ANKARA, September 15. /TASS/. A Russian Su-35 multirole fighter jet and a Be-200 amphibious plane performed test flights over Istanbul on Sunday, Anadolu Agency reported.

The Russian planes arrived to Turkey’s biggest city to take part in Turkey’s first aerospace and technology festival Teknofest on September 17-22. According to Anadolu Agency, the Su-35 was performing aerobatic maneuvers for 15 minutes. The Be-200 demonstrated firefighting maneuvers.

A source in the aircraft building industry told TASS earlier that Russia planned to send a Su-35 fighter jet to the festival in Turkey as the latter had demonstrated interest to that aircraft.

The source also said that along with the Su-25 and Be-200 it was planned to exhibit an MC-21 and a Sukhoi Superjet 100 planes.

A spokesman for Russia’s Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation said on the sidelines of the MAKS-2019 aerospace show that Russia and Turkey were negotiating a possible contract for Russian Su-35 and Su-57 fighter jets. Later, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he did not rule out possible purchase of these Russian aircraft instead of American F-35 fighter jets.

The Su-35S is a heavily upgraded generation 4++ supermaneuverable multipurpose fighter jet developed on the basis of fifth-generation technologies. The Su-35S is distinguished by its new avionics suite based on the information control system, the new radar, plasma ignition engines of the increased capacity and thrust vectoring. These engines meet the requirements for the powerplant of fifth-generation fighters as they allow developing supersonic speed without using an afterburner.

The Su-35S supersonic fighter jet performed its debut flight on February 19, 2008. The fighter jet is a derivative of the Su-27 plane. The Su-35S weighs 19 tonnes, has a service ceiling of 20,000 meters, can develop a maximum speed of 2,500 km/h and has a crew of one pilot. The fighter jet’s armament includes a 30mm aircraft gun, up to 8 tonnes of the weapon payload (missiles and bombs of various types) on 12 underwing hardpoints. The Su-35S has been in service with the Russian Army since 2015.