MOSCOW. June 20 (Interfax-AVN) - The Sukhoi military aircraft production enterprise, the leading Russian producer of combat aircraft, and France's Dassault Aviation company will study the possibility of coordinated creation of a supersonic administration plane, chief of the Sukhoi press service Yuri Chervakov told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
"Mikhail Pogosyan, head of the Sukhoi military aircraft production enterprise, and officials of the Dassault Aviation company signed an agreement on creation of a joint working group at Paris Air Show 2003. The group will study whether it is possible for the two companies to cooperate in the sphere of aircraft development, including creation of an administration- class supersonic plane," Chervakov said.
He reported that the market for planes of such class has notably revived lately. The Sukhoi design bureau was earlier developing a supersonic business-class passenger plane codenamed S-21. "The development was suspended because of high cost of the plane amounting to USD70m-80m approx. But the demand for an administration-class plane increased after the events of September 11, 2001. Rich persons currently prefer to fly small planes, in the company of the persons they know well," Chervakov added.
According to him, the project has good chances to be revived in cooperation between the two companies.