Iran starts building 1st commercial plane

Iran has started building its first commercial passenger airplane, a twin-engine turbojet aircraft, which can accommodate 150 passengers, Press TV reports.

The Iranian Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO) along with Iran’s Civil Aircraft Design Center (CADC) plans to finish the first phase of the 3-phase project by March 2014, a Press TV correspondent reported on Sunday.

“There are countries from four continents involved in this project…Within the next decade, Iran will be an exporter of commercial airplanes in the region,” said Manouchehr Manteqi, the managing director of the IAIO.

Top engineers from Iran University of Science and Technology, Sharif University of Technology, Isfahan University of Technology and Amir Kabir University of Technology will be working in the project.

The stages of production include fuel system and engine, aerodynamics, flight mechanics, Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application (CATIA), standard airworthiness and quality, electro avionics or the electro optic systems, interior design, life support system and landing gear design.

The range of the aircraft is about 3500 kilometers, which covers most of our destinations, in the West to Europe and in the East to India,” Alireza Jahangerian, managing director of CADC, said.

Aviation engineers say based on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) each commercial airplane costs almost 1.5 billion dollars to build and pass inspection.

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.

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.