Russia, China consider project for super-sonic jet

MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) -- Russia's Sukhoi aircraft maker has asked aviation officials in China if they would join a project for a super-sonic business jet, despite the crash of Concorde earlier this year, the company said on Wednesday.

Sukhoi spokesman Yuri Chervakov said the company's civil aircraft chief designer Mikhail Simonov had made an offer to Chinese manufacturers jointly to design, produce and finance the jet, based on the design of the existing Sukhoi S-21.

He said the offer had been made during a trip to Beijing last week by Simonov and that the Chinese officials had been interested in the idea. Sukhoi usually makes jet fighter planes but has begun producing aircraft for the civilian market.

"He said the era of super-sonic planes had not ended with the Concorde disaster this year," Chervakov quoted Simonov as telling the Chinese.

"This supersonic business jet would carry up to 40 people and would be twice the speed of sound. It would cover the distance between Moscow and Beijing in four and a half hours," he said. The current travel time is around eight hours.

An Air France Concorde crashed in flames on July 25 as it was taking off from Paris. Concorde's airworthiness was suspended after investigators into the crash highlighted an inherent weakness in the plane's design.

British Airways and Air France, the only companies to operate the super-sonic jet, both want to get the plane back into the air.

"Demand is great in Russia, China and India, and by the end of this year we will produce two supersonic business jets for test flights," Chervakov said of the Russian plan. Certification would come around the end of next year, he added.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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