MOSCOW. July 11 (Interfax-AVN) - Planes of the Sukhoi company are in demand among foreign customers because they are two steps ahead of their time, Sukhoi Constructor General Mikhail Simonov said on Friday.
It is now necessary to make one more step and design the fifth-generation fighter, Simonov said at the Pavel Sukhoi Awards ceremony that took place in Moscow.
Simonov was the first winner of the award established by the Sukhoi design bureau. Among other winners of the first-degree award are Vladimir Avramenko, former director general of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft production association, Alexei Knyshev, chief constructor of the SU-27 Flanker family of aircraft, and Major General Vladimir Ilyushin, test pilot of the bureau. They were awarded and given gold medals for creating the Flanker family of fighters.
A large group of designers and engineers got awards of the second and third degrees and silver and bronze medals.
Participants in the ceremony said that the award can be given to both officials of the Sukhoi design bureau and representatives of adjacent enterprises and organization. In particular, about 200,000 people are involved in the creation of the fifth-generation fighters that is handled by a group of enterprises representing the core of the Russian aviation science and industry.
Sukhoi Director General Mikhail Pogosyan handed over the awards to the winners.
"Our company is at a new stage of its development, at the stage of designing the fifth-generation fighter and entering the civil aircraft market. The establishment of the award once again confirms that we are planning to continue using Sukhoi's design school as our basis," Pogosyan said.
Sukhoi planes are in the inventory of 35 countries. Their supplies exceed 50 percent of Russian arms exports.