Tashkent Aircraft Production Corporation named after V.P.Chkalov Chkalov Tashkent Industrial Aircraft Association Chkalov Tashkent Aircraft Production Enterprise V.P.Chkalov Tashkent Aircraft Production Corporation TAPiCH - Tashkent Aircraft Factory 61 Elbek Str., 700016 Tashkent, Republic of Uzbekistan Tel.: + 7 3712 321167, Fax: + 7 3712 680318, Telex: 11475 TAPO SU
The government-controlled Chkalov Tashkent Aircraft Production Company, headquartered outside of Tashkent, maintains one of the largest and most significant aircraft assembly plants in Central Asia. The V.P.Chkalov Tashkent Aircraft Production Corporation State Joint-Stock Company has great potential in the aircraft production industry. Chkalov employs a workforce of 30,000 and is one of the largest businesses in Uzbekistan. President Islam Karimov, who is extremely supportive of aviation, is one of the main reasons so many improvements have been implemented so quickly.
The Tashkent Aviation Production Organisation was established in 1932 at Khimki in the Moscow region but moved to its present site in Uzbekistan in 1941, during WW II. Valeriy Chkalov was the most experienced of all Soviet test pilots. Along with Rostislav Evgenievich Alekseev [who went on to become the Chief Designer in Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau], he piloted the first non-stop flight between the USSR and USA. Chkalov lost his life on 15 December 1938, while testing the new Polikarpov I-180 prototype. This tragedy sent shockwaves throughout the entire Soviet aviation community. Several designers from the Polikarpov Design Bureau were arrested for "Wrecking" and "Sabotage" by Stalin, and no other Polikarpov design ever entered production. Chkalov was enshrined as a national hero following his death, and many dedications, voluntary funds, and memorials were erected in his name throughout the Great Patriotic War. During its long existence, the company has been involved in the production of a wide range of aircraft including: I-15, I-16, I-153, Li-2, Il-14, An-8, An-12, An-22, and Ka-22, as well as the wing and centre section of the An-124 and An-225. In addition, the company has produced the following variants of the Il-76: Il-76K, ‘Scalpel’, Scip, Il-78 and A-50.
Current production features the TD, MD, MF and TF variants of the Il-76 cargo aircraft, as well as the wings for the An-70 cargo aircraft. In September 1996 the Chkalov plant also began producing the IL-114T cargo aircraft and the IL-114 passenger version. The new generation of aircraft models IL- 76MF and IL- 76TF have a carrying capacity of over 52 tons and are equipped with new highly economic low-noise motors. The new variation of the IL-114-100 aircraft is powered by engines built by Pratt & Whitney, the Canadian subsidiary of Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp, with a service life of over 6000 flying hours. The base model of the Il-144 is powered by Russian-built TV-117C engines. The Il-114 and Il-114-100 are intended to replace aging Antonov An-24 and Yakovlev Yak-40 aircraft. Boeing has developed a cooperative effort with this company.
The plant expected to make a substantial profits in 2000, due to the secured orders for IL-114s and modified Il-76s. The Il-76MF, the upgraded model, will be equipped with Snecma (French Company) engines. In addition, as cooperation with Russia's Ilyushin design bureau, the Plant will continue to work towards establishing market niche for its products on the world aircraft market. Agreements have been signed with the United Arab Emirates and China for fifteen Il-114-100 aircraft. The plant has been supplying latter country with 20 modified Il-76s. Work is under way on a contract concluded during the Uzbek president's visit to the People's Republic of China. Local Uzbek aircraft companies have also placed orders for three Il-114s with Canadian engines. The Plant has also been contracted to carry out the complete overhaul of four Il-76s in service in India.
The Republic of Uzbekistan proclaimed its independence on August 31, 1991 and was recognized by the United States on December 25, 1991. Uzbekistan has lagged behind other former Soviet states in the pace of its reforms. Both politically and economically, Uzbekistan continues to resemble its former Soviet self. Uzbekistan’s relatively isolated economic position has served to shelter it somewhat from the economic turmoil surrounding in the other NIS countries. In October 1996, the IMF announced a suspension of the Stand-By Arrangement pending the establishment of corrective measures “consistent with the growth and inflation targets of the Uzbek government.” It was only in 1999 and 2000 that the IMF has resumed talks with the Government of Uzbekistan to reinstate the Stand-By Arrangement. This assistance to Uzbekistan comes with a number of conditions on the part of the IMF, however, including that Uzbekistan make real progress towards liberalizing its currency exchange and show real progress on economic reform.
President Karimov has advocated what he refers to as “Eastern Democracy” and a controlled pace of reform for Uzbekistan. At the current time, the Government of Uzbekistan retains full control over all aspects of the economy, from major industries and facilities to the exchange rate of the soum. All of these control measures are part of the government’s overall policy to retain control of Uzbekistan’s transition from a Soviet economy to a free market system. The end result has been a system that resembles the Soviet Union more than any of the other countries in the NIS.
Privatization in Uzbekistan, like many other economic reforms, has been lagging. President Karimov announced a major privatization plan in October 1995, which is being implemented late in 1998 – 2000. Major Uzbekistani companies, unavailable to Western companies until this point, are due to be privatized, but initial reaction to these efforts has been lukewarm. While this plan is ambitious and represents a unique opportunity for investors interested in Uzbekistan, it is yet to be determined how successful this program will be. The first tender of this program, for the Almalyk Copper Plant, has been widely considered a failure due to lack of interest.
The next stage of denationalization and privatization of the Uzbekistan's industry sectors was started by special resolutions of Uzbekistan's Cabinet of Ministers in December 1999 and March 2000, which defined three groups of enterprises. The first one consists of 27 high profile companies, which includes the Chkalov Aviation Production Association. The securities of these companies, which are in many ways the glory and might of the domestic economy, are scheduled to be sold in relation to individual projects because some of these companies have a strategic importance to the national economy. The state will hold 51 per cent of shares in a number of major enterprises, such as the Tashkent Chkalov Aviation Production Association state joint-stock company.
The Russian Ilyushin Production Complex was created in January 1997 to include all designers and producers of Il-family planes. As of 1998 the Ilyushin Complex included the Ilyushin R&D bureau; VASO (Voronezh Aircraft Manufacturing Enterprise); and TAPOiCh (Tashkent Chkalov Aircraft Manufacturing Enterprise).
In March 2000 Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who is in charge of the military-industrial complex, had a meeting with state adviser to the president of Uzbekistan on security issues Mirakbar Rahmonqulov in Moscow. They discussed the creation of joint ventures to maintain and update military hardware and the training of Uzbek specialists in aircraft and armoured hardware in Russia. Documents were prepared to form an interstate aviation company with participation of Chkalov. It was projected that by May 2000 Russian and Uzbekistan would sign documents and form one of the strongest and largest aviation concerns of the world.
The Uzbek-Swiss-German joint venture Hobas-TAPO (Tashkent) has begun production of non-metal pipes for pipelines in the republic's oil, gas and chemical industries. Fifty per cent of Hobas-TAPO output will be exported, and the rest will be sold on the domestic market. Hobas-Tapo was established at the end of 1997. On the Uzbek side, it includes the Tashkent-based Chkalov Aviation Corporation, which holds 50 per cent of the joint venture's charter fund. Swiss Hobas AG holds 47.5 per cent and German Wemex Handel GmbH 2.5 per cent of the fund. A city with a 2000-year-old history as the crossroads of the ancient trade routes and a key stop along the Silk Road, Tashkent, Uzbekistan is a city of 2.1 million people situated in the Central Asia region. Uzbekistan’s economy weathered the transition to independence better than most former Soviet republics. Tashkent became the center for the USSR’s scientific efforts in World War II, when Russia moved its research centers from Europe to the relative safe haven of it’s Central Asian republics. As a result, the city is home to a highly skilled scientific labor force. Tashkent is the manufacturing hub in Central Asia. It has a strong scientific experience and community, a legacy from its Soviet history, with sophisticated manufacturers such as titanium and its aircraft production facility.