Saturn to continue engine tests for SuperJet-100 in November
22/09/2008 13:58 MOSCOW, September 22 (RIA Novosti) - NPO Saturn, a leading Russian engine-maker, is to start a second round of in-flight tests of the SaM-146 engine for the new SuperJet-100 regional airliner, the company said Monday.
"The second testing stage on board a flying laboratory will start in November this year," Saturn's press service said in a statement.
The company has already conducted 60 hours of in-flight testing for the engine; including ground tests the total is 1,617 hours.
NPO Saturn manufactures the engine in cooperation with France's SAFRAN Group, an international high-technology group with four core businesses - aerospace propulsion, aircraft equipment, defense security, and communications.
The SaM-146 engine would be certified to Russian, EU and U.S. standards in early 2009, which would allow it to be used all over the world.
The SuperJet-100 project is a family of medium-haul passenger aircraft developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau in cooperation with major U.S. and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.
The Superjet-100 airliner made its second test flight May 24. Prior to certification, the plane is to undergo a series of flight tests at the aircraft manufacturing plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Russia's Far East.
A total of four planes will be used in the certification program. Another three planes are being assembled at the plant.
Sukhoi said previously it planned to conclude the certification of Superjet in the first half of 2009 and roll out the new aircraft at the International Paris Air Show in Le Bourget next year.
Sukhoi plans to manufacture at least 700 Superjet-100s, and intends to sell 35% of them to North America, 25% to Europe, 10% to Latin America, and 7% to Russia and China.
The company recently said it had so far secured at least 100 firm orders for the aircraft.
The list price of the 95-seat base model is $28 million, but the company is working on both smaller and larger capacity modifications.
The market for the Superjet-100 is estimated at around $100 billion for around 5,500 planes up to 2023.
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