"We anticipate it should be ready for commercial flying at end-November, slightly longer than we expected. We had to do a fair amount of work on the aircraft, including getting it certified and test flying," he said. "A first flight is expected before Christmas when it will carry toys to Africa from Washington, DC."
Foyle is chairman of the joint venture and joint managing director with Michael Hales from HeavyLift. The company offers Antonov heavylift freighter aircraft from Antonov Airlines, a subsidiary of the Kiev-based Antonov Design Bureau.
"We've had a number of inquiries but nothing is actually fixed. But we're not selling [the An-225] hard yet, we're waiting till it is commercially available," he added. "Our attitude to sales is just like that we had for the An-124 [when it was first marketed]. We're not expecting a deluge of revenues. ... Rather you increasingly sell the aircraft to various potential niche users and business gradually comes," Foyle said.
The users then begin to think of carrying cargo "which could never have been moved before by air -- on top of the plane or inside -- as it was too big or too heavy," he said.
Replying to a question as to whether the An-225 could help with the A380 superjumbo's assembly logistics, he said this was feasible but there had been no specific approach on the matter. Wing sections could probably be carried internally, while fuselage sections would be mounted externally -- the An-225 was originally designed to move the Soviet space shuttle, Foyle said.
At present EADS -- the A380's manufacturer -- is planning to move fuselage and wing sections from Hamburg and northwest England to Bordeaux by sea, then by river and finally on a new highway to Toulouse for final assembly.
Air Foyle-HeavyLift has a fleet of eight An-124-100s, while it is planned to upgrade a ninth aircraft -- acquired at Maastricht -- to carry a maximum of 150 tons. The upgraded An-124-100M will have a four-man cockpit as well as a 40-ton internal crane, compared to 20 tons on the existing planes. Another feature is a new "lightweight" 5.5-ton loading ramp for the An-124 instead of the 30-ton standard and the 20-ton Foyle ramp.
The first new lightweight ramp is being tested and it is intended to build a further three, Foyle added. Work is also under way on a double rack loading system to handle cars for both the An-124s and the An-225, he said.
The formal signing to set up the joint venture, which offers Antonov Airlines across the world, is expected very shortly, he said. "The actual signing could be any day now. It is imminent. But [in any case] since early this summer, we have been working as a virtual company, pooling all revenues, costs etc," Foyle said.
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