Russia’s ministry for trade and industry has signaled its intent to allocate state funding for a project to establish serial production of a redeveloped variant of the L-610 40-seat regional turboprop developed by Czech company Let in the 1980s.

Dmitry Lysogorski, head of the ministry’s aviation department, told the Russian Parliament’s Committee for Budget and Taxes on October 18 that the required funding for the aforementioned R&D effort would total about 20- to 25 billion rubles ($313- to $391 million). The ministry hopes to provide the money later this year, pending approval from the Kremlin. “Today, in cooperation with the Czech Republic and Kazakhstan, we are planning to rework the initial project so as to resume series production in 2023,” Lysogorski said.

Russian trade minister Denis Manturov explained to the media that the L-610 could generate sales in the CIS marketplace provided designers can incorporate a number of modernization changes to the original airplane, including an increase in seating capacity, gross weight, and flight range. “We speak of not launching this plane into production, but development of a new regional turboprop aircraft using the scientific-technical base created in the course of the L-610 program,” trade Manturov told Moscow’s Vedomisti newspaper.

State officials began mentioning the L-610 last year, but few believed the airplane developed under Soviet orders in the former Czechoslovakia in the 1980s had any chance for resurrection in the new Russia. However, at August’s Moscow Airshow Polar Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding with the Urals Plant of Civil Aviation (local acronym UZGA) covering 10 aircraft for delivery from 2023 to 2025. Controlled by Rostec Corporation, UZGA serves as a strategic partner to UGMK (local acronym for Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company), both based in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals region. The renewed airplane would use a powerplant and avionics set supplied by the Russian companies, he added.

In 2008 UGMK acquired a 51-percent stake in Aircraft Industries (formerly Let Kunovice, the L-610 developer) for the purpose of localizing production of the 19-seat L-410UVPE in Russia. Let developed the original L-410 twin turboprop in the 1960s and produced more than 1,000 copies, most of which it exported to the Soviet Union. UGMK teamed with UZGA on the type’s localization effort that saw local assembly start in 2016. Current plans call for an increase in local content from 35 percent today up to 72 percent in late 2021, when the annual production reaches a planned 16 to 18 units.

UGMK gradually increased its stake in Aircraft Industries and now owns the entirety of the Czech company. The move prompted it to expand efforts on the L-610, which it considers a good addition to the 19-seat L-410 and 64-seat Ilyushin Il-114-300, the passenger turboprops programs already approved by the Kremlin. Production of the 14.5-tonne-gross-weight L-610 totaled in eight copies, including two for ground testing. In the early 1990s, Let Kunovice produced a single L-610G featuring 1750-hp General Electric CT7-9D motors turning Hamilton Standard HS-14 RF propellers, a combination that replaced that of the 1800-hp Walter M602 and Avia V518. However, the upgrade effort did not generate customers, which led to the program’s closure. While Russia does not produce an engine in that power class, last month United Engine Corporation general designer Yuri Shmotin announced plans for the development of the VК-1600V to replace the 1680-hp Turbomeca Ardiden 3G on the Kamov Ka-62 helicopter. A would-be turboprop version could potentially fulfill the L610’s requirement.