Russia’s first “Western” jet is assembled in a city that is about as far from the West as you can be in that vast country. An 8h flight across seven time zones from Moscow and frozen for much of the year, Komsomolsk-on-Amur was established in the 1930s to build ships and aircraft to counter an invasion threat from nearby Japan. Thousands of workers were shipped east to build the city and staff the factories, and statues and murals celebrating the achievements of the proletariat are dotted amid the Soviet-era apartment blocks and potholed streets.
Descendants of these pioneers have for the past seven years been producing the Sukhoi Superjet 100 and – while little else may have changed in Komsomolsk’s appearance since Khrushchev’s day – the factory where the 100-seat regional airliner is being built is as clean, streamlined and well-equipped as any in Europe or the Americas. Split off from the manufacturer’s military facility – and separated by barbed-wire topped walls – the Komsomolsk branch of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (SCAC) contains a fuselage assembly shop, where sections are assembled on large Broetje Automation jigs, and a six-station final assembly line. There is also a flight testing station.
Other airframe sections are made by a Sukhoi sister company next door, as well as Sukhoi divisions in the cities of Novosibirsk, Voronezh and Ulianovsk. Since the first delivery in 2011, more than 30 aircraft have been handed over. When Flightglobal visited Komsomolsk in late June, the seven aircraft in various stages of assembly or testing were a mix of those for Russian customers and Mexican airline InterJet, the so far sole customer of SuperJet International (SJI). The Venice-based 51% Alenia Aermacchi and 49% Sukhoi joint venture is responsible for marketing the airliner in Western markets, as well as providing worldwide training and aftermarket support.
Finmeccanica subsidiary Alenia Aermacchi also has a 25%-plus-one-share, alongside Sukhoi, in SCAC. The two partners have not always had the easiest of relationships, with disagreements publically surfacing at last year’s Paris air show. While the airliner is selling respectably within Russia and the CIS, with more than 160 confirmed orders from the likes of Aeroflot, Yakutia and Moskovia, the rest of the world is proving tougher. By the end of this year, Interjet – which also flies Airbus A320s – will have received 15 of its 20 Superjet 100s on order, although it still has 10 more options.
Since the roll-out in 2007, SJI and SCAC have been at pains to stress the Superjet 100’s Western content – its SaM146 engine is designed by PowerJet, a 50/50 venture between Snecma and Russia’s NPO Saturn, and suppliers include Thales, Messier- Bugatti-Dowty, Liebherr, Honeywell and Parker. But they also stress the fact that it has been designed for a global market by being benchmarked against other regional jets, particularly the Embraer 190 and 195, with its biggest selling point arguably the size of its cabin at 3.24m (127in) wide and 2.12m high.
SJI has high hopes of breaking further into the fast-growing Latin American market, where it insists the jet is ideally positioned as a route developer, allowing airlines to “right size” on services unable to support an Airbus or Boeing. Although Embraer promotes its E-Jets in a similar role, SJI says the Superjet’s advantage is that customers flying on the Russian regional enjoy a “narrowbody experience”. It says this is borne out by an Interjet survey which found passengers reported a slightly more favourable “flying experience” when they came off a Superjet than an A320.
Another challenge for SJI is bolstering its support network to compete with the global training and parts support infrastructure offered by rivals Bombardier and Embraer. However, until SJI sells more aircraft, it cannot invest in bricks and mortar. The company runs spares hubs in Moscow, and – with Lufthansa – Frankfurt and Fort Lauderdale, with simulator training centres in Venice and Zhukovsky, near Moscow. However, it is negotiating with Interjet to install a simulator in Mexico, which could be offered to third parties, says customer account manager Bruce McCrea.
Komsomolsk’s air connection to the world operates only in the summer, with a daily scheduled Boeing 757 service operated by Vim Airlines. Passengers queue patiently at the two check-in desks at a tiny 1950s airport which still has Soviet signage. Like them, each green Superjet 100 leaving the factory also faces a long journey west. Interiors for the aircraft are fitted by Aviastar in Ulyanovsk for the Russian and Asian customers, and in Venice for markets in the West. Komsomolsk may be a long way from anywhere, but thanks to the Superjet, Russia’s civil aerospace industry has come a long way too.
Source: Flight International
