Sukhoi Still Looking at SBJ Prospects

Specialists at Russia's Sukhoi Design Bureau remain optimistic about the future of their efforts to spur interest in a supersonic business jet (SBJ), despite the recent high-profile crash of an Air France Concorde just outside Paris in July.

"The crash of Concorde by no means influences the development of our supersonic business jet project," Andrey Ilyin, Sukhoi's director of civil aviation programs, told Show News.

Well-known for its fighters and strike aircraft, Sukhoi has been trying to convert its rich supersonic experience into a civilian product since the late 1980s. At the 1989 Paris Air Show leading business jet makers Gulfstream Aerospace and Dassault Aviation unveiled their plans to investigate the market for an SBJ. A few months later joint ventures were established between aircraft manufacturers Gulfstream and Sukhoi, as well as engine makers Rolls-Royce and Lyulka.

In the early 1990s, after several years of intensive technical and marketing studies, Gulfstream and Rolls-Royce left their Russian partners, following Gulfstream's decision to concentrate its efforts and financial resources on the long-range Gulfstream V.

Since then Sukhoi has maintained its own low-level SBJ research and development. Ilyin pointed to continued challenges in tailoring the airplane for both subsonic and supersonic flight, in handling sonic booms, and in dealing with take-off noise. The certification process is also a major issue, Ilyin said.

Sukhoi management thinks developing and certifying the SBJ could cost as much as $3 billion. It is still looking for risk-sharing partners to share the investment, facilitate access to the Western market and sustain a wide-ranging effort to obtain FAA/JAA certification.

Sukhoi found a potential new partner two years ago in U.S. airframer Boeing, which said in June 1998 that it was in talks with Sukhoi about an SBJ. Ilyin confirmed that his company has negotiated with a number of Western aircraft and engine manufacturers in an effort to keep interest in a partnership alive. To make cooperation with the Russian defense company more attractive for the West, this past May Sukhoi set up a 100%-owned joint stock company called Sukhoi Civil Aircraft.

Sukhoi's twin-turbofan, 10-passenger SBJ would have a Mach 1.85-1.95 cruise speed at 50,000 ft and 4,860 nmi range. Sukhoi believes the first SBJ could be delivered to customers in seven or eight years after the full-scale launch of the program.

By Alexey Komarov