New Russian fighter jet due by year-end

KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR , Russia, May 11 (UPI) -- Russia's fifth-generation jet fighter will undergo its first test flights by the end of the year, military officials said Monday.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters after a shipbuilding meeting in the Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur that full-scale production of the advanced multi-role fighter will start in 2010, RIA Novosti reported.

"By the end of this year, the plane will rise into the air and flight tests will begin," Ivanov said.

The first prototype of the fighter, being developed by the Sukhoi aircraft maker, is scheduled to make its maiden flight before the end of 2009, the news agency said.