Editor’s Note: For the first time in the history of Russian aviation, a privately-designed and produced aircraft capable of outperforming its state-designed counterparts has been unveiled. The SR-10 light trainer plane is expected to go into production in 2017 and was designed to compete with the Yak-130. Interestingly enough, being developed at the same time is an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) based on the SR-10 airframe.

The SR-10 light dual-pilot jet trainer aircraft caused a sensation when it first took to the Russian skies in late December 2015. For the first time in Russian aviation, a private design bureau had created a plane – from scratch, without public financial support – which can edge out aircraft produced by the aviation industry’s big guns in the markets.

The trainer aircraft SR-10, fully assembled from domestic components, is proposed to be an intermediate trainer between the light Yak-152, which is designed for the basic flight training of military pilots, and the trainer/attack aircraft Yak-130. This niche is now occupied by the Czech L-39.

“The Russian air force needs an easy, simple and inexpensive jet trainer to replace the L-39 fleet, and the Russian military are showing interest in the SR-10 project,” said Maxim Mironov, director of the Modern Aviation Technologies Design Bureau, in an interview with the industry website AviaPort.

Developed by the private design bureau in Moscow and built by aircraft manufacturers at a factory in Makhachkala in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan (for which it received the nickname of “Dagestani”), the SR-10 is a single-engine jet aircraft, fitted with a single forward-swept wing, allowing for excellent maneuverability.

The article at Russia Beyond The Headlines can be viewed in its entirety here.

(Featured photo courtesy of Sputnik News)