Akhir 27, 1432 H/April 1, 2011, SPA -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who has swapped his Tupolev for a French-made executive jet, criticised on Friday flaws in domestically-built planes and the nation's poor air safety record, according to Reuters. "Unfortunately, even the newly-designed jets made at our plants have certain problems ... and I have found that out based on my personal experience," Medvedev told a meeting of Russia's Security Council, without giving details. A senior Kremlin source told Russian news agencies that Medvedev had acquired a French-built Falcon last year to use while airframe problems on his Russian-made Tupolev are fixed. Experts blame Russia's poor air safety record on endemic corruption, poor pilot training and outdated aviation technologies which often date back to the Soviet era. From February, Iran grounded all its Tupolev aircraft following a series of disasters in the Islamic state. Last month's crash of a Russian-built An-148-100E that killed six people during a test flight near Belgorod, about 700 km (435 miles) south of Moscow, delivered a fresh blow to the Russian aviation industry. Manufacturers blamed the crash on a faulty airspeed indicator, the business daily Kommersant reported. Medvedev promised to make Russian planes more competitive by increasing cooperation with foreign jet makers. "We need to boost the quality of our aircraft, building the most advanced and promising models ... through the modernisation ... of the aircraft industry," he said. Russia has recently started producing the Sukhoi Superjet 100, its first newly-designed passenger aircraft since the Soviet Union fell 20 years ago. Italy helped in its development and marketing.
