China main investor in helicopter joint venture with Russia

State-run Russian Helicopters have orders worth 388 billion rubles ($11.8 billion) through to 2020 [Xinhua]

Beijing and Moscow are in the final stages of negotiations on joint construction of a series of helicopters, the Russian government said on Tuesday.

During an ongoing trip to China, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has held talks with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang in Hangzhou, an eastern Chinese city, where the two sides discussed the project.

“Yesterday, we agreed on the final details with this big project…Therefore, we hope that already in May we will dot all the i’s and sign the final document,” Rogozin said on Tuesday.

China is “very interested” in the project and willing to be the main financiers, Rogozin was quoted by Russian media.

“We have informed the Chinese side that today Russia’s aviation engine construction has the ability to build an engine that may be used in the Russian-Chinese helicopter,” Rogozin said.

The new line of helicopters will be built in China with materials and technologies provided by Russia, according to Rogozin.

Russian helicopters are well known in China. Its supply of machines to China began with the first production model of the Mi-1, produced in the mid-20th century. Mi-4 helicopters were assembled in China under license under the designation Harbin Z-5 by Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation, a member of the Chinese aircraft corporation AVIC. In addition to these models, China was using heavy Mi-6s, which came to replace the Mi-26TCs.

A report last year in China’s Caixin magazine quoted government sources as saying Russian and Chinese aircraft manufacturers are also preparing to cooperate to help China meet soaring demand for new jumbo jets without kowtowing to industry heavyweights like Airbus and Boeing.

 

TBP and Agencies