Before anyone gets too excited……. I photographed a similar laser device on a Su-27 of the Gromov Flight Test Centre (LII) at Zhukovskiy – about TEN years ago…….

Um… Ken, what is it?

…Boy am I out of touch…

The company plans to manufacture at least 700 Superjet 100s, and intends to sell 35% of them to North America, 25% to Europe, 10% to Latin America, and 7% to Russia and China.

What’s the bet that a much larger chunk than expected goes to the Middle East…

Anyway, what do you guys think? Will it be a success or a flop?

KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR, May 19 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s new Superjet 100 medium-haul passenger airliner made its first test flight on Monday, a spokesman for manufacturer Sukhoi Civil Aircraft said.

The Superjet 100 project is a family of medium-range passenger aircraft developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau in cooperation with major American and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace, and Honeywell.

Sukhoi said the aircraft’s systems and avionics had successfully undergone a standard set of in-situ tests at the Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute (TsAGI).

The list price of a 95-seat base model is $28 million, but the company is currently working on both smaller and larger capacity modifications.

The rest of the story is here: http://en.rian.ru/business/20080519/107719405.html

Now, the reason I posted this here is that I was wondering what you chaps think might be the possible military applications of this jet (if any!) in the future. That and the fact that the boys over at the commercial aviation forum don’t seem to be in the least interested in the Sukhoi SuperJet.

AWACS is the first thing I thought of… Especially if targeted for export for countries that need it but can’t afford the real deal (as it were)… Particularly considering the low maintenance costs of the airframe itself (if reports are to be believed).

Jwcook,

I could open only a couple of the pics you posted – I guess I’m doing something wrong…

Is this some kind of fiance/girlfriend comparison contest?

Please no! That would be almost as infantile as “my country’s plane is better than your country’s plane” contests – of which I have had just about enough.

If only there was some way to confirm this:

MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – Abkhazia has shot down another two Georgian unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, bringing the total to seven, the defense minister of the breakaway republic said on Monday.

“At 14:16 Moscow time today [10:46 GMT], another unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down, in the Ochamchiry area. We are currently looking for the wreckage,” Merab Kishmaria said.

He said the second plane was brought down at 15:13 Moscow time [11:13 GMT], and that UN mission observers were present when the drone was shot down.

Georgia’s Interior Ministry has denied the reports.

The rest of the article is here:

http://en.rian.ru/world/20080512/107168419.html

Here’s a video of the aerial part of the parade:

http://www.vesti.ru/videos?vid=131430

Anyway, looks like there were no S-400s, no Tochka, no Mi-28s even…. A lot of stuff they could have shown they chose not to… Wonder why.