Iran will assemble AK 1-3 light multi-purpose helicopters developed by Poltava-based Aerocopter Design Bureau, an Iranian official has said.
Iranian media quoted Secretary of Iran’s Air and Space Industries
Union (ASIU) Seyed Javad Ebnoreza as saying that a respective agreement
on the transfer of helicopter production technology to Iran had been
signed with the Ukrainian company late in August at the MAKS 2009
International Aerospace Show in Zhukovsky, near Moscow.
The Iranian official said that the ASIU had been seeking
technologies for light helicopter production on the foreign markets for
the last three years and that these searches had ended fruitfully.
Iranian media reported that Ebnoreza was satisfied that “despite
sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic in the sphere of
aircraft building, 84 foreign companies are ready to develop
cooperation with the ASIU.”
The AK 1-3 light two-seater one-engined multi-purpose helicopter has
a maximum takeoff weight of 650 kilograms. The cost of the helicopter,
according to the Poltava manufacturer, is estimated at $150,000.
Ukraine assembled ten helicopters in 2008. It is planned to assemble 20
aircraft in 2009.
