93-year-old Mikhail Kalashnikov will be flown to Moscow for hospital treatment on an Emergencies Ministry plane after being taken ill in his home city of Izhevsk. The iconic gunsmith is said to be in a serious condition.

The inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle had been admitted to a cardiology hospital in the Russian city of Izhevsk, in the Urals, after suffering a pulmonary thrombosis, when doctors “decided to send Kalashnikov to a Moscow’s clinic for medical supervision,” said Emergencies Ministry’s spokesperson Irina Rossius.

A flying hospital complete with a team of doctors and hi-tech equipment has been sent to bring Kalashnikov who also suffers from a heart condition to the capital.

At the end of May Mikhail Kalashnikov spent almost a fortnight undergoing tests in an Izhevsk hospital.

While in hospital the arms designer agreed to transfer the rights to use the Kalashnikov brand name  to the Izhmash weapons factory, Russia's largest producer of military automatic and sniper weapons.

The engineer’s health is said to have worsened in December 2012. After a routine check up on December 20 Kalashnikov had to stay in intensive care for some time.

The weapons designer has until recently regularly attended work at the military plant in Izhevsk named after him. 

Mikhail Kalashnikov (AFP Photo / Natalia Kolesnikova)

New Kalashnikov AK-12 model 2012, designed by the NPO Izhmash . (Photo courtesy of NPO Izhmash / RIA Novosti)

Senior Sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov as he designed his AK-47 assault rifle, 1947 (RIA Novosti)