HAL intends to locally manufacture the complete aircraft in India in partnership with Public Joint Stock Company United Aircraft Corporation (PJSC-UAC). The two companies signed an MoU for production of the aircraft in Moscow, Russia, on October 27, 2025.
The partnership is intended to be a landmark event in the civil aviation sector, fulfilling India’s ambition to build commercial aircraft.
The SJ-100 is a twin-engine, narrow-body aircraft. As of date, more than 200 aircraft have been produced and are being operated by more than 16 commercial airline operators.
According to the HAL video, the SJ-100 features state-of-the-art avionics, fly-by-wire controls, unmatched aerodynamics, a new PD-8 engine, wingtip vertical winglets, and lower fuel burn.
SJ-100 Development History
In 2000, Russia’s Sukhoi started development of the country’s first airliner—the Sukhoi Superjet SJ-100. The pace of development of the regional jet was impressive: the SJ-100 made its maiden flight on May 19, 2008, and its first commercial flight on April 21, 2011.
The aircraft was powered by two 77–79 kN PowerJet SaM146 turbofans developed by a joint venture between French Safran and Russian NPO Saturn. It typically seated 87 to 98 passengers.
Western Sanctions
In early 2022, the US and its Western allies imposed sanctions that brought collaboration between Russian and Western commercial aviation entities to a complete halt. The intent was to derail Russian commercial aviation. It didn’t work.
Russia’s partly revived industry immediately hunkered down to continue development and production of the SJ-100 regional airliner and the MS-21 medium-haul airliner. An immediate decision was taken to substitute Western engines and airframe components in the two aircraft with domestically developed analogs.
On April 7, 2022, Russia’s Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, directed that the substitution of domestic assemblies be completed within 2–3 years, with the percentage of domestic components in the MS-21 reaching 97% by 2022–2024, making it independent of imported equipment.
Domestic Power Plant
With considerable foresight, the Russian leadership had already initiated development of state-of-the-art commercial aircraft engines.
In 2010, Russia’s Aviadvigatel started development of the PD-14 high-bypass turbofan engine to power the MS-21 airliner. The PD-14 was conceived as a successor to the PS-90 (which powers IAF Il-76 airlifters), and Aviadvigatel developed it as an “engine core” around which it would build other lower- or higher-thrust engines for use by Russia’s new-generation commercial airliners.
The “engine core” alludes to critical hot parts such as the high-pressure compressor, combustor, and turbine.
The letters “PD” stand for forward-looking engine, while the number 14 represents the 14-ton thrust of the engine in its basic configuration. PD-14 variants will feature thrust ranging from 8 to 18 tons.
The PD-14 is the first engine in Russia created digitally from scratch, using paperless 3D design modelling. Aviadvigatel first developed a digital twin of the engine, based on an electronic database of engineering calculations and material characteristics. The digital twin supports engine production, bench and flight tests, as well as the development of operational documents.
The PD-8 variant of the PD family was developed to power the SJ-100, replacing the PowerJet SaM146.
The imposition of Western sanctions prompted Russia to accelerate development of the PD-14 and PD-8 engines.
The airframe of the SJ-100 had to be tweaked to accommodate the PD-8 engine.
The SJ-100 made its first flight with the Russian PD-8 engine in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur on March 17, 2025.
The MS-21 with PD-14 engines and the SJ-100 with PD-8 engines are both currently undergoing certification trials. Series production for both, with the new all-Russian engines, is expected to start in 2026.
The PD-14 powered variant of the MS-21 is referred to as MS-21-310, and the SJ-100 with the PD-8 engine is sometimes referred to as SSJ-NEW.
Conclusion
The revival of the Russian commercial aviation industry presents Make-in-India tie-up opportunities for India. New Russian airliners are now completely Russian and technologically at par with Western analogs.
Domestic air travel in India is surging. The time is ripe for the Indian civil aviation manufacturing industry to venture into production of domestic airliners.
Under its tie-up with UAC, HAL will have the rights to manufacture SJ-100 aircraft for domestic customers.
UAC is confident that HAL will be off to a flying start with local production of the SJ-100 because of its experience producing the Su-30MKI aircraft.
In August 2023, United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) CEO Yuri Slyusar spoke with the “Russia-24” television channel about the proposed tie-up.
“We still believe that under the import licence at the HAL factory, which produces combat aircraft for the Indian Air Force—where they manufacture Su-30 aircraft, with over 270 aircraft made there—it is indeed a significant base with trained personnel, equipment, and refined processes. We could start producing SJ-100 aircraft for the Indian market there in a fairly short period of time.”
This will also be the second instance in which a complete passenger aircraft will be produced in India. The last such project was HAL’s production of the Avro HS-748, which started in 1961 and ended in 1988.
Copyright © Vijainder K Thakur. First published on Thumkar.
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