These trials began in 2021
Tests of the SJ-100 aircraft (this is an imported version of the Superjet-100) and the PD-8 engine for it are carried out in parallel to speed up the commissioning of the airliner. Aeroflot should receive the first two production SJ-100s in December, but it is not a fact that these airliners will take off in December. Firstly, it must undergo a “break-in” (the Chinese COMAC C919 flew for almost six months before going on regular flights), and secondly, several tests have not yet been completed.
Thus, the All-Russian Research Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM) plans to complete special certification tests of materials for the PD-8 engine only in 2024. The acting President spoke about this at the demo day of the Engineering Center for Engine Engineering. O. General Director of the Institute Sergei Yakovlev.
The production SJ-100 probably won’t fly until 2023.
Here we cannot help but recall the story of how in July, during the presentation of the Yakovlev brand, Deputy General Director of the Irkut Corporation Yuri Koritsky announced that the first SJ-100s would be delivered to the customer (that is, Aeroflot) in the third quarter of 2024. Very quickly, Irkut General Director Andrei Boginsky denied this, explaining everything as a banal mistake. And now VIAM data makes us think that maybe the mistake wasn’t a mistake after all. After all, it is strange to call an aircraft a production aircraft if not all the materials in its engine are certified by the time the aircraft is delivered to the airline.
There is something else interesting on the slide: judging by the picture, VIAM is not currently involved in certification tests of the VK-800SM engine for the LMS-901 “Baikal” aircraft. Meanwhile, deliveries of the first Baikals are planned for 2025.
