To win a part of the aviation market, Russian aviation companies must solve a set of tasks aimed at creating a system that allows and stimulates the creation of aircraft better than Western competitors in most parameters and characteristics. The main strategic direction of the development of civil aviation in the world is to improve safety. First of all, this system should bring the Russian Federation and the Russian aviation industry to the leaders in passenger safety.

The trust of passengers and airlines in Russian aviation technology is the key to solving this strategic task.

The cornerstone is independent monitoring within the company of all technical decisions taken.

Accurate and rigorous implementation of the procedures for the aircraft design at each stage, independent audit of technical solutions at each stage, training and control of knowledge and skills of engineers – the only way to design a modern aircraft that meets all modern safety requirements in the shortest time with minimal costs for the adjustment and fine-tuning of the aircraft to the required performance and safety requirements.

The procedure of aircraft design

Procedures for the aircraft design should be developed based on the following aircraft design strategy:

All technologies and materials required for a commercial product should be developed and tested before the launch of the program.

All project objectives — including weight, cost, emission level, specific fuel consumption, even work schedules - should be clearly achievable before the launch of the program (reliance on existing scientific and technical groundwork, demonstrators, etc.).

All participants and vendors should be identified before the program is launched, and each should be fully aware of what they need to do for the program to succeed.

The technical design will be started only after all the requirements are defined and accurately known.

Certified aircraft or engine should be identical to the planned for mass production and made on the serial tooling in the production shop.

Plans for certification testing of the aircraft should be standardized in all programs. Each of the test aircraft has specific objectives and well-defined dissection.

All reports are issued in a standard format.

The aircraft design process should be in-depth and thoroughly documented. After determining the main objectives of the program and the stage of " tie " of the object (the stage of the Technical Proposal) in the further process, the terms of stages, workflows and procedures, the approximate number of performers, initial data and expected results are clear. The developed workflows are duplicated on levels for the organization of iterations on those points of the project where erroneous or diverting decisions are possible. So-called "design solutions" have three "levels of maturity", moving from a large number of simplified studies to a minimum number of detailed calculations and design.

Special attention should be paid to the interfaces, i.e. the integration and joint functioning of the product elements, where either parts designed in different departments of the company or parts of the product made inside and outside the company (outsourcing) are connected. For each interface, a separate project document should be issued, where all the details of the connection on the left and right, functions, requirements and control features are identified.

Modern aircraft are equipped with such complex highly integrated systems that it is no longer possible to simply conduct tests to ensure that there are no errors in design.

Determination of compliance with the specified requirements now requires the use of other qualitative methods (for example, Regulation 4754 - the Russian analogue of the Western standard ARP 4754), which are a process involving certain planned and systematic actions to ensure that errors in the requirements or design have been identified and eliminated to the extent that the implemented system meets the existing certification requirements.

In the Design organization, it is necessary to introduce an independent monitoring service necessary to monitor the functioning of the system itself and the product certification system. It is mandatory that there are compliance verification engineers in the system of independent monitoring  who carry out independent verification of compliance with certification requirements at all stages of product design, including verification of compliance documentation.

Compliance verification engineers should sign all documents required to verify compliance with applicable airworthiness and environmental requirements. Compliance verification engineers are appointed by the Head of the Design Organization and are responsible for full compliance of the functional system or characteristic with the applicable requirements. Compliance verification should not be engaged in this project in this area and be responsible for the timing of work in this area.