Aviastar Invest Corp. (United States) and DISTAR CZ a.s. (the Czech Republic) intend to establish modernization and production of aircraft at the state-owned Odesa aircraft plant’s facilities. The press service of the Ukroboronprom state defense concern, which is the parent company of the Odesa aircraft plant, announced this in a statement, the CFTS portal reports.

According to the statement, the Odesa aircraft plant, Aviastar Invest, and DISTAR CZ have reached agreement on cooperation on development and production of aircraft in Ukraine, as well as on establishment of an international regional service center for current and major repairs of aircraft and helicopters and training of pilots.

Ukroboronprom did not provide details of the agreement, including its legal status, and the industrial cooperation plan. However, it is known that Aviastar Invest and the Lviv regional administration held talks in the spring. The talks focused on establishment of international cooperation on joint production of light manned and unmanned aircraft with a carrying capacity of up to 450 kilograms and medium-sized multi-purpose helicopters of the SW range at Ukrainian aircraft manufacturing plants with the participation of DISTAR and Southwest Florida Aviation (United States).

The Odesa aircraft plant currently engages in repair and modernization of L-39 aircraft and repair of MiG-21 fighter jets and their engines under the state defense contract, as well as to order from foreign customers. It also upgrades these aircraft to technical and tactical levels closer to MiG-29, Su-27, Mirage-2000, and F-16 fighter jects.

The Odesa aircraft plant implemented a contract for modernization of MiG-21 aircraft for the Croatian Air Force in the period of 2013-2014.

As the CFTS portal reported in February, serial production of the Y-1 "Dolphin" ultra-light aircraft has been launched in Odesa. The aircraft can be used as air taxis, as well as for training flight school cadets. 

As reported, the Ukrainian multifunctional helicopter, Nadia, performed its maiden flight in in Zaporizhia in April.