Article Posted on : - May 12, 2009

Russia fifth-generation fighter on test. A File Photo

KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR (BNS): Flight tests of a fifth-generation fighter will start in Russia by the end of 2009, Russian deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov has said.

"By the end of this year, the plane will rise into the air and flight tests will begin, serial production will start in 2010,� Ria Novosti quoted the deputy prime minister as saying on Monday.

Russia's advanced fifth-generation fighter aircraft is being developed by the Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer, part of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), along with India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), under a preliminary intergovernmental agreement signed in October 2007.

Three prototypes of the aircraft are being produced in the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft-building plant (KNAAPO) in Russia's Far East.