“UEC-Saturn,” an engine manufacturing company in Rybinsk, has produced two new PD-8 engines. PJSC “Yakovlev” at Komsomolsk-on-Amur has already received these engines for installation on the third prototype SJ-100 aircraft, serial number 97003. United Engine Corporation’s (UEC) official release states that the engines have been subjected to bench tests to verify their stated properties and crosswind resistance.
UEC representatives stated, “For flight testing as part of the fully import-substituted aircraft 97003, the engines have been equipped with additional systems for air extraction, onboard measurements, fire suppression, and anti-icing. This is a standard preparation stage that ensures flight safety. Without this equipment, real-world engine testing on the aircraft would be impossible.”
The flight tests of the Superjet with PD-8 began in March 2025. The duration of these tests is several months. The airplane must go through rigorous testing, all operational modes must be evaluated, and the new engines must be inspected. The first “import-substituted” Superjet that has taken to the air with PD-8 engines still includes a large number of foreign parts in its onboard systems. The second aircraft will fly with a fully Russian onboard equipment suite and PD-8 engines when it begins testing in April or May 2025. This will accelerate the testing process, but not to the extent that the Komsomolsk-on-Amur plant will immediately roll out 20 serial-production aircraft by 2026.
These will be the first few units of the new generation of aircraft, which should realistically be in production by 2026.
When the first version of the Superjet, which had foreign components, began flying in 2008, it took another four years to reach actual production rates of 24–35 aircraft per year. At that time, it was the first attempt in 15 years to establish full-scale serial production of a globally competitive civil aircraft after complete collapse and stagnation in the industry.
Today, several factors, including the Comprehensive State Development Program until 2030, are accelerating the entire Russian civil aviation industry. It is also necessary to meet the ambitious manufacturing plan for PD-8 engines, which calls for scaling up from six units in 2025 to 44 units in 2026. The recently started testing program is strongly related to this PD-8 production. If all plans and timelines align, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur plant will have engines ready for those 20 new Superjets by 2026.
It is important to remember that setting up PD-8 production in such large volumes is not an easy task. To prepare for large-scale production, the UEC is actively developing new assembly capacity and promoting collaboration among its businesses, essentially beginning anew.
When the first fully domestic aircraft takes to the skies and testing begins, for specialists, the moment is just the beginning. After testing, production must be established and ramped up to meet the targets set by the government, which is also the customer.
Alexander Dolotovsky, Deputy General Director and Head of the Superjet program, said that Yakovlev plans to complete certification tests for the import-substituted regional passenger aircraft SJ-100 by the end of this year.
He said, “We plan to complete the certification ground and flight tests by the end of the year to obtain approval for the main certification modification and begin aircraft deliveries to our customers.”
In the summer of 2024, certification tests for specific new Russian subsystems for the SJ-100 began on a prototype with tail number 97001. Dolotovsky says it was built according to the first import substitution plan for this aircraft, which began in late 2019. To allow the Superjet 100 to enter markets in nations subject to U.S. sanctions, the intention at the time was to replace the Russian-French SaM-146 engines and import parts in specific subsystems.
It appears that Dolotovsky was referring to the supply of SJ-100 aircraft to Iran. In 2018, Iranian airlines Iran Aseman and Iran Airtour signed agreements to purchase 20 Russian aircraft each in the SSJ 100R version. The auxiliary power unit (APU), inertial system, interior, electrical systems, hydraulics, and pipelines were all Russian-made parts of this modification.
He added that the import-substituted SJ-100 is identical to the base model in terms of engine attachment locations to preserve the structural integrity of the aircraft. “We install the PD-8 and remove the SaM-146,” Dolotovsky stated. This contradicts an earlier report that said replacing French engines would be expensive and only new ones would have the PD-8 engine.
At the company’s production facility in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, 22 serial SJ-100 aircraft are already in varying stages of completion, according to the deputy head of Yakovlev. The PD-8 engines have previously tested two or three of them at flight stations.
The Russian government’s aviation development program anticipates the start of deliveries of the import-substituted SJ-100 in February 2026. Dmitry Yadrov, the head of Rosaviatsia, said on March 17 that Russian officials anticipate producing 142 of these aircraft by the end of 2030.
However, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov declared at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) congress on March 18 that the aviation development program would be modified following the certification of the medium-haul MC-21 and the import-substituted SJ-100 aircraft.
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