According to the Chinese newspaper “Economic Information Daily”, the Hong Kong-based company China Airspace Industry Group Ltd signed a collaboration agreement with the Ukrainian company Antonov on August 30, in Beijing to establish production sites of the An-225 heavy lift aircraft in China.
China Airspace Industry Group Ltd would get, according to the text, all technologies, plans and production license of the cargo plane, the largest in the world. The D-18T engine would also be part of the agreement.
The Chinese group plans to build two production sites, one in Luzhou in Sichuan Province, and the second in Guigang which lies 300km west of Guangzhou.
The new An-225 manufactured in China, of which the first could come out of the assembly line in early 2019, will be mainly used for cargo transportation.
China Airspace Industry Group Ltd was registered in Hong Kong on June 7, 2012.
The Antonov An-225, initially developed for the task of transporting the Buran spaceplane, was an enlargement of the successful Antonov An-124. The An-225 is powered by six ZMKB Progress D-18 turbofans (51,600 lbf each). The airlifter holds the world records for an airlifted total payload of more than 253 tons. (Russian Aviation/Business World Magazine)
