Boeing, Sukhoi pool efforts to build new airliner

Boeing, Sukhoi pool efforts to build new airliner

The Boeing Corp. and Russia's top aircraft maker, Sukhoi,
whose combat planes once faced each other across the Iron Curtain
have presented their plans for the joint development and
marketing of a new short-range airliner.

The prospective airliner, called the Russian Regional Jet, or
RRJ, is set to make its maiden flight in January 2006 and enter
service in 2007.

Russian and foreign airlines are expected to buy over 600 such
aircraft worth a total of US$11 billion - about one-tenth of the
prospective global market for that category of planes, Sukhoi
director Mikhail Pogosyan said recently.

Boeing has signed a contract with Sukhoi to provide advisory
expertise and intellectual property in design, production,
certification, marketing, sales, program management and post-
production support of the RRJ.

"This is an excellent example of our cooperation," said Sergei
Kravchenko, Boeing's vice president for cooperative programs with
Russia. "We are happy that we can contribute technologies and
know-how to make the program successful."

Over the last 11 years, Boeing has invested US$1.3 billion in
cooperative programs with Russia - including space launches,
purchases of Russian titanium and other products, and the
development of air routes over the North Pole, which could cut
flying times on long journeys.

The project comes at a time when the United States and Russia
are seeking ways to increase economic cooperation.

"This really does symbolize the potential for real U.S.-
Russian cooperation," U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said
after attending Wednesday's presentation at Boeing's Moscow
design center, which employs 500 Russian aerospace engineers.

"This center really shows how two countries with strong
aerospace traditions can combine their strength to the benefit of
both countries," Vershbow said.

He expressed hope that Boeing's involvement in building the
new jet would prompt Russia to "open the door a little wider to
the imports of some of Boeing's other products."

Russia's top airline, Aeroflot, operates a small fleet of
Boeings, but has voiced no immediate intention to buy more,
instead signing a deal last November to acquire 18 planes from
Boeing's European rival, Airbus.

Aeroflot has said it could buy at least 30 RRJs by 2010, and
experts believe other carriers in Russia and other ex-Soviet
republics will buy the new planes to replace their Soviet-built
Tu-134s, An-24s and Yak-40s, which date back to the 1960s.

Pogosian said his company expects to receive orders for 40-60
RRJs from Aeroflot and other Russian carriers next year. He said
Air France also expressed interest in the new plane.

Boeing and Sukhoi plan to build the two-engine RRJ in three
different versions, accommodating 60, 75 or 95 passengers. The
plane is to be powered by SM146 engines jointly developed by
France's Snecma Moteurs and Russia's NPO Saturn.

The RRJ will be the first civilian airliner to be produced by
Sukhoi, a renowned maker of fighter jets since Soviet times.
Part of the estimated US$600 million needed to develop the RRJ is
to come from the Russian government. The project won a government
tender for such aircraft earlier this year, opening the way for a
state funding. Associated Press