Supply of SJ-100 aircraft with Russian-made PD-8 engine to begin in early 2026 - minister

RYBINSK. April 18 (Interfax) - Certification of the SJ-100 aircraft with the Russian-made PD-8 engine is due to be finalized by the end of 2025, and aircraft will be supplied to clients starting in early 2026, Russian Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov told the press after visiting the UEC-Saturn enterprise, part of the Rostec United Engine Corporation (UEC) based in Rybinsk.

"As you know, a Superjet powered by a PD-8 engine, made here [at UEC-Saturn] has recently performed a flight. We are supplying it to Komsomolsk-on-Amur where the engine is installed under the wing. The second plane is preparing for a flight scheduled by the colleagues for late April - early May. As we announced earlier, the plane with fully substituted imported parts may go on its maiden flight before the end of April. We are expecting the third aircraft with this engine to make up a fleet for undergoing certification," he said.

"We have the task of fully completing the trials before the end of the year and to begin the delivery of our Superjets with the new PD-8 engine early next year," Alikhanov said.

A prototype of the SJ-100 regional aircraft with substituted imported systems and the SaM146 Russian-French engine has been performing test flights since August 2023. An SJ-100 prototype with the Russian-made PD-8 engine and foreign component parts performed the inaugural flight in March this year. A SJ-100 with fully substituted foreign components is due to take off in April.

Russian Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Gennady Abramenkov said in early April that 20 SJ-100 aircraft are at various stages of readiness.

Batch production of SJ-100 aircraft with foreign component parts and engine stopped in 2022. The beginning of supplies of the plane with substituted imported parts was repeatedly suspended, this time until 2026.

Consistent with the May edition of the Comprehensive Program for the Development of the Aircraft Industry, 30 SJ-100 aircraft are due to be made in 2026, versus a total of 142 by 2030. First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Maturov said earlier that plans for manufacturing civilian aircraft in Russia would be reviewed in 2025 by the end of the certification process.