Russian aviation stocks skyrocket
Shares of Russian state-run aerospace company United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) soared 45% on Tuesday after the maiden flight of the country’s first fully domestically-built aircraft.
Earlier, the Russian Industry Ministry said that an SSJ-100 equipped only with domestically-produced components had carried out its first flight. The airliner flew at altitudes of up to 3,000 meters (9,800ft) and speeds of 343 kilometers (213 miles) per hour.
As of 16:48 Moscow time, shares of UAC and Yakovlev Design Bureau, which designed the jet, were trading around 30% higher than yesterday.
Aviation stocks also got a boost thanks to the news that the Russian government was considering allocating more than 650 billion rubles ($6.8 billion) from the National Welfare Fund (NWF) to support the industry.
According to an unnamed source close to the discussion as quoted by Interfax, nearly 410 billion rubles ($4.3 billion) will be spent on a long-term program to upgrade the fleet of aircraft and helicopters, and the remaining 240 billion ($2.5 billion) – on expanding the production of civil aircraft, engines, and assemblies for the entire industry.
The SSJ-NEW is being manufactured at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur facility, in Russia's far east. About 40 systems have been replaced on the new aircraft, which is equipped with domestically-manufactured components, according to the Industry Ministry.
It only took four years to go from the preliminary design to the first flight of the jet, which is close to a record, according to Andrey Boginsky, the deputy general director for Civil Aviation of United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and the head of the Yakovlev design bureau.
The original Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ-100) aircraft made its maiden flight in 2008. That aircraft, however, had foreign components, including the engines.
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