MOSCOW, May 8 (AVN) - A new S-80GP plane developed by the Sukhoi design bureau will take part in a competition for making a promising tactical military transport plane announced by the Russian Air Force, a spokesman for the Sukhoi aircraft corporation told the Military News Agency on Tuesday.
Bureau specialists believe that the plane has high chances to win, the spokesman said. It is distinguished by high economical operation, ability to take off and to land on unpaved strops 800 to 900m long and the flight range of up to 5,000km. In European Russia, where the majority of routes make no more than 400km, the plane can complete several flights without additional fuelling. Its speed, 480km/h, is rather high for a turbo-prop aircraft. It is also important that the basic variant of the plane can be quickly transformed from a passenger (landing) to cargo aircraft.
Besides S-80GP's transport and landing variant the Sukhoi enterprise is ready to offer its customers a number of other modifications such as an air scouting complex, specialised ambulance plane, patrol aircraft, trainers, etc., the spokesman noted.
The first sample of the plane is constructed by the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft production association. At present it is in the Gromov Flight Research Institute in the town of Zhukovsky, Moscow region, where it is getting ready for flight tests. Its take-off is planned for June. The plane's market price makes USD5.5m to 6m.
According to unofficial data, IL-112 of the Ilyushin aircraft corporation and MIG-110 of the MIG aircraft corporation will take part in the competition too.