Ladoga regional airplane project suspended - Ural Works of Civil Aviation

MOSCOW. May 21 (Interfax) - A project to manufacture the Ladoga turboprop regional aircraft (TPRA-44) has been suspended, and the Russian Ministry of Defense is to take over the research and technology work on it, chief designer of transport aircraft at JSC Ural Works of Civil Aviation (UWCA) Sergei Merenkov said.

"The Ladoga TPRA-44 project has been suspended. The decision has been made to hand the aircraft and all of the research and technological work completed over to the defense ministry in order that the aircraft may be used as a basis for creating either a freighter version for ramp-delivered cargo, a freighter with a side door, or a passenger plane, but in the interests of the Ministry of Defense," Merenkov said at a conference on supporting aviation needs in the Arctic, Siberia and the Far East, organized by the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia).

"We have granted permission for the first flight to be carried out and therefore plan to complete the airplane and have it in the sky by 2026," he said.

Ladoga is a prospective twin-engine turboprop regional airplane designed to carry 44 passengers. The UWCA undertook the project by order of the Ministry of Defense to replace the ageing fleet of Soviet An-24/26 and Yak-40 aircraft. The liner is expected to be able to take off from asphalt and concrete airfields as well as unpaved and snowy runways.

Andrei Dorofeyev, head of quality and certification at UWCA, announced in November that the Ladoga prototype would make its first flight in the middle of 2026. He was quoted as saying in a statement by Rosaviatsia that the TB7-117CT-02 engine for the Ladoga aircraft should also be certified this year. The airplane was scheduled to receive its type certificate in 2029. In accordance with the Comprehensive Aviation Industry Development Program, approved in 2024 and to be modified in a new version this year, the first 35 Ladoga aircraft were to be produced starting from 2028 and 105 were to be built in total by 2030.