FIRST SUKHOI-SUPERJET TO BE DISPLAYED AT KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
September 24, 2007 Monday

The long-awaited first demonstration of the new Russian regional
"Sukhoi Superjet-100" liner will be held at Komsomolsk-on-Amur this
Wednesday. Work on its construction began in 2001. It is to replace
the outdated family of Tu-134 and Tu-154 planes on the short and
medium-range Russian airlines not longer than 5,000 kilometres. The
plane will appear on the world market, too.

President Vladimir Putin told a meeting, which he held early this year,
that as many as 700 such aircraft would be built in Russia within the
next few years. Officials of the Sukhoi Company predict a still bigger
figure. "According to more optimistic forecasts, it will be up to 1,200
planes. The average forecast is 800-900 machines," Director General
of the Sukhoi Aviation Holding Mikhail Pogosyan stated last May.

The first Sukhoi Superjet will be rolled out of the shops of the
KNAAPO Aircraft Building plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where such
planes are to be eventually assembled. The first liner will come off
the conveyor line in time for its scheduled flight trials.

"There are 73 rigid orders for Sukhoi Superjet-100 planes today:
for 61 aircraft from Russian air companies and twelve – from foreign
air carriers," Itar-Tass was told on Monday at the Press Service of
the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company. Itar-Tass has gleaned information
that 30 such machines were ordered by Aeroflot Company, ten – by
the Financial Leasing Company, fifteen – by the Air Union Aviation
Alliance, and six – by the Dalavia Air Company. The Italian Air Italy
Company is expecting to get ten such planes and the Armenian ArmAvia
Company – two. "Even conservative forecasts show that we shall get
firm contracts for 100 planes already this year, not counting the
various memorandums on intentions," Acting First Vice-Premier Sergei
Ivanov, who is in charge of the project on behalf of the government,
stated last May.

Nine planes will be assembled in 2008, thirty – in 2009, and sixty –
in 2010. After that, the annual output will total 70 machines. Acting
Minister of Transport Igor Levitin estimates the cost of each aircraft
at 25 million U.S. dollars. This is 15 percent cheaper than planes
of the Embraer Company, which is Sukhoi’s chief rival on the market
of regional aircraft.

Sergei Ivanov, who visited Komsomolsk-on-Amur six months ago, predicted
that 500 Sukhoi planes would be sold on the world market of aircraft
in 2025. "The Sukhoi Superjet-100 is of priority, actually of state
importance, because we shall substantially reduce our transport
inequality by producing such planes," he said. Ivanov noted that
this primarily referred to the Russian Far East, "meaning that the
program can be regarded as a parallel one to those that are now being
adopted at state level for the social and economic development of
the Far East."

Approximately 115 million euros will be invested in the technical
re-equipment of Russian enterprises, figuring on the Superjet-100
program. Funds to modernise the production facilities of three
aircraft-building plants, located in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Novosibirsk
and Voronezh, are coming from several sources. They include budget
financing, KNAAPO’s and Sukhoi’s own means, and contributions of
leasing companies.

"In accordance with the technical re-equipment program, KNAAPO is
getting, along with other equipment, many automatic assembly tools,
cutting down to the minimum the share of manual labour in the assembly
process. This is bound to substantially improve the quality and
exactitude of the production processes and to reduces the time required
to do the job," officials of the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company noted.

They also noted that the characteristics of the new Russian plane
are unique for global civil aviation. Their service life equals to
70,000 hours, while the mean global figure is 30,000 hours. This was
achieved chiefly by means of novel construction methods and by using
new-type wear resistant materials in individual assemblies.

Sukhoi officials are sure that the plane’s interior will be on a par
with its flight qualities. "We are not saving money on the inside
finish because the liner is not sufficiently known yet and, therefore,
everything must be topnotch. For instance, we are purchasing seats for
the plane in the Untied States, where they are cheaper and more in
line with the international standards," Pogosyan told reporters. As
a matter of fact, Sergei Ivanov has issued an instruction to "launch
the production of such seats in Russia."

The Superjet-100 project is being implemented in cooperation with
some Italian companies, which are supplying spare parts and avionics,
and also in cooperation with the Boeing Company". Sukhoi and Boeing
signed a protocol last June on the latter’s broader participation in
the program to design and build planes of the Superjet family. The
document envisages cooperation in the provision of post-sales technical
services, assistance to the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company in its
work to build its own infrastructure, access to the infrastructure
and modern technologies needed to service the sold Boeing planes,
including the training of pilots and technical personnel, as well as
access to the spare parts distribution sources.

President Putin backed the cooperation of foreign and Russian companies
in the work to implement the Superjet project. "I was reported on
the proposals of our foreign partners to boost cooperation in the
development of this plane. They are good proposals and I think a
decision is needed to go ahead in this direction," he stated.

The first statistical copy of the plane is now being tested at the
Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute (TsAGI), which is near Moscow,
in the town of Zhukovsky. Plans are already afoot to test the service
life of the second statistical prototype. The trials will be held
early next year, Director of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur subsidiary of the
Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company Sergei Shkryabun stated. All in all,
the program envisages the building of six test planes: four for fight
tests and two – for statistical trials.

The Aeroflot Company is planning to certify the Superjet-100 and to
begin the delivery of these aircraft to the first client at the end
of next year. An important role in the certification of the plane
according to European flight standards is assigned to the Italian
Alenia Aeronautica Company, Pogosyan said. "We are also planning to
certify our Superjet according to the American flight standards,"
he added.

A conveyer-type assembly method will be used when the quantity
production of these planes is started. Six workplaces have been
equipped in the final assembly shop: a sector for the automatic laser
assembly of the fuselage, a sector for the connection of the wings
with the fuselage, a sector for the integration of the engine with the
fuselage, a sector for the assembly of the plane’s systems – hydraulic,
oxygen, anti-fire, water supply, etc. Six planes will be simultaneously
handled within this shop, moving across the indicated sectors.

It is planned to spend twenty-eight days on the assembly of each plane.

The Sukhoi Superjet family consists of two types of plane, one with 75
and another with 95 passenger seats in configuration with the basic
one – SSJ100/75B and SSJ100/ 95B and of increased flying range –
SSJ-100/75LR, SSJ100/95LR.

The Sukhoi Civil Aircraft is a "daughter" firm of the Sukhoi Company.

It was founded in 2001 to implement the latter’s civilian projects.

The company is now working, among other things, on the regional
Superjet-100 project.

The company expects to sell as many as 1,800 planes of the Superjet-100
family within the next twenty years, including the 120-seat machine,
which is now on the drawing boards. The Holding expects to account for
fifteen per cent of the world market of civilian regional aircraft,
which the Boeing Company predicts to be at the level of 6,000 machines
until 2022.