Aircraft
Russia Embarks On New R&D Path to a Supersonic Transport
With Russian government funding, the country's aerospace sector wants to take supersonic technologies to new levels to make a new generation SST viable.
Russia's aerospace sector is combining forces to work on new concepts for possible supersonic commercial aircraft. (Photo: Vladimir Karnozov)
Russia's aerospace sector is combining forces to work on new concepts for possible supersonic commercial aircraft. (Photo: Vladimir Karnozov)

Russia’s aerospace industry is delaying a full-scale launch of a second-generation supersonic transport aircraft (SST2) while intensifying efforts to work out key technologies needed to deliver on that ambition. The change in course was confirmed in a high-level government meeting last month when President Vladimir Putin himself approved a proposal by state-backed companies to develop the new Strizh (Swift) supersonic technology demonstrator to be powered by Klimov RD-93MA turbofans (a no-afterburning derivative of the MiG-35 fighter engine).

With a takeoff weight of 16 tonnes (35,273 pounds), the Strizh would serve as a platform to evaluate a package of new technologies such as pro-bionic structural airframe design (instead of classic frames and ribs) and engineering advances on engine/airframe integration to deliver a lower noise footprint around airports.