Russian MC-21 and SSJ-100 passenger aircraft, painted in a new livery with domestically-made paints will be presented at the MAKS-2023 international air show in July this year.
"The aircraft have been painted in a new livery, designed in accordance with the current corporate identity of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), presented in 2022." said a statement from Rostec, the parent company of UAC.
Russian aviation manufacturers have been experiencing a shortage of paints following sanctions. Efforts were made over the past six months to augment domestic paint manufacturing facilities.
"Domestic paints were used to apply new liveries. After painting in Ulyanovsk, the planes arrived at the airfield of the Flight Research Institute. MM. Gromov in Zhukovsky for further preparations for the MAKS air show, where they will be presented to the public for the first time," the statement said.
“The new livery will be the same for all prototypes of UAC civil aircraft, but our flagships in the segments of regional and medium-haul aviation, the SSJ-100 and MS-21, were the first to try it on. Aircraft wearing this livery form a single line: UAC - Civil Aircraft.
These are the aircraft that will form the basis of the fleet of Russian airlines in the coming years,” said Andrey Boginsky, General Director of the Irkut Corporation.
The MC-21 is being tested with a high bypass ratio PD-14 engine which has replaced an earlier engine made by Honeywell.
In addition, UAC's Irkut Corporation in Komsomolsk-on-Amur is assembling prototypes of the SSJ-100, made from replacing several imported component with domestic ones.