Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing

Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing

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Tbilisi Aviation factory
Type	Privatized corporation
Industry	Aerospace
Genre	Manufacturing
Founded	December 12, 1941
Founder	Soviet Union
Headquarters	181b Bogdan Khmelnitski St, Tbilisi, Georgia
Area served	Commonwealth of Independent States
Key people	Pantiko Tordia, CEO and Chairman
Products	Jet Aircraft Armoured Personnel Carriers
Parent	STC DELTA
Website	http://www.tam.ge/

Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing (TAM), also known as JSC Tbilaviamsheni, is a Georgian aerospace development and manufacturing company, which also partially handles the construction of domestic weapons, armoured vehicles and artillery systems. It is part of the STC DELTA state scientific research and development center.

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

Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing (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 TAM manufactured a number of additional fighter aircraft for the former Soviet Air Force such as LaGG-3 and Yak-3. During World War II, the company was the sole supplier of fighter aircraft to the Caucasian front.

Following World War II, TAM worked in conjunction with the Yakovlev Design Bureaus to build 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 the production of Mikoyan's MiG-15 and later, the MiG-17 fighter aircraft. In 1957 Tbilisi Aircraft State Association built 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 then, 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.