OREANDA-NEWS. May 04, 2010. President Viktor Yanukovych visited the Antonov ASTC, where in his presence the company test-flew the new AN-158 for the first time and transferred the commissioning act for AN-148 to the state company "Aerosvit".

The President and those present were shown the experimental model of AN-158 and watched the two planes take off.

Congratulating everybody on this landmark event, the President noted that it was "the festival of Ukrainian aircraft building”.

He thanked all those who contributed to developing and manufacturing of the new AN-158 and AN-148 and expressed confidence that these models will surely be popular with airways of different states of the world.

Viktor Yanukovych noted that in the development of the new aircrafts, 37 Ukrainian, 130 Russian and almost 30 other countries’ enterprises were involved. "Certainly, this program is economically beneficial, and it is the evidence that Ukraine is a highly developed country which has strong science, technology and capabilities," he said.

The President also informed that his talks with our partners, especially Russia, give great hope that Ukraine will step forward in aircraft building. "We must use our potential," he said.

The President expressed hope that testing of the new aircraft will be successful, adding that AN-158 has better specifications than its predecessor AN-148. "Today we already have a lot of orders for this aircraft, as well as for AN-148," said the President.

Viktor Yanukovych also said that he instructed the Cabinet together with Antonov ASTC to study the possibility of ordering the new aircraft by "Ukraine" Air Company, which provides flights of the President of Ukraine.