OREANDA-NEWS. December 01, 2011. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 flight prototype MSN95004 aircraft successfully performed first two automatic landings Cat IIIA with different configurations of the wing high-lift system on the airfield in Zhukovsky, Moscow Region. The aircraft was handled by the SCAC flight crew consisted of the Chief pilot Alexander Yablontsev and test pilot Vadim Shirokikh, reported the press-centre of UAC.

These flights marked the beginning of the new series of the development and certification tests for expanding operational conditions of the aircraft aiming to get Supplement to the SSJ100 Type Certificate in terms of the automatic landings Cat IIIA. This supplement will allow to perform automatic landings in the low visibility weather conditions (pilots may not apply controls) up to the moment when the aircraft starts to run along the runway.

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 four SSJ100s in service with Armavia and Aeroflot.