Sukhoi Superjet 100

Nearly a generation has passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the bi-polar world of communist and capitalist economies has given way to an interconnected world of globalized competition and industrial integration often bolstered by state support.

With the commercial jet aircraft manufacturing landscape having dwindled to just four players over the past decade, that trend of industrial consolidation is set to reverse itself in the years to come. Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi, best known for its portfolio of fighter aircraft, is the first in a spate of new entrants to offer a jetliner assembled solely in the eastern hemisphere, but marketed to the world.

Its product, the 100-seat SSJ100 aircraft, made its first flight from Komsomolsk-on-Aumr, Russia in May 2008. It is powered by two PowerJet SaM146 engines, and is the launch point of a new business model which aims to challenge the established airframers Embraer and Bombardier on a global battlefield, starting with entry into service by year's end with Russian flag carrier Aeroflot and Armenian carrier Armavia.

As the first new entrant to step up to the plate, Suhkoi Civil Aircraft (SCAC) solidfied its strategic partnership with Alenia Aeronautica, the civil branch of Finnemeccanica, in June 2006 with a 75%/25% development split. A year later forming Superjet International, a Venice, Italy-based joint venture between Alenia (51%) and Sukhoi (49%) that took the reins on global marketing and product support.

The road to it's year-end entry into service, like the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787, has faced two years of delay after its originally planned November 2008 first delivery slipped due to an over-optimistic development schedule and production issues on the aircraft's engine. The engine-maker now claims it is in control of those issues, and is now winding down its four-aircraft flight test program with the approaching first flight of its first production aircraft.

With next week's Farnborough air show marking just over a year since the new 100 seater's western debut at the Paris air show, the Superjet is poised to announced new orders, including a fresh Letter of Intent from a North American lessor for up to 65.


The lessor, who did not want to preempt a formal announcement at the air show, says that Superjet made a compelling technical and aftermarket case for the SSJ against its Brazilian and Canadian competitors, calling the SSJ the "best 100 seater on the horizon."

That bold claim, says the lessor, is anchored by the aircraft's supplier list reads like a who's who of western aircraft manufacturing. While critics of the Superjet say the venture is no more than a state-funded exercise that defies natural market forces and an aviation anachronism amongst composite innovators, but that criticism ignores the reality of the underlying technology driving the program.

The environmental and flight control systems are supplied by Liebherr, hydraulic system from Parker Hannafin, auxiliary power unit from Honeywell, Goodrich wheels, brakes and brake system controls, Messier-Dowty landing gear, Zodiac-Intertechnique fuel system and a PowerJet engine, a joint venture between Snecma and Russian engine maker Saturn NPO.

Apture
by flightblogger

Additionally, the Thales avionics are grounded on a foundation similar to the Airbus A380, says Superjet, with an Aircraft Full Duplex switched data network ( AFDX) and Integrated Modular Avionics ( IMA) core that exceeds its nearest competitors with full fly-by-wire architecture and RNP .3 precision navigation capability and CATIIIa autoland capability.

The systems integration stands in contrast to Cold War-era Russian-made jetliners which exclusively used homegrown systems that lacked interoperability and had a reputation for being unreliable.

The new engine in particular features Snecma technology built on the CFM56 integrated with Leap-X advantages, including one-third reduction in high pressure stages from 9 to 6, while Superjet claims a 12% fuel burn advantage over its single-class 100-seat competitors the Embraer E-190 and Bombardier CRJ900, driven by a lighter airframe with better payload range capability around 2,400nm due to the five-abreast seating.

Suhkoi and Alenia's business case does not center around a next generation material system like that of Boeing or Airbus, a revolutionary systems architecture or supply chain, rather it's foundation is rooted in established advanced technology and a new supercritical wing profile, all while aiming to offering the new jet for as much as 20% less than its competition on the market, with a pricetag of $27.8 million.

Superjet International's offices on the edge of Marco Polo International Airport in Venice are still coming together, says Giacomo Peretto, the joint venture's head of communications, but the empty desks of its future training center will soon be occupied by desktop training computers and belies both the new nature of the program, as well as its extraordinary ambition to break into the western market. Within a year, Superjet hopes to be training western pilots at this Venice facility. Russian pilots are already well into their flight training at a training center in Moscow.

Apture
by Jon Ostrower

Time and again, the established airframers say that the challenge to new market entrants is not designing, certifying and delivering a new jetliner, but the process of seeing it through its multi-decade service life.

"Think about Embraer at the beginning," says Peretto. "Who would have been willing to bet a dollar on a Brazilian plane?"

Peretto plainly admits that Superjet International has its work cut out for it, but that won't stop the company from trying. With first delivery to Aeroflot at the end of this year, Peretto sees the early service life of the Superjet as a proving ground for the aircraft. The central challenge, he says, revolves around validating the aircraft's performance and demonstrating that the maintenance partnerships the venture has formed to live up to western standards of airline operational reliability and maintainability.

The new customer says they've been provided contractual assurances from Alenia and SCAC that 98% of parts will be dispatched from strategic depots, such as the one being set up in Frankfurt in partnership with Lufthansa Technik Logistik, within three hours of receiving a service call and the remaining 2% within 72 hours.

"We are the new kid on the block, as we say," says Peretto. "We need this reputation. We have to establish a solid reputation, we try our best on our part, we have no doubt the aircraft will be built the right way by our partners in Russia, so I think there's ground based for a perfect mix. Now the market will tell."

The lessor, while declaring "absolute faith in the product" acknowledges that western airlines remain uneasy about Russian aircraft and whether the Superjet can be supported in service to the same level as its American, European, Canadian and Brazilian counterparts. By spreading the risk between lessors and airlines, the new customer hopes to deliver lower acquisition costs for operators, while ensuring that airlines feel they have an exit strategy if they are dissatisfied.

"We have put our money where our mouth is," says the North American lessor.

Empty Operating Weight per seat.
SSJ100-95 = E-195 - 5% = E-190 - 13% = Cs110 - 16%
Normal T/O Thrust per seat.
SSJ100-95 = E-195 - 15% = E-190 - 28% = Cs110 - 42%
It seems that the SSJ is relative light and the CF's are rather old and heavy(but that's old news of course).
The GTF is obviously a lot heavier again.
Also the SSJ seems to have less thrust but then again it needs less as a function of weight.
As a result we can expect pretty good short trip economics as shown below.

Fuel 400 NM trip.
SSJ100-95 = E-195 - 20% = E-190 - 16% = Cs110 - 8%
Fuel 400 NM trip per seat.
SSJ100-95 = E-195 - 6% = E-190 - 12% = Cs110 + 4%
Both the E-195 and CS110 pay the price for weight on a short trip, the CS does well per seat though(guess it has more seats).
Obviously the CS will make up for the weight penalty on longer trips, In fact I don't consider the CS to be a RJ anyway.
All above is of course based on information available to me and might be off by a +/- percent or so.

SFC for the SaM146 is stated at 0.629lb/h/lb versus 0.68 for the CF34-8 and 0.65 for the CF34-10. So it's not revolutionay, but it's still an improvement. The better engine/nacelle integration of the Superjet should help too. PowerJet also claims 20% less parts than the CF34. Sukhoi claims an overall 10% fuel consumption improvement versus the competition. Sounds a bit high to me, but I would believe 7%. The 5-abreast configuration is not the best for a 70-seater (which may never get built IMO), but is probably a break-even for a 100-pax a/c, and would work very well if the 110-130pax stretch is built. And I trust that Sukhoi knows how to build efficient wings. I haven't seen any OEW numbers, nor much more other data, which would help a lot in comparing it against competitors.
(sources for my numbers: the respective manufaturer's websites)

FARNBOROUGH -- Superjet International, a joint venture between Sukhoi Civil Aircraft and Alenia Aeronautica, further detailed the progress of its SSJ100 flight test program.

Sukhoi, who is responsible for the assembly, production and testing of the new 100 seater, says the certification campaign is 70% complete having flown 1800h over 710 flights.

The aircraft is currently undergoing hot ands high testing in Armenia. The next phase, which will begin in August will see the regional jet fly to a dedicated airport in Italy for high-intensity radio frequency (HIRF) testing.

Three SSJ100 aircraft will be delivered to Aeroflot and Armavia. The company says six aircraft are in final assembly, with 18 in production oveall.

Russian certification of the Superjet 100 is now pegged for October, instead of September, but Superjet International, a joint venture of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft and Italy’s Alenia, insists it will meet its commitment to deliver the first airplanes to Aeroflot and Armavia before year-end. A breakthrough in the oft-delayed program came in June, when the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) granted certification of the model’s SaM146 engine. EASA certification of the aircraft is expected in the middle of next year. The four Superjet 100s in the flight-test program have logged more than 1,750 hours.

Superjet International brought one of the test airplanes to the Farnborough airshow, where contract orders with two airlines were signed. Indonesian regional carrier Kartika Airlines finalized an order for 30 Superjet 100s in a deal valued at $951 million, confirming a December 2008 agreement for firm orders for 15 Superjet 100s and options for 15 more. All the options were converted to firm orders. The Jakarta-based carrier’s aircraft will be delivered between 2012 and 2015.

Superjet International also signed an agreement with Pearl Aircraft, a Bermuda-based aircraft leasing company, for the purchase of 30 Sukhoi Superjet 100s and options on 15 more.

SSJ 100 has completed the full scope of testing required to prove the performance as well as take-off and landing capabilities. It has successfully passed a series of testing in extreme weather conditions (Yakutsk, Arkhangelsk) and high elevation program in Gumri (Armenia). These tests were conducted with extensive involvement of the aircraft maintenance team which checked the validity of the required maintenance procedures for marginal environment conditions.
At the flight test centre in Zhukovsky the aircraft has accomplished the program validating its operation on the water-filled runaway, demonstrating the perfect performance of the APU and engines at the full range of required modes, including low speed, takeoff and maximum thrust reverser.
The system evaluation and failure safety programs are under way on prototypes 95004 and 95005. The tests of the fuel system are completed. The air conditioning system failure testing is in progress. The aircraft has done a series of reduced visibility testing, which check the aircraft performance in conditions of restricted visibility with the use of flight deck instruments. The same prototypes are involved in navigation, autopilot and thrust reverser testing, which includes flights on such routes as Moscow- St.Petersburg - Moscow, Moscow-Kazan-Moscow, Moscow - Murmansk-Moscow without refueling and landing at mid point and with instrumental landings at destination. These flights excessively confirm the range capability of the aircraft (over 4000km). The fourth prototype demonstrated at Farnborough is also involved in on-ground EMI testing, evaluating electromagnetic interference from different electrical sources in the aircraft.
Now there are 18 serial aircraft in production at different stages of completion, 6 of which are at the final assembly shop. The first production airplane No95007 is under power-on testing in Komsomolsk. At the earliest, on arrival of the serial engines and podding the aircraft will take to the skies.
Today it’s already proven in flight that Sukhoi Superjet 100 is a revenue generating product that offers our customers a perfect combination of regional aircraft efficiency with the mainline level of comfort for passengers and the crew, and state-of-the art technologies such as uniquely smart electrical fly-by-wire system with multiple redundancy features already tested, environmentally friendly engine and hydraulic system, fully preventing hydraulic fluids leakage to service zones, open architecture avionics based on A380 technologies, a brake temperature monitoring system with automated current temperature analysis and many others. The efficiency of the aircraft is brought by perfect aerodynamics of the aircraft developed by the engineering team of Sukhoi in collaboration with aerodynamic experts from the world-known TsAGI and SaM146 engine.
The design and maintainability of the aircraft itself and its major systems is driven by high dispatch reliability. This makes the SSJ100 extremely quick at the most high-frequency airports. The mainline comfort comes not only through the increased life space for a passenger but owing to the architecture of the air conditioning system which is less noisy, and moreover it offers the option of two independent temperature zones with selectable temperatures range providing additional comfort in-flight both for the crew and passengers.
The aircraft is a product for ongoing growth of capabilities even after the certification is over. Today we’ve already launched the Operational Excellence Program that will increase the fuel efficiency and enhance the operational capabilities providing features like steep approach, IIIA landing category and others. And by 2012 the Program will result in the LR modification with 150km increase in range which will excessively cover our customers’ needs.

SCAC President Vladimir Prisyazhnyuk claims the aircraft has demonstrated an 8% fuel burn advantage over Embraer 190 and 195 regional jets with a full payload of 9.8 metric tons. Cost per passenger and per flight also are said to be 6-8% lower than its direct competitors

Sukhoi Superjet 100 has successfully completed certification static testing Program

15.09.2010
Sukhoi Superjet 100 has successfully completed certification static testing Program

September 15, 2010, Zhukovsky - The Sukhoi Superjet 100 has successfully completed the full scope of certification on-ground strength testing program in the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI).

The overall Program, developed by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company, incorporated 58 test cases.

All the main aircraft parts, including fuselage, wing, vertical and horizontal stabilizers, lift devices, landing gear attachment points, pylon and power plant attachment points, as well as doors, flight deck and passenger cabin glazing and equipment fitting, have been subjected to extensive on-ground strength testing at TsAGI lab.

In compliance with the certification requirements, the airframe components were extensively tested to study the airframe structure behavior. The parts have been exposed to different loads up to 150% more than the normal operating conditions and all aircraft components performed at the expected level.

“Thanks to the high professionalism of TsAGI and SCAC engineers, we managed to get all the data confirming the SSJ100 safety. The next step for SCAC will be to continue testing for further development of the SSJ100 product line”, - said Alexander Pimenov, SCAC’s Vice President, Design & Development.

“Our cooperation with the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company on Sukhoi Superjet 100 program has long history and is mutually beneficial. We achieved a significant progress. It is to be underlined that SSJ-100 passed successfully such complicated tests as fuselage dynamics when landing, airframe combined loading under fuselage internal excessive pressure. Currently the specialists of TsAGI contribute into integrated research associated with aerodynamics, strength, control systems and fatigue to achieve aircraft certification goal”, said Boris Alyoshin, Director General of TsAGI.

“The static testing Program’s completion is a significant milestone. The results obtained by the on-ground strength testing allowed us to successfully test the aircraft strength performance in flight. The aircraft confirmed to maintain the required structural integrity. The prototypes have already accumulated 842 flights in 2072 hours” said SCAC’s President Vladimir Prisyazhnyuk.