Director for International Cooperation and Regional Policy of Russian defense and technology company Rostec said that United Arab Emirates based investment fund is interested in cooperating with Russia to develop a supersonic passenger jet.
“The Arab side is interested in working together to create such machine. But for the project to be commercially successful, you need to assess the needs of the market – it makes no sense to produce two or three supersonic passenger aircraft and put an end to this,” he said.
According to Rostec official, in the field of developments on the plane Russia, at the very least, does not lag behind competitors. He added that the main problem that developers are trying to solve is the issue of reducing noise when passing through the sound barrier. “We are somewhere in a leading position in these research projects,” he said.
Earlier, Russian Minister of Industry said that a supersonic jet project was discussed with the UAE-based Mubadala Fund. “We have touched the topic related to development and production of the supersonic jet,” minister told reporters.
The project can be a multilateral one, the Minister noted. “Colleagues showed interest, considering that they have already invested into the innovation sector of our industry,” he added.
Russian specialists started the research work on the supersonic passenger jet, the Minister said in February 2019.
Specialists of the United Aircraft Corporation can design a supersonic business jet in seven-eight years and the demand on the domestic market can be 20-30 planes with the price of $100-120 million each, representatives of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade said earlier.