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Russian official says An-188 propfan plane can't be called fully Ukrainian

Russia's investment in the project aspires to rights to about 50% of intellectual property

Antonov An-70 plane ITAR-TASS/Sergey Bobylev

Antonov An-70 plane

© ITAR-TASS/Sergey Bobylev

LE BOURGET, France, June 18. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Antonov aircraft manufacturing company does not have the right to position the Antonov-188 propfan plane as a fully Ukrainian one, since it is an extension of the Antonov-70 propfan project designed in close cooperation with Russia, Sergey Kornev, a senior official Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Thursday.

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The Kiev-based Antonov presented the Antonov-188 project at the annual aerospace show at Le Bourget. Earlier reports said it would not have any component elements manufactured in Russia and would be fitted out with the engines of Western make.

"From the legal standpoint, Russia invested quite some money (in the Antonov-70 project TASS) and it aspires to rights to about 50% of intellectual property in it," Kornev said. "That’s a serious contradiction. If truth be told, they don’t have the right to do it."

Russia and Ukraine began joint efforts on the Antonov-70 project in 2010, with Moscow including the propfan in its state programme for armaments but media reports said the project ran into serious complications in the wake of developments in Ukraine.

Antonov decided to create a new aircraft on the basis of Antonov-70. The modified version will hopefully occupy a niche between the Herculs and the Globemaster III models.

The corporation says the new planes will have a capability to take off from grass fields, to transport all types of defense and civilian technologies, including helicopters, and to take up to 300 passengers aboard.

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