United Aircraft has transferred the prototype import-substituted Yakovlev SJ-100 to Moscow’s Gromov institute for flight certification testing.
The twinjet flew from the assembly plant at Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Moscow Zhukovsky airport, with an intermediate stop in Novosibirsk.
United Aircraft says factory development testing has been completed.
Although the aircraft is designed with a higher proportion of domestically-built components, and will ultimately be powered by Aviadvigatel PD-8 engines, the prototype still has PowerJet SaM146s.
Yakovlev general director Andrei Boginsky says the retention of the Franco-Russian engines will “speed up certification”.
“At the same time, the remaining key systems of the aircraft – including avionics, landing-gear, auxiliary power unit, integrated control system, and the power-supply system – are already Russian,” he adds.
Once the PD-8 engine has passed a number of checks, two more SJ-100s will join the flight-test programme.
Boginsky says the airframer intends to carry out more than 200 test flights in order to be “200% sure” of the aircraft’s safety.
The aircraft has been stationed at the Yakovlev facility at the Gromov institute.
According to test pilot Leonid Chikunov, who flew the jet from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the on-board systems functioned well. It cruised at an altitude of 11,000m (36,100ft) at over 430kt.
Chikunov adds that the landing at Novosibirsk demonstrated the twinjet’s “high degree of readiness”.
