A company founded by former Indonesian president B.J. Habibie and son Ilham Habibie is set to produce 80-seat passenger planes in 2024. The planes are designed by President Habibie.
PT Regio Aviasi Industry’s (RAI) production of the planes is still in the preliminary design phase. “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 RAI President Director Agung Nugroho, as reported by kompas.com.
He explained that before manufacturing the planes en masse, the company would need to complete prototype production and seek the requisite certificates from the Transportation Ministry. Agung added that the initial construction of the plane would be done at a factory owned by state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia.
Four airline companies Kalstar, Nam Air, Trigana Air and Aviastar, have already expressed interest in buying the R80 planes.
Featured image by The Jakarta Observer.