Aircraft
'New' Superjet’s Russian Engine Readies for Flight
Saturn Design Bureau’s PD-8 has completed ground testing in time for flight trials to start “later this year.”
The original version of the SSJ100 performs a flying display at the 2021 MAKS airshow outside Moscow. (Photo: Vladimir Karnozov)
The original version of the SSJ100 performs a flying display at the 2021 MAKS airshow outside Moscow. (Photo: Vladimir Karnozov)

Russia’s United Engine Corporation (Russian acronym ODK) has completed ground testing of the PD-8 turbofan and has begun preparing it for flight trials on the Ilyushin-76LL testbed later this year. The manufacture of two experimental engines has begun for installation on a Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ100) by year-end. Should flight testing go as planned, the re-engined, re-wired Superjet-NEW (SSJ100NEW) will gain a supplemental type certificate in late 2023 and enter commercial service in 2024.