President Petro Poroshenko took part in festivities on the occasion of the launch of new multipurpose cargo aircraft An-132D. The Head of State congratulated everyone on the first flight of An-132D designed for a wide range of tasks in completely different climate and weather conditions.

“I have a firm belief that this plane will continue the line of national cargo aircrafts, among which are “Antei”, “Ruslan” and “Mriya” that are famous all over the world,” Petro Poroshenko said adding that weather has created difficult conditions for today’s trial. “But as they say: rain in the road brings success. Success of our native An-132D,” he said.

According to Petro Poroshenko, Saudi Arabia will become the second homeland of the newly born plane. “This Kingdom will manage to develop its aircraft manufacturing sphere jointly with us. And this plane symbolizes a solid basis of friendship and partnership between Ukraine and Saudi Arabia,” the Head of State noted.

The President emphasized that the companies of this country are the main partners of Ukraine on the implementation of a powerful new project of construction of new An-132D plane. “This event is not only for the aircraft manufacturers. This is an international event,” the Head of State is confident.

“And the fact that Ukraine today is capable of launching new high-quality planes demonstrates a huge potential of the state,” Petro Poroshenko stressed.

The President noted that partnership between Ukraine and Saudi Arabia is particularly important in conditions of broken cooperation ties with the country-aggressor Russia.

Petro Poroshenko emphasized that the creation of An-132D is a truly international project that involved the leading aircraft manufacturing enterprises of USA, Great Britain, France, Germany and other states.

“An-132D is a unique example in the history of Ukrainian aviation that proves the necessity of development, introduction of industrial cooperation with Western partners. I emphasize this cooperation is currently held with NATO member-states and it meets the development strategy of our country,” the President said.

The Head of State is confident that the new “An” will have a decent place on the market and Ukraine will improve its representation in the international arena quickly and efficiently as a powerful and reliable partner. He also added that after a full set of trials, An-132D will show its high qualities to the potential customers from Saudi Arabia and then – from other countries of the region with extremely promising markets for the Ukrainian plane.

According to the President, the staff of the plant assured him that this plane is much better, much more reliable and much easier to control: “It has the best qualities of Antonov’s planes. Today, we celebrate another victory of fruitful and inspired work. I’d like to express special gratitude to the real heroes of today’s holiday – testing crew of the new plane”.

 

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