First Russian-made Antonov-148, registration RA-61701, performed its maiden flight from the airdrome of the Voronezh aviation plant VASO on Sunday, 19 July. The crew consisted of Gennady Ryabov, VASO test-pilot, who flight-tested all recently built Il-96 series widebody airliners, and Sergei Troshin, test-pilot and commander of Antonov flight-test crews, with over 250 takeoffs and landings on An-148s to his credit.

The flight originated at 14:00 Moscow time and lasted a little less than one hour. Having taken off with weight of 33 tons, the airplane reached maximum altitude of 5000 m and speed of 550 km/h. The crew evaluated characteristic speeds, controllability and stability of the aircraft and checked functioning of onboard systems.

Upon completion of the first sortie, the airplane was rendered ready for certification and customer acceptance trials. Certification flight test program will start later this week. According to the flight test schedule, the next flight should last two and a half hours, during which the airplane shall reach the attitude of 11,000 m. The aircraft’s power plant shall be checked at various regimes, including at takeoff and landing. The crew shall assess functioning of the control surfaces, including wing leading and training edges, and that of navigation and radio communication equipment.