Russia's Superjet may get EASA certificate in mid-2011
15:26 17/01/2011 MOSCOW, January 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia plans to receive a European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certificate for Sukhoi Superjet-100 medium-haul airliners in mid-2010, Russia's industry and energy minister said on Monday.
"All certification tests have been completed: the plane performed 1,060 flights and spent 2,500 hours in the air," minister Viktor Khristenko said in an interview with the Itogi magazine.
"All the documents have already been sent to the MAK (Interstate Aviation Committee) air registration board. And in mid-2011, we plan to get the EASA certificate allowing Superjet to enter global markets."
The Superjet 100 project is a family of medium-range passenger aircraft developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau in cooperation with major American and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace, and Honeywell.
Khristenko described the plane as "a transitional product, not a breakthrough, but fully in line with the best models on the market."
"From the very beginning, we kept in mind that merely catching up is not enough, and that we should outperform. But we could not afford to develop jumbo jets, and we were fully aware that we have already missed our opportunity as far as a new-generation long-haul airliner is concerned," the minister said.
Sukhoi has said that it will supply the first batch of the planes in March 2011, while the previous deadline was the end of 2010. Sukhoi Company has currently 170 firm orders for Sukhoi Superjet-100 airliners.
The aircraft is capable of carrying 75-95 passengers a distance of up to 4,500 kilometers.
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