The 200 and 400 series are still in development. After the mess with the West pulling out sales and support for Airbus and Boeing planes I wonder if UAC will make those models or just focus on increasing production of the 300 series.
The 200 and 400 require PD-14 engine variants which have not even hit the test stand yet dubbed PD-14A and PD-14M. However I do know that UEC Aviadvigatel has been working on the natural gas burning variants of those engines for power generation (PD-14GP-1/-2). So those engines are probably coming sooner or later.
Stated range of the 300 and 400 variants is 6000km and 200 variant is 6400km. There were plans to develop a PD-18R geared turbofan variant of PD-14M to increase range to 12000km in an MC-21-400ER but I wonder if that will ever happen.
Do you really confirm this range of the MC-21-310?
It is worth remembering that the MC-21-310 has already made flights from Moscow to the Far East in Irkut, where they are produced, but it was a flight without cargo, there was some test to see how it would do with cargo on board in various configurations to confirm the 6,000 km range you claim?
If the range of 6,000 km is confirmed, the routes leaving the Moscow area to Western Europe, including stretching to Lisbon, given the distances of the air routes can be covered with the MC21-310 in configuration of their classes without major problems, taking 181 passengers on the first. With a range of 6,000 km, it is more than enough to cover all those routes safely, such as the Middle East, part of North Africa and Central Asia.
As for the 210 and 400 line, I believe that the Russians will only launch these models when the 310 version is certified and tested enough to advance the Russian development direction as always. As the plane should only come into operation from 2024, it is expected, it is to be seen that the larger model may have its prototype built from 2025 or 2026 already counting on the commercial performance data of the smaller variant.
In this sense, it seems to me that the option for developing the 310 models as the focus of attention is correct, with the 210/400 remaining for the next decade. With the completion of the 310 variant, the immediate need to replace the hundreds of 737/A320s that cannot be maintained much longer because of economic roadblocks would have been eliminated. We are talking about 300 to 400 aircraft in this category, while another 200 are widebody. So, now is to try to catch up on the MC-21 and get all the models off the ground as quickly as possible.
What Russia needs most right now in terms of development projects is a vital aircraft that can fly from the European part to the Far East like Kamchatka and Chukotka without intermediate stops, even because of the blockade of European airspace, they need of an aircraft that makes a viable connection from Russia to Kaliningrad. Now this niche of commercial aviation is occupied by B777, B767, A330. The B747s in Rossiya Airlines' fleet transport tourists to Egyptian resorts or Turkish mosques, but the airline has already announced that these aircraft will be completely phased out of its fleet within the next three years.
For long range international routes which is what you stated with the MC-21-400ER, the MC-21-300ER and MC-21-400ER will have the maximum extended range of up to 12,000 km, but there is another project called of MC-21X (apparently with 10,000 km range) an airplane that apparently is more like a 767, its development will depend on how the basic MC-21s will do, and Irkut's own financial situation, since it would be about a much larger model and different from the current ones. I don't think he'll get off the ground before the start of the next decade. Therefore, both the 300ER and 400ER project as well as the MC-21X project are still unknown. It is not known exactly what it will be because it depends a lot on the performance of the -310/210 models when in operation. At the moment UAC is focusing on the final development of the PD-14, and the PD-8 for the SSJ, and it should be the basis for the entire 210\310\400 family, with later versions coming into operation as the basic version are being tested in practice by Russian airlines on those planes. This still takes another 10 years to happen.
