Deliveries Of ‘Russified’ SSJ-100 Aircraft Disrupted In Russia

There have been security problems.

The Rostec state corporation will not be able to supply Aeroflot with two imported SSJ-100 aircraft until the end of 2023 due to problems with the safety of the aircraft, sources in the aviation industry and interlocutors close to the corporation told Kommersant.

According to them, aircraft with Russian PD-8 engines will be delivered no earlier than mid-2024, and regular flights on them will begin towards the end of the year. “We need to further test the new engines, then complete all the prescribed tests of the aircraft with new systems for full certification,” explained one of the interlocutors.

Previously, it was assumed that Aeroflot would receive 34 “Russified” airliners by 2025. These deadlines can formally be met: the technical acceptance of the aircraft will take place earlier — they will be transferred to the national carrier on paper, but “will remain on the manufacturer’s territory” (Yakovlev, part of Rostec) until certification of all Russian systems and assemblies is certified, one of the interlocutors clarified.

Aeroflot has no complaints against Yakovlev, says a source close to the air group. “All issues have been agreed upon,” he emphasized.

“Taking into account the scale of import substitution tasks and the load on the existing aircraft fleet, the delivery of the first aircraft in 2024 will suit everyone,” noted the manufacturer’s interlocutor.

The main problem of the import-substituted SSJ-100 is the domestic PD-8 engine. According to the plan, it was supposed to be certified by the end of 2024, but in March 2022, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov demanded that all procedures be completed “in the next 12–14 months,” that is, by the summer of 2023. However, as of mid-November 2023, certification had not been carried out.

Rostec, commenting on the situation, noted that the aircraft “can be transferred to the customer only when there is confidence in the safety and reliability of all systems.” They called the PD-8 engine “the most complex technical system on the new aircraft, the work on which involves dozens of thousands of people.” “Painstaking work on quality is not traded for time,” the state corporation emphasized, calling changes in delivery times “not critical.”

In the global aircraft industry over the past decades, not a single project related to commercial aircraft and new engines has been implemented on time, notes AviaPort CEO Oleg Panteleev. Despite its external similarity to the SSJ-100, “the scope of modifications to the SJ-100 is colossal, and the associated technical risks at the initial stage are also very large,” the expert explained. According to him, the reliability of forecasts on timing depends on officials who “form an extremely optimistic picture for reports to the top.”