Contracts signed at MAKS-2007 air show outside Moscow top $3 billion

ZHUKOVSKY (Moscow Region), August 26 (RIA Novosti) - The value of contracts signed at the MAKS-2007 international air show outside Moscow has exceeded $3 billion, the organizers said Sunday, citing preliminary results.

MAKS-2007 is an aviation exhibition held every two years in the town of Zhukovsky, which hosts a military airbase. The air show, which opened August 21 and is coming to a close August 26, has gathered over 540 Russian companies and 247 foreign firms from 39 countries this year, the organizers said.

The MAKS-2007 air show has attracted more than 600,000 visitors who have been able to see over 260 aircraft, most of them made domestically, and watch 35 types of planes to perform about 200 demonstration flights, the organizers said.

Russia's state-owned United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), which incorporates commercial and military aircraft makers, such as Sukhoi, Ilyushin, and Tupolev, as well as companies involved in distribution, including Aviaexport, signed contracts worth $1.5 billion at the MAKS-2007 air show, said Boris Alyoshin, the head of the Federal Agency for Industry.

Military-related contracts signed at the MAKS-2007 totaled $400 million, said Dmitry Shulepov, general director of Aviasalon company, which had organized the show.