RUSSIA TO START FLIGHT TESTS OF 5TH-GENERATION FIGHTER BY YEAREND

RIA Novosti
17:03 | 11/ 05/ 2009

KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR, May 11 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian deputy prime
minister said Monday that flight tests of a fifth-generation fighter
will start in Russia by the end of 2009.

"By the end of this year, the plane will rise into the air and flight
tests will begin," Sergei Ivanov told journalists after a shipbuilding
meeting in the Far East, adding that serial production will start
in 2010.

Russia’s advanced multirole fighter is being developed by the Sukhoi
aircraft maker, part of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), along
with India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), under a preliminary
intergovernmental agreement signed in October 2007.

The first prototype is scheduled to make its maiden flight before
the end of 2009.