A few interesting short news first.

Does Russia have air superiority over the Ukraine?  See a good answer here: https://sonar21.com/combined-arms-a-look-at-russian-air-ops-in-the-donbas/

Next, speaking of aviation, here is a machine translated Q&A with aerospace officials from Rostekh and  the United Aircraft Corporation about Russian plans to deal with the issue of civilian aviation in Russia:

Question: When will we see fully import-substituted SSJ and MS-21 aircraft?

Answer: The successful completion of resource and flight tests will allow us to achieve SSJ-NEW certification by the end of 2023 and start mass production. The import-substituted version of the MS-21 aircraft will be ready by the end of 2024.

Question: SSJ-100: The fuselage was fully Russian-made and ready at the end of July. How are things going with electronics and engines?

Answer: Work on import substitution of the “filling” is being actively carried out. Recently, for example, Roselectronics presented its electronic components for SSJ-NEW and MS-21 communication equipment. The holding also creates antennas and radio stations for the Superjet.

PD-8 for SSJ must pass flight and certification tests, after which its serial production will begin in 2023.

The PD-14 engine for the MS-21 is in the stage of deploying large-scale production, which will start in 2023.

Question: Tu-204: this aircraft does not need to be designed and assembled from scratch, it is already ready, how quickly can its production be resumed and is everything necessary for this available?

Answer: There is no point in resuming mass production of the domestic Tu-204 passenger aircraft now. The emphasis is on the Tu-214. The latter has proven itself well when transporting senior officials, as well as for solving various special tasks. Therefore, it was decided to increase the production of these aircraft.

Are there plans to develop/design some completely new type of Russian-made aircraft?

At the moment, our priority task is to complete the SSJ and MS-21 import substitution projects. We are concentrating all our efforts on solving this problem.

Question: What volume of production of the Tu-214/SSJ/MS-21 can we really reach by 2023/2024?

Answer: In 2024, it is planned to deliver the first 6 fully import-substituted MS-21s to airlines. Gradually, production will increase to 72 aircraft annually by 2029.

Now carriers operate about 150 “Superjets”. This year, thanks to the available stocks of components, SSJ-100 deliveries continue. From the end of 2023, it is planned to begin deliveries of a fully import-substituted version of SSJ-NEW. From 2024, the project will reach the estimated capacity of 20 liners per year.

Production of the Tu-214 will increase significantly compared to current volumes. It is planned to produce more than 70 such machines by 2030.

In general, according to the plans, about 500 aircraft should be delivered by 2030. The main focus will be on the new MS-21 and SSJ-NEW models, they will become the most popular in the Russian sky.

Now, lets get some good music going for the week-end.

First, a trio composed of Jean-Luc Ponty, Stanley Clarke and Al Di Meola:

Next, one of my absolute favorite recording of Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden, “First song”:

Next Barney Wilen and Philip Catherine play “Recado” together:

Finally, my favorite Argentinian guitarist, Luis Salinas, plays “Zamba Triste”:

I wish you all a great week-end!

Andrei