The Beriev Be-200 Multirole Amphibian Aircraft

MMAG Excluesive:Having had the pleaure to have met and converse in detail with the Be-200 lead designer, Mr. Vladimir V. Ignatenko (shown above) the MMAG has learned the following. The Beriev Be-200 is an amphibious multirole turbofan aircraft designed by the Berieva Aviatsionnyi Kompaniya (Beriev Aviation Company), with the Russian Irkutsk Aircraft Production Association (IAPO) responsible for the production engineering development phase of the program. The first flight took place in 1998 and the aircraft was first seen in the west at the 1999 Paris Air Show.
IAPO (now part of the Irkut Corporation) and EADS signed a memorandum of understanding in May 2002 to jointly carry out a market study and to define the conditions and costs of international certification and the logistics of setting up a worldwide after-sales service.
The study was completed in July 2003 and the two companies, with Rolls-Royce Deutschland, plan to obtain Western certification and offer the aircraft for Western markets. It is planned to power the aircraft with Rolls-Royce BR715 engines. I trully look foward to seeing the B-200 in action at next year 2008 Hydr0-Aviation Airshow in Russia.