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