Iranian state media on Wednesday reported that a new utility turboprop plane, Simorgh, successfully completed its maiden flight.
According to reports, the test flight was carried out successfully in an airbase in the central Iranian city of Isfahan on Tuesday in a ceremony attended by the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri.
The aircraft has been designed and manufactured by the Iran Aviation Industries Organization, which is a subsidiary of the Iranian defense ministry.
The aircraft will be utilized by the Iranian Air Force for tactical transport operations after completing testing and certification, taking the place of the current Fokker F27s.
But after it became known that Iran’s allegedly great Simorgh plane is really just a reverse-engineered Ukrainian An-140. It is an illegal modernization of the IrAn-140 passenger plane (localization of the Ukrainian An-140) to a transport configuration.
The upgrade was carried out together with representatives of the Russian company Aviakor, which until 2015, was engaged in the manufacturing of Ukrainian An-140 aircraft and which developed the An-140T transport version with a cargo ramp.
In August 2015, Aviakor suspended the Antonov An-140 manufacturing program as a result of supply-chain disruption against a backdrop of deteriorating diplomatic ties after the war in Ukraine, Crimea’s annexation and international sanctions. The Russian airframer had cooperation agreements with 34 major An-140 component suppliers in Ukraine from which it received such crucial systems as landing gear for the regional twin-turboprop.
Iran, in turn, had license agreements with Ukraine, which did not approve this project.