Trials and tribulations

摘要

Whereas other parts of the Russian aerospace industry are typically inward looking - a fact of life when under state ownership - the country's newest pretender to the aeronautical throne has a much more international outlook. Based in a nondescript Moscow office building, the Rosavia consortium last year launched its concept for a new high-capacity, medium-haul airliner dubbed the Frigate Ecojet. Featuring a highly elliptical fuselage and a triple-aisle interior, the clean-sheet twinjet is designed, the company says, to address a market for a 300-350-seat widebody that can be efficiently operated on routes of around 1,890nm (3,500km), particularly from slot-constrained airports.