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Russian new MC-21 jet to make first trial flight in early 2017 — official

Russia’s new airliner MC-21 will make the first trial flight in February or March 2017

MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/. Russia’s new airliner MC-21 will make the first trial flight in February or March 2017, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told President Vladimir Putin on Friday when they had a working meeting.

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"February, maybe the beginning of March," he said referring to a possible date of the first trial flight.

Rogozin informed the President on preparations for the start of trial flights. He said two jets had been built and one of them was in the Irkutsk region where the manufacturing Irkut company is located, while the second jet was in the Moscow region,

The organizers had synchronized the schedules of works on both jets and preflight preparations on the ground were in full swing, Rogozin said.

In January or February 2017, the manufacturers planned uploading the software for the first flight and holding the final tests of all the systems.

Besides, there were plans to complete construction of a third jet in the MC-21 family in December, Rogozin said.

Irkut also had plans to build a fourth airliner. The latter would be fitted out with novel PD-14 engines, he said.

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