Kicking the annual event off on Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin reminded the world that Russia has long been regarded by experts as an aerospace leader, and underscored that products and services it offers today represent particularly good value for money.

The message was not new, but the response from those who heard it - Europe's aerospace giant EADS and Finmeccanica of Italy, to name a few - was different this time, as cash investment in cooperative projects with Russian firms began to materialize.

Although the volume of actual orders signed was limited, Russian companies made unmistakable progress in convincing Western airplane manufacturers that unique expertise built up during the Soviet period was still a factor warranting special attention.

And so it was that the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) signed an agreement on the first day of the MAKS air show for acquisition of a 10 percent stake in Russian fighter plane manufacturer IRKUT, a private group at the forefront of the aerospace sector consolidation drive in Russia.

The value of that deal, officially "more than 50 million euros (60.7 million dollars)," was modest. It nonetheless cements a partnership between EADS and IRKUT and constitutes an important trial balloon for the European giant in Russia, said Gairat Salimov, aviation analyst with broker Troika Dialog.

European civil aircraft maker Airbus, an EADS subsidiary, signed an agreement the following day with IRKUT opening the door for Russian participation in development of its future A350 long-distance plane - and to the prospect of more than three billion dollars in contracts for Russia.

Like US aerospace manufacturer Boeing, Airbus sees growing potential for outsourcing both design and production of airplane components to Russia, where a highly skilled aerospace engineer is paid one-fifth of his equivalent number in the West.

Boeing already has a center in Moscow employing more than 1,000 Russian engineers while EADS has created a similar facility with around 120 staff.

Meanwhile, Alenia Aeronautica, a subsidiary of Italian defense and aerospace group Finmeccanica, signed a deal Thursday with Russian holding company Sukhoi to join in development of the Russian Regional Jet project, the most important civil aviation project in Russia at present.

At the same time, long-delayed plans to consolidate the Russian aerospace industry in a new Unified Aerospace Consortium (UAC) seem finally to be picking up pace, pushed by strong political will, experts said.

"The president wants it to be over within his term" in 2008, Salimov said, adding: "It's quite feasible now if, they all work hard."

According to the agency that handles Russian defense exports, Rosoboronexport, the aim is for Russia to acquire 10 percent of the world civil and military aviation market by the year 2015, even if the cumulative turnover of UAC participants is only around three billion dollars today.

Those participants include legendary civil and military aviation industry giants Sukhoi, MiG, IRKUT, Ilyushin, Tupolev and Yakovlev.

Boris Alyoshin, head of the federal industrial agency and a key mover in the aerospace consolidation drive, acknowledged that the challenge ahead for the sector, still struggling to overcome outdated organization and practices, would be steep.

"We've put one foot forward into capitalism, but the other foot remains in the Soviet Union," Alyoshin said.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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