[2][3][4][5][6] The aircraft started out in 1989 as Fedorov's "Dream" project for the OSTIV World Class Sailplane 1993 design contest.

The bid involved forming a new concern, the Aircraft Cooperative Mechta and building three hand-made prototypes.

The aircraft performed well in the competition and the fly-off held in Oerlinghausen, Germany, but only came in second place, behind the Polish Politechnika Warszawska PW-5.

[1][7][8] The American team at the competition was very impressed with the Russian design, thought it would sell well for Club class and student solo flying and bought one of the three prototypes to take home with them.

Aviastroitel created a second set of molds to respond to the demand and started a second assembly line with a total production capacity of 48 AC-4s per year.