EASA “Certification” for Sukhoi Su-26; 29 and 31

Background

Please see our separate document European Registration and Airworthiness Issues, which gives the background to recent developments and the current position of EASA.  

The issues relating to Sukhoi are somewhat complex, and do, to a certain extent, vary according to which Sukhoi.  

The Su-26 was not intended to be Type-Certificated, although Su-29 and Su-31 were designed with Certification in mind, and, indeed, both types have been fully certificated to the Russian AR23 Code, which is paragraph for paragraph identical to the European JAR23. 

However there are no bilateral agreements between Russia and Western European countries, as there are between, for example the USA and Europe, so these Russian Certifications were not automatically transferred to JAR certifications.

However the Su-29 went through a process of Full Type Certification to a Western standard with the Hungarian CAA, and for the last five years, most Su-29 aircraft, and indeed most Yak-18T aircraft, which is in a similar position, had been flying with Normal category Hungarian Certificates of Airworthiness.    This system has worked well without problems. 

The advent of EASA

EASA has the mandate of co-coordinating all aviation issues within Europe , and began with the aim of having as many aircraft types as possible Fully Certificated with EASA, which would mean that they would then have Normal category EASA Certificates of Airworthiness. 

However, in order for an aircraft to have Full Certification, its manufacturer must undertake to continue to support the type.  Without this support, an aircraft type can only receive a Restricted Category Certificate of Airworthiness.

It has now become clear that Sukhoi and Yakovlev have decided not to officially support their products within Western Europe , and our view is that this is probably not a bad decision from the owner’s point of view. 

At one level it would be nice to have Normal Category EASA Certificates of Airworthiness without any restrictions at all, and indeed EASA had said that they would allow these types to go through an abbreviated process of EASA Certification, given that they had clearly been certificated to a high standard albeit different in the past.

The current position:

• EASA has therefore put all Sukhois, together with Yak-18T; Yak-55 and Yak-55M into the category of aircraft, which are being given EASA Permits to Fly.   These are international documents, valid throughout Europe, and, this far, with the only restriction that the aircraft cannot be used commercially to fly passengers from one airport to another – i.e. pleasure flying, aerobatic demonstrations etc can be done, but not transportation.
• For the Sukhois, there are further restrictions in terms of days/VFR only, but these are not issues that, will, in any way, affect the operation of these aircraft. 
• For the 18T, we understand that the aircraft will be allowed to fly IFR; at night etc, with the sole restriction being that of commercial use (above).

• EASA Permits to Fly have been issued in a variety of countries including  Finland , Germany , Hungary , Lithuania and the UK , and it is assumed that this will extend to most European countries where these aircraft are flying.

March 2008