"We must focus on several projects to maintain the industry, and the Russian Regional Jet is not enough to reach the goal," Valery Voskoboinikov, deputy director of the Industry and Energy Ministry's defense industry department, told a round table on Russia's civil aviation industry.
The Sukhoi aircraft holding is developing the Russian Regional Jet in an ambitious project to build a short- and mid-range passenger airliner with subcontractors including Boeing.
Voskoboinikov called for the development of a long-distance plane and the promotion of heavy cargo aircraft and special planes like the Be-200 amphibious aircraft.
In a bid to drag the industry out of a post-Soviet-era slump, President Vladimir Putin signed a resolution on forming a consolidated aircraft-building corporation on February 21.
United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) will incorporate many of the country's best-known aircraft builders, including Mikoyan, Ilyushin, Irkut, Sukhoi, Tupolev, and Yakovlev, and other enterprises in the industry. UAC is intended to harness the potential of Russia's aircraft manufacturing industry, and to bolster the country's security and defense capabilities.
