NBAA: The Russians Are Coming

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SuperJet International will be among the prominent presenters as the National Business Aviation Association convention gets under way next week in Las Vegas. The company will be promoting a business version of the SuperJet regional airliner it is building as a joint venture between Russia’s Sukhoi and Italy’s Alenia. The SuperJet business variant was announced earlier this year and NBAA is the first North American exposure to the product. It’s an example of the globalization of the bizjet industry where countries like Russia and China used to come shopping but are now coming to sell. Two Chinese organizations are also on the agenda for NBAA, including aircraft sales and brokerage firm China Business Aviation Group and China Civil Aviation Report, a magazine devoted to non-military flying in the country. Cessna may be the only company with a truly new aircraft to introduce at NBAA.

As we reported in September, the company announced the Citation M2, which is a bit bigger than a Mustang but about $3 million cheaper than the least expensive CJ. Cessna will have a mockup on display and perhaps flesh out more details on the project. Updating old designs remains in vogue and Falco will unveil the fifth and last interior design for the Avro business jet, a new use for the Bae 146 regional airliner. A revamped version of the Beechjet 400 with new engines and avionics, called the Nextant 400XT, will also be on display. More than 1,000 exhibitors and 25,000 attendees are expected.

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