and low orbits, Yu. Koptev thinks.

At the present time, Rosaviakosmos is putting the accent on the Federal space program, the renovation and replenishment of the space force. The global navigational satellite system GLONASS also will receive further development, according to Yu. Koptev. Seventy percent of its satellites are operating today the limits of the technical life time.

Speaking about export programs, Yu. Koptev noted that Rosaviakosmos and the Australian company Asiatic - Pacific Ocean Space Center have concluded a contract for the development of a the ``Aurora`` medium class missile complex with the ``Korvet`` booster and the creation of a cosmodrome on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean…

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MiG Trainer for Future Aces

At a briefing devoted to the results of the work of the Russian Aircraft Building Corporation MiG in 2001, the General Director - General Designer of the corporation, Nikolay Nikitin, noted that one of the priority programs of the firm for 2002 will be the completion of tests and the moving into the domestic and export markets of the new generation MiG-AT training airplane. In particular, a resolution has been adopted regarding joint certification tests of this airplane with the Russian Federation air force and Rosaviakosmos and accepting it for experimental service. What about this aircraft which has no analogue among airplanes of a similar class?

The MiG-AT trainer was created at RSK MiG for the training of airmen at the beginning, primary and higher stages of preparation with elements of combat use, and also for the support of piloting skills in the line units. The chief designer of the airplane is Vasiliy Shtykalo.

The MiG-AT was developed at once as an international project in which now the French companies Snecma, Turbomeca /power plant/ and Thales Avionics /avionics/ are taking part, which, in the opinion of the participants of this program, really broadens the market potential of the airplane. From the Russian side, the largest Russian aviation enterprises and research centers are participating in the project, including the State Scientific Research Institute of Aviation Systems /the integration of the on-board equipment and the software/, the Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute /the aerodynamic refinement of the project/, MNPK Avionika /control system/, Zvezda /the K-93 ejection seat/, and the M. Gromov Flight Research Institute /flight tests/.

The MiG-AT trainer is equipped with digital fly-by-wire control /EhDSU/ of domestic development for the first time in Russia. Before this, all the domestic EhDSU used on airplanes were based on the use of analogue computers, which limi…

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Airliner Makes Emergency Landing in Omsk, Nobody Hurt

A Tu-204 passenger aircraft belonging to the Russian airline Sibir en route from Frankfurt to Novosibirsk made an emergency landing in Omsk.

A source with the Omsk airport has told Interfax that Novosibirk's Tolmachyovo airport denied the landing of flight 852 arriving from Germany and redirected the plane to Omsk. Approaching a landing strip at the Omsk airport, the pilots realized that the plane might miss the strip due to a heavy crosswind. However, as the airliner was running out of fuel, the crew did not risk making another approach and landed the plane, which then ran some 400 meters off the strip.

/Interfax/


AVIA RU Network

Air Force Chief Will Step Down

General Anatoly Kornukov, the commander of the air force and the man who led the operation to shoot down a Korean Air Lines jet in 1983, said he is resigning from his post in line with a law capping the age of officers at 60.

``I`m leaving — there`s no doubt about that. The decision has been made,`` Kornukov said at a news conference Friday, a day after he turned 60.

Kornukov refused to name who is in line to replace him, saying only that he has made his recommendation to his superiors.

Kommersant reported Saturday that the candidates include Vladimir Mikhailov, the first deputy commander of the air force, Gennady Vasilyev, commander of the air force's Moscow district, Mikhail Oparin, commander of strategic aviation, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, commander of the 11th army of the air force, and Vitaly Pavlov, commander of the air infantry

Kornukov, a 38-year veteran of the air force, was appointed to its helm in January 1998 with a mandate to consolidate the country`s air defense forces with the air force. Experts say the reform, which he completed in about a year, was carried out smoothly with minimal pain.

As air force commander, Kornukov paid special attention to the revitalization of the air defense systems of the former Soviet republics by creating a unified air defense system for CIS countries. The CIS air forces carried out joint exercises called Combat Commonwealth-2001 in the Astrakhan region in August.

Kornukov was a guest observer of military exercises in Ukraine's Crimean region in October when a Ukrainian missile hit a Sibir Tu-154, killing all 78 people on board. At the time, Kornukov said he was confident that Ukraine was not at fault. On Friday, he acknowledged that he spoke too soon.

Kornukov has always been open about the shattered state of the air force, and he spearheaded a campaign to upgrade its fleets of Sukhoi and MiG…

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