The glider of the imported aircraft SSJ-NEW, intended for testing, was delivered from the production center of the Irkut Corporation in Komsomolsk-on-Amur to the airfield of the Flight Research Institute named after. M.M Gromov in Zhukovsky (both enterprises are part of the United Aircraft Corporation). The prototype SSJ-NEW will pass a cycle of life tests at the Federal Autonomous Institute "TsAGI" NRC "Institute named after Professor N.E. Zhukovsky.

In the near future, the SSJ-NEW fuselage will be delivered to the TsAGI laboratory, where the corporation's specialists will carry out the final assembly of the airframe: they will dock the wing, vertical and horizontal tail surfaces with the fuselage and install attachments. At the same time, TsAGI employees will be installing the test bench systems for subsequent certification life tests.

“This is already the second SSJ-NEW fuselage manufactured at the production center of the Irkut corporation in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, it was delivered to Zhukovsky to undergo a cycle of certification life tests. For our team, this event is also notable for the fact that the SSJ-NEW fuselage left the enterprise for the first time. The first fuselage assembled earlier is currently in the final assembly shop and is being equipped with elements of imported systems and assemblies. In 2023, it will make its first flight and take part in the certification flight test program. Successful completion of life and flight tests will allow us to achieve SSJ-NEW certification by the end of 2023 and start mass production,” said Andrey Boginsky, Deputy General Director of PJSC UAC for Civil Aviation, General Director of Irkut Corporation.

At TsAGI, the airframe and landing gear will be subjected to repeated cyclic loading to experimentally substantiate the assigned resource of 54,000 flight hours. During the tests, it is planned to obtain data on the fatigue strength and operational survivability of the airframe, as well as to confirm the compliance of the design with the requirements of aviation standards.

Carrying out such tests is a common practice in the aircraft industry when significant changes are made to the airframe design. In the case of SSJ-NEW, such changes are due to the generalization of the experience of operating SSJ family aircraft on domestic and international airlines, as well as the need to integrate new aircraft systems developed by Russian enterprises.

The SSJ-NEW aircraft is being created under the program of import substitution of systems and components and will become another model in the family of currently operated Superjet aircraft.