OREANDA-NEWS. October 19, 2011. President of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Choummaly Sayasone being on the official visit in Russia visited today the Aviation Technical Centre of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC) in Zhukovsky.

Mr Sayasone was shown the Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft and simulators for training of pilots of aircraft of such a type. SCAC President Vladimir Prisyazhnyuk informed about launching the manufacture of Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft for Lao Central Airlines (previously known as Phongsavanh Airlines) of Laos in the course of execution of the contract on delivery of three aircraft of such a type to the airline. Deliveries of aircraft are scheduled for the second half of 2012.

Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ100) is a 100 seat regional jet designed, developed and built by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC), in partnership with Alenia Aeronautica. On May 19th 2008 SSJ100 successfully accomplished its first flight. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 cruises at a Maximum Operating Speed of Mach 0.81 and 40.000 feet. It takes off from a 1.731 meters runway in the basic range and 2.052 meters in the long range. The operating range for the basic version is 3.048 km and 4.578 km for the long range version. In February 2011, the SSJ100 obtained the Type Certificate by the Russian Certification Authority IAC AR. The EASA certification is expected to follow in 2011. On April 19th 2011 first production SSJ100 was delivered to Armavia airlines (Armenia). There are currently three SSJ100s in service with Armavia and Aeroflot.