SINGAPORE, February 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer has successfully tested engines on its first SuperJet-100 regional aircraft, the company said on Thursday.

The SuperJet-100 project is a family of medium-range passenger aircraft developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau in cooperation with major American and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace, and Honeywell.

"The new SaM-146 engines have undergone successful 'dry run' tests on the first SuperJet-100 plane as a step in the preparation for its maiden flight," a Sukhoi Civil Aircraft spokesman said at the Singapore Air Show.

A Sukhoi official said last year that successful tests of the engine would allow Sukhoi to start mass production of the plane simultaneously with its certification in 2008.

The company 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.

Mikhail Pogosyan, Sukhoi's general director, said in January that the company had secured 73 solid orders for the aircraft.

The list price of a 95-seat base model is $28 million, but the company is currently working on both smaller and larger capacity modifications.

The SuperJet-100 has an estimated $100 billion market for around 5,500 planes, through 2023.