The
Tupolev Design Bureau introduced the Tu-334 in early 1989 as an eventual
propfan-powered airliner to potentially enter service for
Aeroflot in 1995. However, it would have an interim
turbofan-powered version that would begin airline service around 1991–1992. Consuming about 20 percent less fuel than the best Soviet turbofan, the propfan engine would be a then-unnamed
geared powerplant from the
Lotarev engine design bureau. The engine would have a
thrust specific fuel consumption (TSFC) of , resulting in a per-passenger aircraft fuel consumption rate of . The turbofan-powered version of the Tu-334 would use
Lotarev D-436T engines with a TSFC of and a
bypass ratio of 6.5, and it would consume per passenger. The propfan Tu-334 would seat 104-137 passengers, compared with 86-102 passengers for the shorter, turbofan Tu-334. Development remained slow due to protracted budget problems. In turn, the certification of the aircraft and its planned entry into serial production was delayed multiple times. As of December 2006 there were firm orders for the Tupolev Tu-334 from seven airlines, including
Atlant-Soyuz Airlines and there were letters of intent from 24 airlines to obtain another 297 airplanes. The price per unit for the business version is estimated to be around $43–44 million. One of the projected customers for the type was
Iran. The Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO) was in negotiations to purchase licenses to assemble the aircraft in Iran by 2011 and manufacture them completely by 2015 alongside the
Tu-214. Nothing concrete became of these negotiations before the cancellation of the Tu-334 programme. As late as 2008, Tupolev reported that a total of about 100 airlines had expressed an interest in placing orders for Tu-334s; on 31 July 2008, Tupolev Managing Director Sergei Ilyushenkov announced that production was targeted to begin no later than January 2009. However, this date also passed without any reported progress on Tu-334 serial production. In 2009, with the project years behind the projected schedule and only two examples built and flying ten years after the first flight, the Tu-334 came under review during the rationalisation of the Russian aircraft companies, which led to the formation of United Aircraft Corporation. In mid-2009, the decision was taken to not continue with the Tu-334 programme and instead focus efforts on the
Sukhoi Superjet 100, the
Antonov An-148, and the
Irkut MC-21. ==Variants==