In addition to writing for Aviation Week Network, Maxim holds a key position at Russia's Air Transport Observer magazine (www.ato.ru). In the past he was in charge of several ATO sister aerospace publications and earlier worked for the Moscow-based CAST defense think-tank.
Maxim has a degree on international relations from MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia, and for several years worked at the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Following the design freeze for the first version of the MS-21 narrowbody, Russia's United Aircraft Corporation is inching toward starting production of the initial test aircraft. UAC is has opted to work on the biggest variant first. According to UAC subsidiary Irkut Corp., which leads the MS-21 development, configuration of the first variant—the 212-seat MS-21-300—has been frozen and the design for the fuselage has been sent to UAC production sites in Irkutsk and Ulyanovsk.
The Russian aerospace industry hoped the revamped Tupolev Tu-204SM would serve as a bridge until launch of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) MS-21 narrowbody in 2017, but it still does not have a single order, despite its recent certification by aviation authorities in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
