Irkut has commenced testing of a domestically-built inertial navigation system which will feature on a modified version of the Superjet 100.
The system – known as the BINS-2015 – is intended to replace the foreign-supplied equipment used on serial Superjet aircraft.
Irkut, which has absorbed the Sukhoi civil aviation division that manufacturers the type, is conducting the tests as part of a broad programme of import substitution to increase Russian industrial involvement in aviation.
Specialist electronics technology company KRET is providing the BINS-2015 which has been fitted to a Superjet prototype aircraft for flight tests.
The work is being carried out in connection with the ‘SSJ New’ programme which will modify the Superjet to produce a ‘Russified’ version with a greater proportion of domestically-produced systems.
Irkut regional aircraft deputy development director Andrei Nedosekin says the inertial navigation system – which uses precision accelerometers and laser gyroscopes – has a capability “not inferior” to that of its foreign-built competitor.
Superjet 100s are currently fitted with the Honeywell Laseref V inertial navigation system.
KRET first deputy general director Vladimir Zverev says the Russian developer’s equipment is “currently being tested in the air”.
