A prototype of the Russian short-haul aircraft SJ-100 made its maiden flight in the sky over Komsomolsk-on-Amur. In this respect reported Press service of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.
The flight time was 54 minutes. It reached a speed of 343 km/h at altitudes up to 3 thousand meters. The crew checked the aircraft’s stability and controllability characteristics in the air, controlled the automatic pressure control system in the cockpit, made a “cloud landing” and a missed approach landing.
“During the tests, the stability and controllability of the aircraft in the air were verified, with all domestic systems working stably” says In the message of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.
The aircraft was piloted by a team of test pilots Leonid Chikunov and Dmitry Demenev, as well as test engineer Denis Velizhanin.
“The first flight of the Superjet, created under the system and component import substitution program, is the success of thousands of operating teams in the aircraft manufacturing and radio-electronics industries, which are part of the state company’s control cycle. Rostec”,
– said Denis Manturov, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.
According to him, Russian experts managed to implement and install their own design solutions and technologies on the aircraft. Including avionics, landing gear, auxiliary power unit, integrated control system as well as power supply, air conditioning, fire protection systems.
About 40 foreign systems and units have been replaced
“The Superjet’s flight today with Russian systems is the result of the great joint effort of the design team and factory team, including the global aviation industry, who have developed, assembled and upgraded almost a new aircraft in a short time. “, said Yury Slyusar, General Manager of United Aircraft Corporation. “This is the best indicator of our country’s technological independence. First of all, we proved to ourselves that we can develop and manufacture modern civil aircraft on our own without resorting to imported technologies.”
The Ministry of Industry and Trade describes the new aircraft as “import-substituted”.
“The import substitution program started in 2019, and today we understand how correct and forward-looking this decision was,” said Andrey Boginsky, Deputy Director General of Civil Aviation of PJSC UAC, the press service of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. of PJSC Yakovlev. “Given the experience in the development, certification and operation of more than 200 Superjet aircraft over the past years, this aircraft has embodied advanced developments in the domestic aviation industry. From the beginning of the preliminary design to the first flight, four years passed; Given the amount of design work, this is close to a record time at the level of the world’s leading manufacturers.
Engines still Franco-Russian
Franco-Russian SaM146 engines were used in the first SJ-100 prototype. The Ministry of Industry and Trade announced that this was done to “accelerate the testing program”. The second prototype will be subjected to flight tests with Russian PD-8 engines. They are currently undergoing a series of bench tests as well as flight tests as part of the Il-76LL flight lab.
“The next ambitious task is to certify the aircraft in a purely Russian appearance and start serial deliveries to the airline,” says Yuri Slyusar.
“In record time”
Russian aircraft manufacturers received congratulations from the Kremlin.
“This is a great achievement, because in a very short time new technologies are developed, new parts and components for this machine are produced.” commented News about the first flight of the SJ-100 press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov. “The point here is that this really happens in record time.”
The Kremlin spokesman knows that the SJ-100 is not yet equipped with domestic engines, but believes that the results achieved can already be considered a great success.
“We can congratulate our aircraft manufacturers on this achievement,” said Peskov.