Boeing, Sukhoi Put Heads Together to Make RJ

We told you of the rumor over a year ago; now, it's coming true: Boeing and Sukhoi are going to collaborate on a regional jet, the Russian Regional Jet, or RRJ; and it's going into service worldwide in four years. Our slightly-retouched artists' conception shown here is, we're told, not representative of the new aircraft.

That was the hot announcement from Paris, along with a planned sale of 600 airplanes -- $11 billion worth. That's about a tenth of the potential market, in that timeframe, according to Sukhoi's estimates.

Vladimir Isachenkov, writing for the AP, noted, "Chicago-based Boeing has signed a contract to assist Sukhoi in the design, production, certification, marketing, sales, program management and post-production support of the RRJ."

Boeing's design center in Moscow already "employs 500 Russian aerospace engineers," according to Isachenkov.

The design, to accommodate from 60 to 95 passengers, would be built by Sukhoi, in Russia; it is slated to get engines, two apiece, from a venture between France's SNECMA and Russia's NPO Saturn. Some funding is expected from the Russian taxpayers.

FMI: www.boeing.com