A factory for the production of Simorgh aircraft, which are actually a stolen copy of the Ukrainian An-140 aircraft, has allegedly appeared in Iran.
According to the head of the Civil Aviation Organization of the Islamic Republic, Mohammad Mohammadi-Bakhsh, on December 19, the production of aircraft is carried out with the participation of three departments, including the Iranian Ministry of Defense, reports Iranian agency Tin News.
“The production of the Simorgh aircraft is carried out with the participation of the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Industry, with each of the departments performing its own specific tasks. Today, we can say that the Islamic Republic has its own aircraft factory,” Mohammadi-Bakhsha said.
The location of the plant is currently unknown, but Militarnyi’s observers noted that this is apparently the city of Isfahan, where Simorgh first took off in June 2023.
It is also known that the “Iranian” military transport aircraft was created on the basis of the IrAn-140, which is a licensed modification of the Ukrainian turboprop An-140. Although the Ukrainian side did not authorize the re-engineering of a civilian vehicle into a military aircraft, the Iranian company Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries (IAMI) carried out the relevant work. As a result, the aircraft was additionally equipped with a rear ramp for loading bulky cargo.
As for the components, experts believe that the aircraft was built from an aircraft kit supplied earlier by the Kharkiv State Aviation Production Enterprise KhDAPP.
