Russian project for new "Kukuruznik" for $44 million "has reached a dead end." It will be closed

The Russian project to create the LMS-901 "Baikal" aircraft, which was supposed to replace the Soviet An-2 ("Kukuruznik"), has reached a dead end. Serial production of the aircraft is no longer planned. This was stated by the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President in the Far Eastern Federal District, Yuri Trutnev, writes The Moscow Times.

"You know that we were working on the development of a small aircraft called Baikal. Today, it has reached a dead end. That is, we do not expect the Baikal aircraft," Trutnev noted.

According to him, there is practically no small aircraft in Russia: "Now we will have to get out of the situation by remotorizing the An-2 aircraft."

The development of "Baikal" has been carried out since 2019 by the Russian company "Baikal Engineering", owned by the Ural Civil Aviation Plant.

The Russian Federation allocated $44 million (3.5 billion rubles) for this. It was expected that serial production would begin in 2024, and the cost of one aircraft would be $1.49 million (120 million rubles).

During the design process, the Baikal cost increased to $5.66 million (455 million rubles), but when Russian President Vladimir Putin drew attention to it, the price dropped to $3.48 million (280 million rubles). At the same time, the release was postponed to 2025.

It is noted that the aircraft's designers made a number of "dramatic mistakes" that "essentially required reassembly." The developer has requested another $120 million (10 billion rubles) and five years for refinement.

The Baikal was intended to be used on local air routes. It was assumed that the aircraft would be designed to carry up to nine passengers or up to 2 tons of cargo.

The cruising speed of the LMS-901 was to be up to 300 km per hour, and the maximum flight range was 3,000 km.

Ukrainian MP Maryan Zablotsky recently reported that Russia has spent at least $23 billion on the creation of six different aircraft, all to no avail.

In addition to the Baikal, Russia also tried to design the Il-112 (to replace the An-26) for $100 million, the TVRS-44 "Ladoga" (to replace the An-24, An-26, An-140, Yak-40, and ATR-42), the Superjet-100 (to replace the Embraer) for $12 billion, the MS-21 (an analogue of Boeing or Airbus) for $5 billion, and the Su-57 for $5 billion.

• On November 25, 2024, it was reported that the Russian government acknowledged the failure of the domestic aircraft production program and identified those responsible for the failures.
• On December 30, it became known that Russia had postponed the launch of one of its largest scientific projects, the Siberian Ring Photon Source (SKIF), for a year. The reason is cited as Western sanctions.