The United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) plans to start testing the SSJ NEW aircraft with Russian PD-8 engines in the fall, said Yuri Slyusar, General Director of the UAC, as part of SPIEF 2023. At the same time, according to him, the UAC is already beginning to receive engines for their subsequent installation on aircraft. PD-8 engines should replace the Russian-French SaM146, which are currently in use. This is reported by TASS.

"We have come to the final stage of preparing the first flight [SSJ NEW], namely, the transfer of the aircraft to the flight test station. <...> Russian systems have already been installed on this aircraft, but the PD-8 engine is still being tested in parallel at a flying laboratory. We are just starting to receive Russian engines for installation on the second prototype. Therefore, we will start flights with a French engine for now. The second aircraft, which we will connect to the tests in the fall, will be with Russian engines," he said.

In early June, Rostec announced that the first prototype of the SSJ NEW airliner had been transferred to the flight test station. Also, the first refueling of the aircraft took place, the specialists of the Irkut Corporation (the manufacturer of the aircraft) began ground testing of new aircraft systems.