Russia’s production-ready domesticated SJ-100 completes its first flight
The aircraft, which now has Russian components, should enter full-scale production sometime in 2026.
Rostec, the Russia-based conglomerate that owns several aerospace companies, including several aircraft manufacturers, has confirmed that a production-ready domesticated SJ-100, based on the Sukhoi SJ-100, completed its maiden flight on September 5, 2025.
According to the company’s statement, the aircraft completed an hour-long flight at Komsomolsk-on-Amur Airport (KXK), with the SJ-100 now carrying Russia-made components, including the PD-8 engines built by the United Engine Corporation (Объединённая двигателестроительная корпорация, UEC).
Rostec said that while the certification of the aircraft is ongoing, the SJ-100 that completed the flight was built in accordance with the same specifications that is akin to production aircraft that would be delivered to airlines. The mass production of these aircraft had been scheduled to begin in 2026, per previous statements published throughout Russian media, including TASS.
“[…] the aircraft received an updated, improved fuselage and dozens of new systems and units to replace foreign ones.”
The Russian company pointed out that there are 24 serial aircraft at various stages of their assembly, confirming that the country “has been and remains an aircraft manufacturing power capable of creating modern aircraft both in international cooperation and without the participation of foreign partners.”
It also stated that the SJ-100, designed to carry 100 passengers on short-haul routes, now has Russian engines, avionics, landing gear, auxiliary power unit (APU), control systems, power supply, air conditioning, fire protection, and passenger cabin interior.
However, replacing Western components has proven to be difficult. According to a report by Russia-based ATO, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade (Министерство промышленности и торговли Российской Федерации, MITRF) expects that the SJ-100 would be certified with “modifications with maximum import substitution of components and systems” instead of a complete replacement.
Rostec concluded that the production facility at KXK has created the foundations for the company and its subsidiaries to produce the aircraft in larger numbers, “the delivery of which will be possible after the completion of certification tests and approval of their results by the Federal Air Transport Agency [Федеральное агентство воздушного транспорта, FATA – ed. note].”
Russia began developing the SJ-100 in 2019, initially calling it the Sukhoi Superjet NEW, or SSJ-New, according to Rostec. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 entered service in 2011, with the company delivering the first aircraft, registered as EK95015, to Armenia-based Armavia.
The country has also been developing another narrowbody aircraft, the MC-21. In an announcement on June 26, 2025, the United Aircraft Corporation (Объединённая авиастроительная корпорация, UAC) said that an MC-21 with domestic components has begun certification tests.
Vitaly Naryshkin, the Chief Designer of Yakovlev, the company developing the MC-21, estimated that in order for the narrowbody to obtain a type certificate (TC), there should be between 220 and 230 test flights “to be 100% confident in the safety of our future passengers.”
Unlike the SJ-100s, the MC-21s would be powered by the PD-14 engines, developed by UEC.
Russia and its aerospace sector have been cut off from the supply of Western components since Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, decided to invade Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The war, which reportedly had a goal of taking Kyiv, Ukraine, in three days, and has cost numerous civilian lives due to Russia’s deliberate targeting of non-military targets, resulted in crippling sanctions on the country and its airlines.
Russian airlines have been forced to acquire spare parts through third-party networks, including in Turkey and India, with some suppliers being punished by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), while the country’s manufacturers have been forced to develop domestic products to replace the aging and ever more-difficult-to-maintain Western-made aircraft.
