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Dmitry Rogozin: Merger of aviation and space industries should be evolutionary

“We need to design an aircraft that will simultaneously operate in airspace, the atmosphere and in near space", he underlined

Photo ITAR-TASS / Mikhail Metzel

Photo ITAR-TASS / Mikhail Metzel

MOSCOW, August 8 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Vice-Premier Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview with the Vesti 24 news channel on Thursday that the process of unification of Russia’s aviation and space industries should be evolutionary.

“When I spoke about the merger of the aviation and space industries, I did not mean any mechanical unification. It would have been strange for me to say that. What I said was different. I meant unification as part of a single technical policy,” Rogozin went on to say. The vice-premier explained that modern technologies made it possible to create machines and equipment that could be simultaneously applied in various spheres.

“We need to design an aircraft that will simultaneously operate in airspace, the atmosphere and in near space. The Americans are currently working on this kind of craft. Such vehicles will develop as speeds are going to increase,” Rogozin said.

According to him, both the United States and Russia used hyper-sound technologies that made it possible to create new materials and new accelerator systems which will significantly increase the speed of such crafts.

“That will objectively combine cosmonautics with aviation and will blur the distinction between the two industries,” Rogozin went on to say.

“It’s not going to happen overnight. But it may happen the day after tomorrow. That is why we should expand the horizons of our planning, open our eyes and raise our eyelids,” Rogozin said. He added that he would discuss the merge issue with the Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos) and the United Aircraft Corporation that are unwilling to change anything so far.

Rogozin will meet Igor Sechin, the chief of Rosneft oil company, on Friday to discuss the hand-over of the Zvezda dockyard to private investors.

In an interview with the Russia-24 news television channel, Rogozin said that the dockyard’s transition into the hands of major Russian investors like Rosneft, Gazprom and the United Shipbuilding Corporation was expected to be interesting.

“I do not want to interfere in this process. But I am going to meet Igor Sechin tomorrow to discuss the hand-over. I believe that it would be expedient if the United Shipbuilding Corporation preserves some blocking stake. Why should not we attract major investors, which can also be foreign, but a Russian investor would be better,” Rogozin emphasized.

Rogozin said that he was flying to the Far East soon. “I will be there in mid-August to inspect the Zvezda dockyard, the biggest shipbuilding enterprise in Vladivostok. The Russian president will be there late in August,” the vice-premier said.

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