Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg News
A Superjet on display at the Paris air show in June. Its manufacturer has had to overcome Russia's reputation in the aviation industry for poor air safety.
Posted on 08/30/2011 9:19:43 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
At 35,000 Feet, a Russian Image Problem
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
MOSCOW — Airlines are a cautious lot, slow to trust a new airplane maker with multibillion-dollar orders and passenger lives. It took Embraer, a Brazilian maker of regional jets, two decades to become a major supplier to the industry.
So Sukhoi, a Russian company best known for making supersonic fighter jets, did not exactly get off to an auspicious start. When it delivered one of the first of its highly promoted new 100-seat Superjets to Aeroflot in June, a piece of safety equipment immediately broke down, prompting Sukhoi to ground the plane.
Although the plane was fixed and is flying again, the lapse shows just how difficult a path Sukhoi faces to persuade Western airlines to buy airplanes from a Russian state company. Russia’s aviation industry has long been plagued by safety problems, breakdowns and lethal crashes, rendering it virtually unable to sell planes outside the former Soviet Union, Iran, Cuba and parts of Africa.
“Historically, Russian aircraft have an image that will take a long time to address,” Les Weal, an analyst at Ascend, an aviation consultancy in London that advises the insurance industry on safety, said in a telephone interview.
“Superjet may be excited about their airplane,” he said. “But I’m not sure that will translate into a lot of orders from mainstream airlines. It would take a huge leap of faith for an airline to turn to a newcomer.”
But Sukhoi has high expectations for the Superjet 100, the first wholly new Russian civilian aircraft design since the breakup of the Soviet Union. The list price for the chubby, single-aisle aircraft is $31.7 million, about one-third cheaper than comparable short-hop jets from Embraer or Bombardier of Canada,
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg News
A Superjet on display at the Paris air show in June. Its manufacturer has had to overcome Russia's reputation in the aviation industry for poor air safety.
Yes, I would imagine almost any country but Russia would put air worthyness and safety at something less than its #1 concern.
Ping.
If it ain't Boeing I ain't going!
The shape of a Boeing 737, the size of a Canadair RJ 100 or Embraer ERJ, with the reputation for quality of the early e-machines PCs...
Yep - sign me up to NOT fly on one of these!!!!
Feh ...
Bombardier (Canadair, DeHavilland Canada), Embraer, and Beech make fine airplanes. I have no problems riding any of them.
Not to worry..if they can’t sell it, the NLRB will order production shifted to China..
Heard on airshow radio:
“Boris, hold my vodka. Watch me put this baby into a cobra...”
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