Russia's leading and the most successful aircraft manufacturer, Irkut Corp., says the MS-21 mid-range jetliner is to become one of the main airplanes in the fleet of the country's numerous airlines after it enters mass production. 

Being a part of the Federal Civil Aviation Program till 2015, the MS-21 is promoted as a possible competitor to the A320 (it's to become 15% to 20% more efficient than the Airbus plane, most popular in its niche). 

The MS-21 will be assembled from a lot of composite parts and will have new wings, advanced avionics; it will be powered by efficient engines, consuming 25% less fuel than comparable models and being 15% more environment-friendly than the A320. 

Irkut officials say the jet will be used by Russian carriers and international airlines underlining the fact that MS-21 along with Sukhoi's SuperJet-100 are the only aircraft, which are designed in this country, competitive in the global market. 

However, the MS-21 is a Soviet-era concept of the Myasischev design bureau, and in the 1990s it was fully abandoned. 
Also Irkut guys keep on saying that the MS-21 will be "purely Russian." This "feature" is likely to undermine the jet's future in international markets, as in Russia it is practically impossible to develop new-generation avionics for civil jets - no technologies and engineers, no experience...You should have an international team not only to develop the aircraft, but also to help market it, sell it to customers worldwide...

And the last: when Airbus and Boeing will stop manufacturing today's A320s and 737s, and airlines will start decommissioning aging modifications of those extra-reliable craft with a long history of serial production, the MS-21 would only start the race. 

And that means that we are late again...And nobody will need that MS-21, since newer and better foreign jets would be already available. 

Russian and CIS airlines now prefer ordering second-hand western aircraft: they are much cheaper in operation than any of Russian-built jets, even of "new types," like the Tu-204, for example...