Engines for Russia's new Superjet 100 airliner have failed to receive certification as they have several significant flaws, a Russian business daily said on Tuesday.
The Superjet-100 project is a family of medium-haul passenger aircraft developed by the Sukhoi aircraft maker in cooperation with U.S. and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.
Vedomosti said Russian Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov, who heads the commission to monitor Superjet's production, prepared a report unveiling the current problems and obstacles in the way of certification.
The paper quoted the report as saying certification had not yet been granted as the aircraft successfully completed only 25% of the flight tests on electronics and 60% of safety tests.
The document also said Superjet's SaM146 engines, designed by PowerJet, a joint venture by France's Snecma and Russia's NPO Saturn, had several significant drawbacks. Among them was an increased weight and excessive fuel consumption.
Sukhoi started the engine certification program in February 2009 and plans to run certification tests in line with European, the U.S. and Russian standards, which would allow the plane to operate without restrictions anywhere in the world.
The aircraft maker plans to manufacture at least 700 Superjet 100s, and intends to sell 35% of them to North America, 25% to Europe, 10% to Latin America, and 7% to Russia and China.
Currently, Sukhoi has at least 122 firm orders for Superjet 100 airliners. The first aircraft are expected to be delivered to Armenia's national airline Armavia and Russia's flagship air carrier Aeroflot at the end of the year.
MOSCOW, July 6 (RIA Novosti)
