Russia Busts U.S. Sanctions over Aircraft Composite Material

The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has approved the inclusion of locally-made composite materials in the load-bearing elements of the vertical stabilizer box and stabilizer of the MC-21 Airliner.

Thus, Russian science and industry have fully completed a large-scale project to integrate domestic composite materials into the MC-21 aircraft design, a  United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) release said.

The approval process was completed in December 2025. Specialists from the Aviation Register of Russia, the certification centers of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise GosNII GA, the SC FAU TsAGI, the SC MATERIAL LLC, and the JSC NMC NORMA participated in the process.
 

"The Russian School of Materials Science has once again demonstrated its readiness to quickly develop and supply world-class composites to the civil aircraft industry. Their reliability for use in the MC-21 design is confirmed by calculations, modeling, and full-scale testing with the participation of our country's leading scientific and certification centers," noted Dmitry Yadrov, head of the Federal Air Transport Agency .    

Serial production of vertical stabilizer boxes and stabilizers made from domestic composite materials is carried out by KAPO-Komposit JSC (part of the AeroKomposit company of Yakovlev PJSC).

"Obtaining approval for the use of domestic composites in the MC-21 vertical stabilizer and tail fin marks the completion of an important stage of import substitution—we have completely eliminated foreign materials from the aircraft and, through testing, confirmed the reliability of domestically produced alternatives," emphasized the CEO of PJSC UAC. Vadim Badekha

Completion of this work is one of the stages in the certification of the fully import-substituting MS-21 aircraft. Work is currently underway with the developer, PJSC Yakovlev, to certify the aircraft with new domestically produced equipment.

Earlier, in 2022, Rosaviatsiya approved design changes to the MS-21, including replacing the engine with a PD-14 and using a wing made of domestically produced composite materials.