KHABAROVSK, September 30 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's aircraft industry needs comprehensive infrastructural reforms to enable it to compete successfully on the global market, the head of the Sukhoi aircraft producer said on Tuesday.
"Partial modernization and reform will ensure neither a technological nor commercial effect - this is just money down the drain," Mikhail Pogosyan said.
He cited the SuperJet-100 project as an example of across-the-board reform - from design to after-sales servicing.
The SuperJet-100 project is a family of medium-haul passenger aircraft developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau in cooperation with major U.S. and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.
Sukhoi, which is part of the state-owned United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), 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. Sukhoi earlier said it had so far secured at least 100 firm orders for the aircraft.
