The first flight of the import-substituted production aircraft SJ-100 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur will go down in history. More than twenty years ago, this project became the first for Russia since the collapse of the USSR. On it, aircraft builders learned how to recreate airplanes. We did this together with foreign partners, who failed us badly. Sanctions have led Russia down a unique path. In fact, this SJ-100 is a newly created aircraft. This has never been done in the world before. What has Russia learned and what is the uniqueness of the project?
The first import-substituted SJ-100 aircraft, built using serial technologies, took off. "The certification process is still underway, but the aircraft has been mass–produced, in the target form that is planned for delivery," Rostec said.
The flight took place from the airfield in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and lasted one hour. The liner is equipped with Russian systems and assemblies, including PD-8 engines manufactured by UEC.
24 serial SJ-100 machines are already in production in varying degrees of readiness. In fact, Russia has created a new aircraft to replace the previous one, which has been flying for more than 20 years.
That SSJ-100 was the first aircraft that Russia created after the collapse of the Soviet Union and industrial degradation. In the 90s, the aviation industry was trampled, personnel went to the market, and our Soviet technologies lagged far behind in a decade. But in the noughties, Russia decided to revive the title of aviation country. In 2002, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft won a competition to create a regional aircraft, and Russia began to relearn how to create airplanes.
"We had to learn a lot on the Superjet. In the Soviet years, we designed airplanes on paper, but now all documentation has become digital. We bought modern equipment, trained engineers who can design digitally, and trained personnel who can work on these digital machines. The very organization of production has changed. We didn't produce many things, so we decided to make an international product, like Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, and Embraer do. We assembled the airframe – fuselage and wing, and all the stuffing is from specialized Western suppliers. Thanks to this cooperation, the project was implemented in such a short time," says the head of the Avia industry portal.<url>" Roman Gusarov.
And this was a great success for Russia: in 2005, the first contract was signed with Aeroflot, and the aircraft itself was transferred to it in 2011. This is a record time by world standards. However, the negative aspects of such cooperation with Western partners began to manifest themselves.
"It turned out that the components that Western suppliers supply to us are not as reliable and high-quality as we thought. Childhood illnesses began, which were associated with Western suppliers. When we asked them to improve the quality of their products, they showed no interest: if you don't like it, don't take it. Moreover, they sold their products to us at a price twice as high as the same products, but to Boeing and Airbus.
They started to twist our hands with poor quality, lack of spare parts on time, and inflated prices for them. As a result, our aircraft became very expensive, so it was not exported," says the head of <url>.
He suggests that the Western partners may have simply not believed at first that we were implementing our project, and simply wanted to make money by participating in it. There is such an example: in Japan, Mitsubishi has been making the same regional aircraft for 20 years, spent 10 billion dollars, but could not finish it.
That is why, even before the sanctions, in 2018, Russia decided to create a new generation Superjet with partial import substitution, including for the engine. The engine was assembled in Rybinsk, but it was half French. Now we have our own engine, the PD-8.
In 2019, the first sanctions against the domestic aviation industry appeared, and in 2022, total sanctions. It became clear that everything had to be replaced. As a result, the SSJ-100 had to be heavily redesigned, including even work on the airframe. And now it's a completely new aircraft, so the name is a little different – SJ-100.
As for the first flight, in the spring of this year it was already reported about the first flight of the import-substituted SJ-100 with domestic engines, but it will go down in history on September 5, 2025. And here's why.
"In April, an airplane with domestic PD-8 engines took off for the first time, but it was a prototype of the SJ-100. This was the stage of testing the power plant on an experimental machine. Whereas in September, the first flight of the "serial" SJ-100 took place, which means the transition from flight demonstrators to a machine assembled using serial technologies and fully equipped with Russian systems, including PD-8. The fact of the flight confirms the readiness of the configuration planned for delivery," says Dmitry Evdokimov, a researcher at the Laboratory for Quantitative Analysis of Economic Effects at the Gaidar Institute.
"Flying a production aircraft means that we are not just creating an aircraft, but also creating serial production in parallel.
In the Soviet years, the production of the aircraft was individual, one model was different from the other. Now digital technologies make it possible to assemble each aircraft identical to the previous one. This technology has now been perfected. This aircraft has already been assembled according to well-developed documentation. The next aircraft will be assembled using this serial technology," explains the head of the <url> industry portal.
At the same time, the certification tests have not yet been completed, they will run for at least a year. The start of deliveries is scheduled for 2026. But it is important that by the time the aircraft receives the type certificate, the first batch of production aircraft will be produced, which will go to the airline, adds Gusarov.
He recalls that when the first-generation Superjet was created, the aircraft itself was created quickly enough, but then they forgot to think about mass production, which was not ready. Because in Soviet times, the state was responsible for all this, not the aircraft manufacturer. Therefore, then it took additional time and money to create mass production, plus to organize full technical support for aircraft for the entire life cycle. Russia learned this from the first Superjet, and now it does not allow such miscalculations.
Another pride of Russia is that the aircraft is fully import-substituted, including a domestic engine.
"We have to do everything we can on our own. At the same Boeing, only screwdriver production is carried out, everything else is assembled from all over the world.
Boeing doesn't even develop airplanes itself, other companies offer it a product. And we have to do all this on our own. This is an extremely difficult task, and the fact that we are solving it indicates a fairly high level of modern Russian science, engineering school, personnel and technological background.
Russia also creates engines itself, but Boeing and Airbus do not," says Roman Gusarov.
Experts have no doubts about the demand for such a type of aircraft as the SJ-100. "Its demand was especially evident during COVID-19, when it turned out that it was economically unprofitable to use larger-capacity aircraft while reducing passenger traffic. And the Superjet was 100% full, because there are half as many seats there. At the same time, this aircraft flies in the same place as the Boeing and Airbus, and it is not a regional aircraft, as it was originally positioned, but a short-haul one. Therefore, airlines began to fly on Superjets more often than on Boeing and Airbus. They bought up all the planes they had. And after 2022, we have been waiting for a new aircraft for three years," says Gusarov.
Such an aircraft is also in demand in winter, when tourist activity is declining and regular flights are maintained.
As for production plans, the revisions of the Integrated Program until 2030 include targets for more than 100 SJ-100 aircraft by the end of the decade, while market estimates call a realistic range of 6-20 vehicles per year at an early stage, says Evdokimov. "I think there will be about the same production rate as before – about 20 aircraft per year. And this volume will meet the demand," concludes Gusarov.
Olga Samofalova
