Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency translation, dated 8 July 1993, covers a Moscow Russian Television "M-Trust" report on the Saratov Aviation Plant. It says a visiting session of the Ministry of Science Collegium approved the plant's plan for comprehensive retooling and quality certification, which could raise aircraft production tenfold. The plant builds Yak-40 and Yak-42 airliners. It is also assembling a "flying saucer" air-cushion craft that needs no airfield and is meant to carry passengers and cargo.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
CLAS UNCLASSIFIED CLAS UNCLASSIFIED AFSN PM2007122593 DDAT 930708 SLIN Moscow Russian Television Network in Russian 1430 GMT 8 Jul 93 SUBS [From the "M-Trust" program: Report over video of Saratov Aviation Plant; figures in brackets denote broadcast time in GMT in hours, minutes, and seconds SUBJ Saratov Plant's Successes, Future Plans Reported Full Text Superzone of Message 1 ] [Excerpt] [143418] [Correspondent over video of gutted production premises] It appears that if you are considering production retooling, it should be global; if you are going to reconstruct, you should do it comprehensively. This is what has been decided at the Saratov Aviation Plant. And this is not surprising. Everyone would like to have computerized production facilities, everyone would like to have modern production lines up to world standards rather than having to tinker with obsolete equipment. Thus it is not difficult to understand the plant's management. They are tired of selling aircraft at dumping prices, when retooling opens up the rare opportunity of introducing [quality] certification of all the individual links of the production process, thus enabling them not just to sell aircraft to other countries, but also to flood the market with own-production, high-quality spare parts. This is why the itinerant session of the Ministry of Science Collegium has approved the Saratov plant management's plan. [video shows Collegium members inspecting production facilities] [Correspondent over video of Saratov riverside and Yak aircraft] The Saratov Aviation Plant, or SAZ for short, produces civilian Yak-40 and Yak-42 aicraft. Thanks to their reliability and excellent specifications, these aircraft are much in demand on the domestic and the international markets. For example, the 120-seat Yak-42, which is the most reliable aircraft in its class, is very popular with Italian, Indian, Egyptian, Iranian, Chinese, and other airlines. It is worth mentioning that the sale of one such aircraft abroad is equivalent to the sale of 15,000 VAZ cars. People at the plant believe that, in order to meet domestic and foreign demand, they need radical retooling based on ecologically-clean, and energy- and resource-saving technologies. These breakthrough technologies, coupled with new methods of production organization and production management, will enable the plant to increase its aircraft production at least tenfold. The creation of this type of production facilities is also the aim of the "Technologies and Production of the Future" state scientific and technical program of the Russian Ministry of Science and Technology Policy. [143600] [video shows Saratov Aviation Plant production facilities, ministry delegation inspecting plant, various aspects of Yak aircraft, more extensive views of production facilities] 6 [passage omitted -- interview with Russian Minister of Science and Technology Policy B.G. Saltykov] [143937] [Correspondent over video of production facilities] The main demand made on certified output is that it guarantees a pre-set high standard of quality and takes consumer requirements into account. The aviation equipment and new types of aircraft, for example with aerodynamic bodies which are being built at the Saratov Aviation Plant, are already
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.