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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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121189
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12118900.017
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1990-09-22
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BUSINESS, Page 79Business NotesAEROSPACESoviet Wings, Capitalist Tool
The partnership would have been unthinkable a few years ago.
Sukhoi, the Soviet maker of military planes, and Gulfstream, the
most prestigious name in U.S. corporate jets, are making tentative
plans to build a supersonic business aircraft. In a $1 billion
project, the two manufacturers hope to produce a jet that will fly
at 1,500 m.p.h., twice the speed of sound, and carry as many as 20
passengers over a range of more than 5,600 miles. The plane would
sell for about $50 million.
The project is still in the design stage and faces abundant
obstacles, including concerns about the effect of sonic booms on
the environment and the licensing of advanced U.S. technology to
the Soviets. But the partners plan to have detailed designs ready
within a few weeks and hope to fly the plane by 1995. Sukhoi will
have prime responsibility for the airframe; Gulfstream will
concentrate on electronics and cockpit design; and Rolls-Royce has
been enlisted to help design the plane's engines.