The program of test flights of the upgraded Russian-Ukrainian An-70 military transport aircraft is running smoothly, Chief Designer of Zaporizhia-based Ivchenko-Progress Design Bureau Ihor Kravchenko has said.

"The plane is finishing the program of flight tests of the D-27 engine and propfan. Everything is going as planned. The performances are being confirmed," Kravchenko said at Airshow China-2012 in Zhuhai.

The D-27 engines are designed by Ivchenko-Progress Enterprise and produced by OJSC Motor Sich engine manufacturer (both based in Zaporizhia).

As reported, the tests of D-27 engine are carried out with the participation of representatives of the defense bodies of Ukraine and Russia, the state research and test center of Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Russia's Baranov Central Institute of Aviation Motor Development.

Ivchenko-Progress Enterprise said that the engine's operating life is at least 50 years.

In 2011, Ivchenko-Progress Enterprise and Russia's Federal State Unitary Enterprise Gas-Turbine Engineering Research and Production Center Salut signed a protocol of intent on the creation of a joint venture on the parity basis to produce D-27 engine for An-70 aircraft.

In August 2009, Kyiv and Moscow agreed on cooperation in the creation, joint mass production and supply of An-70 military transport aircraft and the An-70T airlifter with D-27 engines. Until 2020 it is planned to produce around 320 engines.

Russia's state defense program foresees the procurement of 60 An-70 aircraft by 2020.