SSBJ UPDATE: Elsewhere in this issue (“In The Works,” page 78) is word of Sukhoi’s continuing work on feasibility studies on the S-21, a supersonic business jet that, according to the company’s general director of civil aircraft, could not appear before 2010 or 2012. Sukhoi’s technical director, however, reckons it will take 10 years or so from now to reduce the sonic boom to the point that an SSBJ could be certifiable for overland operation above Mach 1. In that case, even 2014 would likely be optimistic.
Perhaps this internal difference of opinion explains why the Russian manufacturer recently revealed plans for a transonic jet as a more expedient vehicle for the company to secure a place in the business aircraft market. A model seen by AIN’s CIS correspondent, Vladimir Karnozov, at the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft engineering center in Moscow, called the Transonic BJ and 098 Sukhoi, mates the supersonic S-21 project’s fuselage with an airliner-style wing carrying two pod-mounted engines. The 098 designation, presumably, refers to a cruise speed of Mach 0.98.
