Sukhoi Totals up the Year

Sukhoi Totals up the Year

The General Director of the Sukhoy Aviation Holding Company - Sukhoy OKB, Mikhail Pogosyan, held a briefing for journalists, at which he summed up the association`s year in the year now ending and discussed the prospects for the firm`s development in 2002.

He noted that last year the Sukhoy aviation company developed dynamically in many directions. In turn, there was the technical reequipping of the enterprises, the introduction of new technologies, a deepening of cooperation with the leading branches of the scientific centers and institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the formation of a powerful scientific and engineering reserve for the creation of future aviation equipment.

In 2001, the Sukhoy OKB flight test and development bases in Zhukovskiy and Akhtubinsk were reequipped technically, the OKB filial at the Novosibirsk Aviation Production Association /NAPO/ was reequipped fully, and at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Production Association an engineering center was opened for 400 positions.

In the year now ending, the Sukhoy AK performed intense work on all priority contract programs in the interests of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense and foreign customers. Flight tests of the Su-30MK export fighter were completed. The fact that the average annual flight time of Sukhoy OKB test pilots exceeded the record number for the last 10 years - 200 hours - and Hero of Russia Vyacheslav Averyanov spend 290 hours in the air, speaks to the intensity of this work.

In October of last year, the Su-49 training airplane project won the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense tender, and in November its electronic mock-up already was developed. The Sukhoy AK plans in the coming months to build the first flying example of the Su-49 and begin its tests this very year. The Sukhoy firm jointly with the serial plants and Rosoboronehksport fully executed the deliveries of fighters for foreign customers, most of all for China and India. The aviation company is using the money received for the development and technical reequipping of production, and also for the creation of new combat and civilian airplanes. The Sukhoy AK now is participating in the competition for the creation of the fifth generation fighter.

Source: 04.01.02, Krasnaya Zvezda

Translated by Roy Cochrun /http://www.toad.net/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/royfc/today/acft_news.html/