S7 Tango Trainer aircraft

2024: Flight Tests

S7 Airlines in September 2024 introduced a new Tango training aircraft, completely created from Russian components. This event is the last time of a test flight at an airfield in the Moscow region. The aircraft made a successful separation from the runway and completed all the tasks of a test flight under the control of pilot-tester Vladimir Barsuk. The machine was developed by S7 Group together with the Siberian Aviation Research Institute (SibNIA) and fully complies with modern aircraft industry standards.

According to the press service of the S7 Group, Tango is a light four-seater aircraft designed for training purposes. It was designed and manufactured over the past year and a half at the company's production base in Torbeevo (Stupinsky district of Moscow region) from domestic composite materials. The aircraft is equipped with a UL Power 520is engine manufactured by Belgium, but in the future S7 plans to create a similar engine of its own production, which is being tested.

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S7

Tango will be used for the initial training of pilots in Russia, which is an important step in the development of the country's aviation industry. The aircraft can also be used for private flights, which significantly expands its functionality. Thus, Tango will become a universal solution for both educational and personal purposes, representatives of S7 note.

S7 Group is actively developing its own aviation developments, which is confirmed by plans to create a domestic engine. In parallel, the airline is negotiating with the United Aircraft Corporation to supply 100 advanced Tu-214 aircraft. According to the press service, S7 expects the delivery of the first 10 aircraft by the end of 2024, and the remaining 90 should arrive by the end of 2025.^[1]

2023: Introduction of the S7 Tango trainer

S7 Group is preparing an in-house training aircraft to overcome the shortage of such machines in training centers. This became known on August 22, 2023.

The first copy of the S7 Tango aircraft is already being assembled in the company's workshops. They promise that the car will be as localized as possible and even the engine in it will be of its own design, created in the S7 design bureau in Rybinsk. It will be a piston six-cylinder motor.

The maximum take-off weight of the S7 Tango is 1150 kg, the maximum flight range is 1100 km. The aircraft made of composites will be able to take on board the commander, co-pilot and two passengers.

In May, the head of the flight operations department of the Federal Air Transport Agency said that the fleet of foreign aircraft in flight schools was 50% faulty. The problem, first of all, is the engines.

At the same time, Irkut (now PJSC Yakovlev) offered to start producing Yak-118 aircraft, information about which is not so much. Back in 2009, it became known that they plan to install a German diesel engine on it, that is, the root of all problems with UTC in Russia.

And while Yakovlev is looking for a replacement for the German diesel, the S7 Tango has every chance of occupying a niche and "registering" in all aviation training centers in the country^[2]

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