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Habibie’s new plane to start production in 2024
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A miniature of the R80 plane displayed at the Creative Economy Agency Habibie Festival 2017 at JIEXPO Kemayoran in Central Java on Aug. 7.
(kompas.com/Kristian Erdianto)
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T Regio Aviasi Industri (RAI), a company founded by former president B.J. Habibie and his son Ilham Habibie, will produce 80-seat passenger planes -- R80 planes -- in 2024.
The plane is designed by Indonesia’s third president.
RAI president director Agung Nugroho said in Jakarta on Thursday that currently the plane was in the phase of preliminary design and would be continued with full-scale development.
“We will develop the planes at full scale. They will be tested both in the air and on the land. We will construct four planes – two for flight tests and the two others are for land tests,” said Agung as reported by kompas.com.
Read also: Indonesian N219 aircraft succeeds in first test flightAfter the completion of the prototypes, Agung added, his company would seek certificates from the Transportation Ministry before entering into mass production.
“We need about six years to make the planes fly. Then the planes will go through various tests for about two years. We can start selling the planes in 2025,” said Agung.
He said the planes, for the time being, would be constructed at a factory owned by state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia.
The company is currently preparing a facility located near the Kertajadi International Airport in West Java.
He said four airline companies had expressed interest in buying the R80 places. They are Kalstar, Nam Air, Trigana Air and Aviastar. (bbn)
