A Chinese military plant has begun unlicensed assembly of the Mi-171 helicopter, one of the primary Russian military exports. In case of success, the Chinese will be able not only to pressure Russia in the export markets, but even interfere by leaps and bound in the growing domestic orders for the helicopters, the Vedomosti newspaper reports today.

Following on the Su-27 fighter, China began reproduction of the second most significant Russian aircraft industry export, the Mi-8/17 helicopter family. True, this time with Russia's permission.

Information on the manufacture of the Mi-171 in China was published on the site of the Uhou region authorities, city of Chengdu, site, the capital of Sichuan province ((all Chinese place names phonetic.)) It states in the report that officials helped the Sichuan Lantian helicopter building company go through the formalities necessary for start of the assembly of the helicopters, Vedomosti reports.

Assembly of the Mi-171 helicopter will be unfolded at the base of military factory Number 5701 which is situated in Chengdu. In 2008, it is planned to assemble 20 aircraft, and the enterprise's full capacity will be 80 helicopters a year.

At first the Chinese will assemble the helicopters from parts delivered from Russia's Ulan-Ude, where the Ulan-Ude Aircraft Plant is located, the manufacturer of the Mi-171. Afterwards it is planned to build-up on-site production, the newspaper writes.

Source: 12.05.08, AVIA.RU

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These news items are translated or gisted primarily from two Russian Web sources: http://www.avias.com/, which provides whole articles, but sometimes is several days or even weeks behind in publishing them for whatever reason, and, which also sometimes posts in English itself. 

The articles translated here include only information about new Russian aircraft, those under development or modification, foreign sales, etc.    The original publication date and source name appear after each item, but not the Web-site source. All articles are copyright by the original source.  To save time, some items are gisted and are not direct translations. 

Any comments are in double parenthesis - ((comment here)).   I am not responsible for typographical errors or errors in translation.   The whole purpose of this page is to give readers the opportunity to learn about Russian aviation advances on a somewhat timely basis. 

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