A Volga-Dnepr Airlines’ An-124-100 freighter has transported a Sukhoi Superjet 100 fuselage, as well as the aircraft’s wings and tail section, from Komsomolsk-na-Amure in Khabarovsk Krai to Zhukovsky, southeast of Moscow – a distance of some 8,000 kilometres.
The flight carried the detached airframe parts of an extended range and upgraded version of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft. The 33-tonne cargo was loaded and offloaded using the An-124’s onboard cranes and auxiliary loading equipment.
In Zhukovsky, the Superjet 100 is conducting service life tests, which are required to confirm the design service life of the airframe structure up to 70,000 flight hours and 54,000 cycles.
This is not the first time Volga-Dnepr has been contracted to move a Sukhoi Superjet 100 for service life testing. In November 2008, one of its An-124 freighters delivered SSJ100 airframe t/n 95006 from Komsomolsk-na-Amure to Novosibirsk.
