WWW Irkutsk Newsletter UNIQUE AMPHIBIOUS FIRE-FIGHTING AIRCRAFT DESIGNED IN IRKUTSK 1 November 1999 Irkutsk, 31st October: Russian Emergencies Minister Sergey Shoygu intends to buy 20 unique amphibious aircraft Be-200 for the Russian Emergencies Ministry. "We are going to earmark R400m for this project in the year 2000 budget, and this will make it possible to begin the production of four Be-200 aircraft for the Russian Emergencies Ministry," Shoygu told journalists today during a visit to the Irkutsk aircraft-manufacturing association which is designing the Be-200 ChS fire-fighting aircraft at the request of the Russian Emergencies Ministry. Sergey Shoygu said the aircraft "is ideal for extinguishing fires on vast areas in Russia" . The Be-200 has a crew of two. It is equipped with the control system from the Su-27 combat aircraft and the most sophisticated navigation equipment and instruments for carrying out search operation in any weather conditions. The Be-200 can carry 12 tonnes of water, which is twice as much as the latest Canadian aircraft of the same class can do. According to Anatoliy Kvochur, an international class test pilot, "the new Russian aircraft has nothing in the world to match it" . According to Kvochur, "the aircraft has everything - it can fly at a speed of 710 kilometres per hour, its flying range is 4,600 km, it is mobile and it can be used for different purposes" . The aircraft can be used not only for extinguishing fires but also as a passenger aircraft for carrying rescuers. It can be converted into a flying hospital. The aircraft can take off and land both on water and on conventional hard-surface landing strips. A spokesman of the plant that manufactures the latest Su-27 and Su-30 aircraft said 50 per cent of the enterprise's production capacities would soon be used for the implementation of the Be-200 ChS project. He said Russia's latest fire-fighting technologies were used when designing the aircraft. He said China, Australia and some other countries had shown their interest in it. A test prototype of the Be-200 aircraft spent over 66 hours in the air in September and October this year. It took off and landed on water 21 times... Source and copyright: BBC MONITORING INTERNATIONAL REPORTS