Volga-Dnepr’s international competition to design an ‘Advanced Transport Aircraft of the 21st Century’ inspired aircraft engineers and aviation enthusiasts to put forward their ideas and was won by three students attending the Moscow Aviation Institute.

The 12-month long contest culminated in the winners being announced on 15 August 2014 at the third International Air Transport Forum (IATF-2014) in Ulyanovsk, Russia.

The winning team of Sergey Borovykh, Nikolay Turbin and Ilya Ageev presented a 200-page project for the design of a ‘Heavy Transport Aircraft Concept with New Aerodynamic Configuration’. Their proposal consisted of a full description and design solutions for a triplane aircraft of the Antonov-225 ‘Mriya’ type. The twin-boom designed aircraft with external loading capability is designed to carry ‘super heavy’ and outsize cargo suspended under a centre wing section between two fuselages. The winners have now been invited to join the Volga-Dnepr Design Bureau team.