By Vovick Karnozov
AWN Moscow-based columnist

MOSCOW, August 17, 1999 - The opening day of MAKS '99 was a bit spoiled by President Yeltsin not turning up and the late arrival of the new head of the government, Vladimir Putin. The governmental delegation arrived at noon, some two hours after the time initially planned. Because of this, a couple of press briefings were cancelled, including that of Yakovlev design bureau on Yak-130 project.

Traditionally, the MAKS flight display program opens at the arrival of the state delegation, and this time was no exception. However, to warm up the public, a Sukhoi Su-30 flew a weather reconnaissance mission with a pass above the runway, followed by the Su-30MK, which performed a brief display flight. By this time the sky was partly covered with low clouds, making the pilots cautious with sharp maneuvering.

By midday the weather broke and the pilots began to fly in full strength. The flight display was opened by a formation of four Su-27s from the Russian Knights display group.

The most interesting aircraft shown today was the Sukhoi Su-37 Berkut, a fifth-generation fighter prototype with forward-swept wings. The black-painted Su-37, with white nose and big red stars on wings and tails, made several turns in vertical and horizontal planes. The S-37 is only a prototype and is currently undergoing manufacturer trials. This being the case, it is still not able to compete in aerobatics with the proven MiG-29 and Su-27. Today the Berkut was shown in flight only - Sukhoi still hides it from close looks of non-welcomed witnesses.

The most spectacular flight was that of pilot Slava Averianov, who survived the crash of the Su-30MK first prototype at Paris '99 (side number 01). This time Slava flew the second Su-30 prototype, side number 08, keeping well within the permitted flight zone.

Although the "controllable spin" maneuver was not demonstrated today, the public was shown "somersault" (a 360 degree turn in a vertical plane), a shortened Hook (Pugachev's Cobra in horizontal plane), a prolonged Bell (tail slide) and a few other "tricks" necessitating the use of thrust vectoring.

From civil airplanes the most interesting was the Tupelov Tu-334, a new 100-seater. By today the airplane had made only a dozen of test flights. Ukraine's Antonov flew its An-140 50-seat commuter plane. MAKS '99 was the first air show ever for the Tu-334 and An-140. For the Beriev Be-200 amphibian jet this show is the second after Paris'99. Here, over the homeland, the aircraft demonstrated the breathtaking drop of 12 tons of water on "blaze."

Among other products making debuts at MAKS '99 are the Su-30K side number 302, the Yakhont supersonic (M2) long-range (over 250 km) anti-ship missile, the S-400 Favorit long-range surface-to-air missile system (SAM) and the Pechora-2 medium-range SAM system. Kamov company unveiled a new version of the Ka-50 Black Shark, the Yellow 014. Another debutante of air shows is the Ka-60 Kasatka next-generation utility helicopter, first flown in December 1998.

Participation of foreign aircraft manufacturers is smaller this year than in 1997. Dassault Aviation has brought the Falcon 2000. Cessna has brought the Citation-X, the Citation Bravo and the Grand Caravan. Western manufacturers see a market for their business jets aircraft in Russia.

Although Boeing has not brought a BBJ to MAKS, it has brought a full-scale fragmental mock-up of the BBJ's cabin. Russia has its own aircraft for business travelers in the size of the BBJ. It is a special VIP version of the Yak-42. So far, only a handful of such aircraft found customers. One of them, in the colors of LUKoil, a large petrol company, is on display at MAKS '99.

There is only one foreign-made helicopter on display, the Eurocopter BK-117, in the colors of Russia's Ministry of Emergencies (MChS). The Ministry, however, does not have further plans for acquisitions of western aircraft. Instead, it favors the Kamov Ka-226 with Rolls-Royce Allison engines. The latter aircraft is exhibited statically at MAKS '99 in the form of the first series-built airframe, which has recently been delivered to the customer (MChS).

The BK-117 is acquiring another Russian competitor. At the press briefing at the end of the day, Mr. Lavrentiev, general director of Kazan Helicopters, said that as of today (17 August), at 11:30am Moscow time, the company's test pilots flew for the first time the ANSAT helicopter. So far two ANSAT prototypes have been built, including one with mechanical control linkage and one with fully digital ("fly-by-wire") flight control system. Kazan Helicopters has invested $70 million into the ANSAT project. The company sees a big market for the new aircraft. A "no-frills" basic version is expected to cost three times less than the BK-117 falling to the same class in terms of payload capability. A series-built ANSAT with digital flight control system is expected to have a sticker price of $1.7 million. The ANSAT has two Pratt & Whitney Canada PK206D engines (a special model for the Russian helicopter). Their production might be set up in St. Petersburg by the Pratt & Whitney-Rus joint venture.