A senior Iranian aviation official says the country is designing an indigenous twin-engine turbojet aircraft, which can seat 150 passengers.
Head of Iranâ„¢s Civil Aviation Organization Hamid Reza Pahlevani said on Monday that researchers from Iran Aviation Industries Organization of the Armed Forces, Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries Company (HESA), Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran University of Science and Technology, and Isfahan University of Technology are working on the project.
In January, Pahlevani said Iran plans to manufacture three domestically-designed passenger planes by 2026.
He stated that the country will build planes capable of carrying 80, 100 and 150 passengers as part of efforts to meet its increasing air transportation demands.
On December 11, 2012, Manouchehr Manteqi, the managing director of Iran Aviation Industries Organization, said the countryâ„¢s 40-year-old aviation industry has made great achievements in designing aircraft and overhauling the existing aviation fleet.
Iran has several private and public airline companies in operation. The oldest is the state-run Iran Air.
The expansion of Iran’s civil aircraft fleet comes despite the US-led sanctions against the country’s civil aviation industry since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
According to the sanctions, international companies are banned from selling aircraft or their spare parts to Iran.
Iran is currently cooperating with Ukraine and Russia in the production and operation of the Antonov An-140 airliner, which can carry 52 passengers.
After purchasing the production license for the An-140 from Ukraine in 2000, Iran built its first Iran-140 passenger plane in 2003.
MP/AS
Republished with permission from: Press TV