ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the Time of Troubles is past, a new and vibrant Russian aviation industry will once again assume its rightful and hard-earned place. It provides an overview of the history and then briefly looks at the structure of research and testing without which the industry and design bureaux could not function. The chapter discusses the establishment of the Tsentralnyi aerogidrodinamicheskyi institut. Russian aircraft designers and manufacturers have taken scientific, technological, and organizational approaches to the development of their aircraft that are very different from those adopted in the West. Western aeronautical and military experts were repeatedly surprised by the effectiveness of Soviet aircraft that to their eyes appeared crude and unsophisticated. The major design and production organizations are economic enterprises of the independent successor states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Since 1992, the aviation industry has undergone major changes as the Russian economy is restructured from centrally planned state ownership into a competitive market economy.
