Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – April 21, 1995

We went to Tbilisi aircraft factory. Faeze also came. The director of the factory explained. In 1941, during the Second World War, fearing occupation by the Germans, this factory was moved from Russia to Georgia. So far, several generations of Yak, MiG, and Sukhoi warplanes have been built, around five thousand. It has twelve thousand personnel, one hundred and twenty thousand square meters of infrastructure, two hundred and fifty hectares of land and an airport runway. Now they are making Sukhoi 25 and MiG 29. We visited the production line.

The president and the prime minister were with me everywhere. A part of the factory has been dedicated to the manufacture of civilian products and they have started to manufacture passenger planes. At the end of the visit, two planes performed operational maneuvers, which were very interesting. Airplanes can use the land without a runway to fly. More than five hundred meters do not need a flying field. They can also sit on the ship. They can quickly reach two hundred kilometers per hour. After the operation, they can quickly take off, and the control and safety of the flight is very fast and simple, and the price is also cheap; They are ready to give us technology. I awarded two pilots two coins.

We did the second round of negotiations. The heads of the committees reported. We had good agreements. His opinion is that, with the cooperation of Russia and America, they will take the nuclear weapons of Ukraine and Kazakhstan. We had a press interview together. We answered a few questions.

Mr. Shevardnadze had lunch at my residence; With Iranian food. His wife was also a guest of Chastity. In the evening we went to the airport together. We flew to Tehran with an official escort, sun and parade. An interview was conducted at Mehrabad airport. We came home. At night, the children gathered.