MAIDEN FLIGHT OF CIVILIAN "SUKHOI SUPERJET-100"
ITAR-TASS
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May 19 2008
Russia
MOSCOW, May 19 (Itar-Tass) – A civilian "Sukhoi Superjet-100" regional
plane took off from the runway for the first time on Monday. Its
maiden flight took place at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft-building
plant. "The flight lasted for one hour and five minutes," officials
of the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC) told Itar-Tass.
"The Superjet-100 made four sweeps over the runway at different
altitudes — along a specified parameter (box-pattern flight) and
in the landing approach direction," officials of the Sukhoi Press
Service stated.
SCAC Chief Test Pilot Alexander Yablontsev and Test Pilot Leonid
Chikunov had piloted the aircraft. "Monday is the most important day
for us, since we have, literally speaking, acquired two new wings,"
Head of the Sukhoi Holding Mikhail Pogosyan noted. "We have traversed a
long road to this day. The end result is what counts in any work. The
only possible real result for aircraft builders is to see their
plane up in the sky. We have an important and difficult task ahead,
namely, the certification tests. And I am sure that we shall succeed,"
Pogosyan noted.
According to Chief Pilot Yablontsev, "the plane is really
marvellous". "And I can say for sure that it is a match for the
world’s best planes, which I had piloted," he added. The success of
the maiden flight lays the beginning for the certification tests of
the airliner. Six hundred special flights will have to be made to
pass them.
Parallel with the testing procedures, the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft
Company is planning to assemble four such aircraft this year, which
will be handed over to the initial customer – the Russian Aeroflot
Company. These planes will be passed over to it only after they are
fully certified.
In expert opinion, the number of orders for these new airliners is
bound to increase after the Superjet-100 maiden flight. Today, there
are orders for approximately 100 such airliners.
Company experts predict growing numbers of customers both in Russia
and abroad, wishing to obtain such planes. In assessing the prospects
for the marketing of Superjet-100 planes, Sukhoi officials note
"their exceptionally positive dynamics".
This forecast is based on two basic factors. Firstly, the process of
withdrawing Tu-134 planes from service will be completed in Russia
within the next few years. The share of regional carriages will grow
parallel with this. "We believe the regional market of air carriages
is bound to grow in the countries of Southeast Asia and in the Middle
East, where the markets of carriages by this class of planes is only
beginning to take shape and, objectively speaking, their need for new
commercially effective aircraft will definitely grow," specialists
of the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company noted.
Superjet-100 planes are being built by an international cooperative
enterprise, in which Sukhoi is now the main integrator. Approximately
50 per cent of all the necessary jobs are done by Russian enterprises
and the other half – by the western companies taking part in the
project.
The project to create the Sukhoi Superjet-100 has added global
aircraft-designing standards to the Russian aircraft-building
industry. This is the first program in the Russian aircraft-building
industry, enjoying state support. Superjet liners will replace the
Tu-134 and Tu-154 planes now serving the domestic Russian short-range
and middle-range lines, and will be sold on the world market,
too. The annual output of these liners will grow annually after they
are launched into quantity production at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur
plant. Plans are afoot to assemble 30 planes in 2009 and 60 – in
2010. After that, their annual output is to reach the optimal figure
of 70 machines.
At present, the Sukhoi Holding already has 73 orders for such
planes and 31 options. For instance, firm contracts were concluded
with Aeroflot (30 planes), with the Financial Leasing Company (ten
planes), with the AirUnion Alliance (15 planes), with the Dalavia
Company (six planes), with the Italian ItAli Company (ten planes),
and with the Armenian Armavia Company (two planes).
The approximate cost of one plane is 28 million U.S.dollars. This is
15 per cent cheaper than planes of the Embraer firm, which is Sukhoi’s
chief rival on the market of regional planes. The total sum of the
concluded contracts tops 50 billion roubles.
Director-General of the Sukhoi Holding Mikhail Pogosyan had earlier
noted that the Superjet-100 program will be fully recouped when
approximately 300 planes are marketed. All in all, 800 Superjet-100
planes are to be built in the period of up to 2024. Five hundred
such machines will be delivered to the external market and 300 –
to the domestic market.
President Vladimir Putin had stated at one of his meetings early in
2007 that the number of the built planes would reach 700 within the
next few years. Sukhoi officials are indicating even more impressive
figures. According to this most optimist forecast, up to 1,200 planes
will be built by that time. The medium-range forecast indicates from
800 to 900 machines," Mikhail Pogosyan stated a year ago.
The Superjet liner is an international project, taking part in which
are approximately 30 companies of the world, including firms of France,
Italy, and some other countries.
A protocol was signed in June 2007 to expand the participation
of the Boeing Company in the program to build Superjet family
planes. The document envisages cooperation in the organisation of
post-sale services, assistance to the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company
in the efforts to build up its own infrastructure, access to the
Boeing infrastructure and post-sale modern maintenance technologies,
including the training of flying and technical personnel, and also
access to the spare parts distribution system.
Each Superjet-100 liner is propelled by two SaM-146 engines, jointly
designed by the Russian Saturn Science and Production Society and
the French Snecma Company.
These engines fully meet the specific needs of the air companies of
Russia, the CIS, and the West, and are in keeping with the AP-25,
FAR-25 and JAR-25 requirements. There is tough competition within
this niche on the world market. The Brazilian Embraer and the Canadian
Bombardier have strong positions there. "New players are also emerging
on the market, including China with its ARG-21 and Japan with its MRG,
which is being built by the Mitsubishi Company," a Saturn official
told Itar-Tass.
Russia is so far ahead of its rivals. It is planned to offer Sukhoi
Superjet-100 planes on the market already at the end of 2008. The
Chinese machine may appear on the market in 2010 and the Japanese –
in 2012.
The Holding expects to win fifteen per cent of the market of civilian
regional planes, seating from 60 to 120 passengers. The Boeing Company
estimates the total volume of this market segment at six thousand
planes in the period of up to 2022.
In the opinion of Russian Vice-Premier Sergei Ivanov, "the Sukhoi
Superjet is a priority project, which is, in fact, of state importance
because these planes will give us a chance to do away with most of
our transport inequality". This refers primarily to the Far Eastern
Region, he noted. "In other words, this program can be regarded as a
parallel one to those that are now being adopted at state level for
the socio-economic development of the Russian Far East," he noted.
Officials of the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company are noting the unique
performance of these planes, compared to those that now exist abroad,
including their service life of 70,000 hours, compared to the average
world figure of 30,000 hours. This was achieved, in particular, due
to some designing novelties and use of novel high-resistant materials
in separate aircraft assemblies.
"The carrying capacity of Sukhoi Superjet-100 planes ranges from 75 to
95 passengers, since it is based on principles of maximum unification
of glider aggregates and board systems, as well as of completing
parts," officials of the SCAC Press Service stated. "To boost the
number of potential customers, each of the two types of such aircraft
will be made in a basic and long-range modification, allowing the air
companies to boost the economic effectiveness of their employment by
the more rational formation of the pool of their aircraft".
The interior finish of the planes will be equal to their flight
qualities, Sukhoi officials declare. "We are not saving money on the
interior finish because the liner is still not very widely known
and everything in it must be of tip-top quality. For instance, we
are buying the seats for it in the United States, where they are
cheaper and up to the best international standards," Pogosyan told
journalists. As a matter of fact, Sergei Ivanov has already issued an
instruction to "organise the production of such seats in Russia, too."
The assembly of Superjet-100 planes will be of a conveyer type
after they are launched into quantity production. Six workplaces
have been equipped in the final assembly department: a section for
the automated laser assembly of fuselages in accordance with the
pattern of assembly holes; a section for the attachment of wings
to the fuselages; a section for the integration of engines with the
fuselages; a section for the assembly of different plane systems —
the hydraulic systems, the oxygen systems, fire-safety systems, the
water supply systems, etc. There will be simultaneously six aircraft
moving from one section to another within this department.
The assembly of one plane is expected to take 28 days.
The Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company is a daughter company of the
Sukhoi firm. It was founded in 2001 to implement its civilian
projects. According to the long-range forecast, the company is expected
to sell up to 1,800 Superjet family planes within the next 20 years,
including the 120-seat airliner, which is now on the drawing boards.