Tbilaviamsheni

Infobox Company
company_name = Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing
company_
company_type = Privatized corporation
genre = Manufacturing
foundation = December 12, 1941
founder = Soviet Union
location_city = flagicon|GeorgiaTbilisi
location_country = Georgia
location =
origins = G. Dimitrov N31 Aviation Factory of Taganrog
N45 Aircraft Repairing Plant of Sevastopol
key_people = Pantiko Tordio, CEO and Chairman
area_served = Commonwealth of Independent States
industry = Aerospace
products = jet airplanes
services =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees =
parent =
divisions =
subsid =
owner =
company_slogan =
homepage =
dissolved =
footnotes =

Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing, also known as JSC Tbilaviamsheni is a Tbilisi, Georgia manufacturing company specializing in aerospace.

Tbilaviamsheni is also the name of a Georgian airline.

JSC Tbilaviamsheni (TAM) employees about 2,300 people. The Quality Assurance System of JSC Tbilaviamsheni is ISO 9001 certified. The company successfully applies modern achievements in technology and engineering. TAM has upgraded to a state of the art CAD/CAM/CAE design process, using CATIA v5, Mechanical Desktop, Nastran, Patran, T-FLEX, and other advanced programming.

Tbilavaimsheni has trained a number of their production supervision, employees and engineers in long-term training programs in Western aerospace manufacturing plants.

History

JSC Tbilaviamsheni (former Tbilisi Aircraft State Association) was established on December 15, 1941. In the early days of World War II the aircraft factories of Taganrog and Sevastopol (Ukraine) were moved to Tbilisi, Georgia. Soon after the move, Tbilisi Aircraft State Association (TAM) launched the production of its first fighter aircraft, the LaGG-3. Through the war times TAM manufactured a number of additional fighter aircraft for the former Soviet Air Force such as La-3 and Yak-3. During World War II, the company was the sole supplier of fighter aircraft to the Caucasian front. cite web
title=Tbilisi Aerospace Manufacturing [TAM]
url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/tam.htm
accessdate=2007-04-24 ]

Following World War II TAM, working in conjunction with the Yakelov Design Bureaus put into production the first Soviet jet fighter, the Yak-15 in 1946 followed by the Yak-17, Yak-23 and Yak-23 twin-seat trainer jet.

In the 1950s the factory started production of Mikoian's MiG-15 and later, the MiG-17 fighter aircraft. In 1957 Tbilisi Aircraft State Association put into production the MiG-21 two-seater fighter-trainer aircraft and its various derivative aircraft, continuing the MiG-21 production for about 25 years. At the same time the company was manufacturing the K-10 air-to-surface guided missile.

The first Sukhoi SU-25 (known in the West as the "Frogfoot") close support aircraft took its maiden voyage from the runway of Tbilisi State Association. Since more than 800 SU-25s have been delivered to the customers worldwide. From the first SU-25 to the present day, JSC Tbilaviamsheni is only manufacturer of this type of aircraft. Along with the SU-25 aircraft Tbilisi State Association also launched large scale production of air-to-air R-60 and R-73 IR guided missiles, a production effort that built over 6,000 missiles a year and that lasted until the early 1990s.

In the mid 1980s Tbilisi Aircraft State Association also participated in former Soviet space program "Buran" (the Soviet analog of Space Shuttle) by manufacturing and assembling various parts and assemblies for this program.

One highlight of the late 1990s was the joint project of Tbilaviamsheni and the Georgian Space Constructions' Institute to design and produce the space antenna-reflector which were successful in their first attempt on Russian space station "MIR".

Currently, TAM is constructing a civilian Very Light Jet known as the TAMjet to enter this emerging market.

During the South Ossetia war of August 2008, the Russian air force bombed the TAM factory, resulting in unknown damage.cite web
title=Tbilisi Aerospace Manufacturing [TAM]
url=http://www.tam.ge/En/index.html
accessdate=2008-01-19 ]

External links

* [http://www.tam.ge Tbilisi Aerospace Manufacturing's official website]
* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/tam.htm TAM at "Global Security"]

References