The Ilyushin Il-86 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-86;
NATO reporting name
NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...
: Camber) is a short- to medium-
range
Range may refer to:
Geography
* Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra)
** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands
* Range, a term used to i ...
wide-body
A wide-body aircraft, also known as a twin-aisle aircraft, is an airliner with a fuselage wide enough to accommodate two passenger aisles with seven or more seats abreast. The typical fuselage diameter is . In the typical wide-body economy cabin ...
jet airliner
A jet airliner or jetliner is an airliner powered by jet engines (passenger jet aircraft). Airliners usually have two or four jet engines; three-engined designs were popular in the 1970s but are less common today. Airliners are commonly clas ...
that served as the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
's first wide-bodied aircraft. Designed and tested by the
Ilyushin
The public joint stock company Ilyushin Aviation Complex, operating as Ilyushin (russian: Илью́шин) or as Ilyushin Design Bureau, is a former Soviet and now a Russian aircraft manufacturer and design bureau, founded in 1933 by Sergey Vl ...
design bureau in the 1970s, it was certified by the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
aircraft industry, manufactured and marketed by the USSR.
Developed during the
rule
Rule or ruling may refer to:
Education
* Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), a university in Cambodia
Human activity
* The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power
* Business rule, a rule perta ...
of
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gener ...
, the Il-86 was marked by the
economic and technological stagnation of the era: it used engines more typical of the late 1960s, spent a decade in development, and failed to enter service in time for the
Moscow Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...
, as was originally intended. The type was used by
Aeroflot
PJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines (russian: ПАО "Аэрофло́т — Росси́йские авиали́нии", ), commonly known as Aeroflot ( or ; russian: Аэрофлот, , ), is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. The ...
and successor
post-Soviet
The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
airlines and only three of the total 106 constructed were exported.
At the beginning of 2012, only four Il-86s remained in service, all with the
Russian Air Force
" Air March"
, mascot =
, anniversaries = 12 August
, equipment =
, equipment_label =
, battles =
, decorations =
, bat ...
. By the end of 2020 the number in active service was reduced to three.
Development
Background
In the mid-1960s, the United States and
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
planned airliners seating twice the then-maximum of some 200 passengers. They were known as ''airbuses'' at the time. The Soviet leadership wanted to match them with an ''aerobus'' (russian: аэробус). Alongside the propaganda motive, the USSR genuinely needed an ''aerobus''. Aeroflot expected over 100 million passengers a year within a decade (the 100th million annual passenger was indeed carried on 29 December 1976.)
First to respond was
OKB-153
Antonov State Enterprise ( uk, Державне підприємство «Антонов»), formerly the Aeronautical Scientific-Technical Complex named after Antonov (Antonov ASTC) ( uk, Авіаційний науково-технічни ...
, the bureau led by
Oleg Antonov. It proposed a 724-seat version of the
An-22
The Antonov An-22 "Antei" (, ''An-22 Antej''; English ''Antaeus'') (NATO reporting name "Cock") is a heavy military transport aircraft designed by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Powered by four turboprop engines each driving a pa ...
airlifter. The project was promoted until 1969, ultimately with a 605-passenger interior (383 on the upper deck and 223 on the lower). It did not go ahead due to fears that it would be old-fashioned and because the
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
-based bureau was close to the deposed
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
.
Concept
![Aeroflot-Don Ilyushin Il-86 passenger cabin Kustov](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Aeroflot-Don_Ilyushin_Il-86_passenger_cabin_Kustov.jpg)
Many airports had terminals too small for "aerobuses". In the West, the solution to this involved constructing greater airport capacity. By contrast, Soviet aviation research institutes addressed ways of increasing passenger throughput without the need for additional airport capacity.
Many Soviet airports also had surfaces too weak for "aerobuses". The Soviet solution again favoured adapting aircraft to existing conditions, rather than reconstructing airports. The ''aerobus'' thus had to match the ground loadings of existing airliners. This called for complex multi-wheel
landing gear
Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...
.
The Soviet solution to the airport capacity issue involved passengers loading and unloading their own luggage into and from the aircraft. This was eventually called "the luggage at hand system" (russian: "система «багаж с собой»";
transliterated
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or ...
: ''"sistyema bagazh s soboy"''). Soviet aviation journalist Kim Bakshmi described it (at its ultimate) thus: "One arrives five minutes prior to departure, buys oneself a ticket on board the aircraft, hangs one's coat next to the seat and places one's bag or suitcase nearby.".
Taking suitcases into the cabin, as in trains, was studied, but necessitated a 3 m fuselage extension with a 350-seat capacity.
To avoid this, passengers were to deposit their luggage in underfloor compartments as they entered the airliner.
![Pulkovo Ilyushin Il-86](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Pulkovo_Ilyushin_Il-86.jpg)
Ideas similar to the "luggage at hand system" were briefly addressed in the West.
Airbus
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...
studied such an arrangement in the mid-1970s.
Lockheed implemented it into the
L-1011 TriStar
The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, also known as the L-1011 (pronounced "El-ten-eleven") and TriStar, is an American medium-to-long-range, wide-body trijet airliner built by the Lockheed Corporation. It was the third wide-body airliner to enter comme ...
in 1973 at the request of
Pacific Southwest Airlines
Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was a regional U.S. airline headquartered in San Diego, California, that operated from 1949 to 1998. It was the first large discount airline in the United States. PSA called itself "The World's Friendliest Airl ...
(who used the baggage compartment as an entertainment lounge) and possibly also to suit potential Soviet buyers (see below).
In October 1967, the Soviet government approved a Ministry of Civil Aviation (Aeroflot) specification for an ''aerobus''. This called for 350 seats and a range of 3,600 km (1,900
nmis) with a 40-
tonne
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
payload or 5,800 km/3,100 nmi with seats taken but no freight. The airliner had to operate from smaller airports (classified as ''Klass "B"'' and ''"V"''
ussian: класс "Б", "В"or "Class B/C" by the Soviets) 2,600 m (8,500
ft) runways.
In the second half of the 1960s, OKB-240 (as the Ilyushin bureau was formally known) was restoring positions lost (with Yakovlev, in favour of Tupolev and Antonov) during the Khrushchev era and was well placed to secure design of the ''aerobus''. When the Soviet cabinet's defence industry committee promoted the Aeroflot specification on September 8, 1969 to a preliminary project, (Russian: аванпроект; transliterated: ''avanproyekt''), it entrusted it to Ilyushin. The bureau received specific operational requirements for the ''aerobus'' on February 22, 1970.
In developing the concept which had been agreed, Ilyushin faced four challenges: configuration (layout or "shape"), powerplant, automation (avionics) and manufacturing capacity.
Conceptual development
Ilyushin began work on the ''aerobus'' in late 1969, initially by assessing the development potential of existing aircraft. An enlarged
Il-62
The Ilyushin Il-62 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-62; NATO reporting name: Classic) is a Soviet long-range narrow-body jetliner conceived in 1960 by Ilyushin. As successor to the popular turboprop Il-18 and with capacity for almost 200 pas ...
(the Il-62-250) would have had a 30-tonne payload, 259 seats and a 6.8 metre/22 ft longer
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...
:
a virtual
analogue of the
Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
* Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
*Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...
DC-8
The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is a long-range narrow-body airliner built by the American Douglas Aircraft Company.
After losing the May 1954 US Air Force tanker competition to the Boeing KC-135, Douglas announced in Ju ...
"Super Sixty" series. Other proposed Il-62 modifications involved double-deck and "two fuselages side-by-side" developments. There was also a project to "civilianise" the
Il-76
The Ilyushin Il-76 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-76; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau. It was first planned as a comme ...
.
From March 1970 the bureau developed all-new designs under the Il-86 designation. Instead of the "
appropriate technology
Appropriate technology is a movement (and its manifestations) encompassing technological choice and application that is small-scale, affordable by locals, decentralized, labor-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally sustainable, and locally ...
" approach of the Il-62, these designs were to have powered controls, complex
high-lift device
In aircraft design and aerospace engineering, a high-lift device is a component or mechanism on an aircraft's wing that increases the amount of lift (force), lift produced by the wing. The device may be a fixed component, or a movable mechanism w ...
s and advanced automation which would reduce the number of
flightdeck crew.
An early ''avanproyekt'' was shown to the Soviet leadership at an exhibition of civil aviation innovations at
Vnukovo-2 Airport near Moscow on May 17, 1971. A scale model with the designation of "Il-86" showed the "self-loading" concept with integral boarding stairs, below-deck luggage stores, and below-deck midships
galley
A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...
. It had a twin-aisle interior with nine-abreast seating in a "3–3–3" layout. Ilyushin considered it politic to make the interior wider than any planned airliner except the Boeing 747. The 6.07 m (19.9 ft) fuselage diameter was partly dictated by the need to provide standing room in the underfloor luggage compartments. The Il-86 had the second-widest fuselage of any airliner until the
Boeing 777
The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet.
The 777 was designed to bridge the gap betw ...
.
On this basis, on 9 March 1972, the bureau was asked to proceed with detailed design. The difference between the 1971 model and the eventual Il-86 was in configuration: the model had looked like an Il-62. At that time, the Central Aero and Hydrodynamics Institute (
TsAGI
The Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (also (Zhukovsky) Central Institute of Aerodynamics, russian: Центра́льный аэрогидродинами́ческий институ́т, ЦАГИ, Tsentral'nyy Aerogidrodinamicheskiy Institut, ...
) favoured the clean-winged, rear-engined, T-tailed configuration for airliners. The
BAC Three-Eleven
The BAC Two-Eleven and BAC Three-Eleven were pair of proposals for British airliners that were produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) during the late 1960s. The projects had emerged from design studies which had been aimed at co ...
and
BAC
BAC or Bac may refer to:
Places
* Bac, Rožaje, Bac, a village in Montenegro
* Baile Átha Cliath, Irish language name for Dublin city.
* Bîc River, aka ''Bâc River'', a Moldovan river
* Baç Bridge, bridge in Turkey
* Barnes County Municipal A ...
/
CASA/
MBB Europlane projects had similar configurations.
The configuration of
heavy
Heavy may refer to:
Measures
* Heavy (aeronautics), a term used by pilots and air traffic controllers to refer to aircraft capable of 300,000 lbs or more takeoff weight
* Heavy, a characterization of objects with substantial weight
* Heavy, ...
jet aircraft was a politically sensitive issue in the USSR. Aircraft designer
Leonid Selyakov states this of the underwing-engine US-pioneered layout which gradually became standard for jet airliners: "The configuration of the
В-47, taken on strength by the
US Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
... brought forth a veritable storm of critical opinions from
ovietaviation scientists. Responsible TsAGI officials and industry leaders robustly called that aircraft 'utter nonsense' (similar opinions were expressed of the Boeing 747)."
Similar controversies were known in Western aeronautical circles but this Soviet approach showed a typical streak of
dogma
Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...
tism which held that problems had immutable,
"scientifically correct" solutions. However, not all Soviet aviation engineers were so fixed in their ideas, and the configuration issue figured prominently in a remarkable meeting held discreetly in Paris in the late 1960s between Boeing engineers (notably
Joe Sutter
Joseph Frederick Sutter (March 21, 1921 – August 30, 2016) was an American engineer for the Boeing Airplane Company and manager of the design team for the Boeing 747 under Malcolm T. Stamper, the head of the 747 project. '' Air & Space/Sm ...
, chief project engineer for the 747, and Bob Withington, a senior engineer who was deeply involved in the SST program) and some of their Soviet counterparts. This meeting had been approved at the highest levels of both governments because each side had something the other wanted very badly: the Soviets wanted to know exactly why Boeing had put the 747 engines in under-wing pods instead of at the rear of the fuselage, while Withington and the Boeing engineers had a long list of questions about the processing and use of titanium in airframes (at the time Boeing badly needed this for their proposed
Boeing 2707
The Boeing 2707 was an American supersonic passenger airliner project during the 1960s. After winning a competition for a government-funded contract to build an American supersonic airliner, Boeing began development at its facilities in Seattl ...
SST, at Mach 3 too fast and hot for Concorde-style aluminium, and the Soviets then led the world in titanium technology). According to Sutter's account, both sides left the meeting well satisfied with the exchange of information.
It seems (again according to Sutter's account of the aftermath) that this meeting may have made a real difference to Soviet aircraft design, but Boeing's contribution could naturally not be acknowledged publicly by the Soviet side. Ilyushin therefore had to stress that it had been the first in the world to use podded engines suspended from pylons beneath and ahead of the wing, on the experimental
Ilyushin Il-22
The Ilyushin Il-22, USAF/ DOD designation Type 10,Parsch, Andreas and Aleksey V. Martynov"Designations of Soviet and Russian Military Aircraft and Missiles."''designation-systems.net,'' 2008. Retrieved: 21 August 2011. was the first Soviet jet- ...
four-engined jet bomber of 1946 (first use of this designation). Having thus presented the Il-86's ultimate configuration as indigenously Soviet, the bureau could at last show it in public in 1973, six years after publication of the ''aerobus'' specification and four years after the design assignment. A modern six-window flightdeck followed, in place of the 18-to-20 window glazing of the
Il-18, Il-62 and Il-76.
The main problem facing the Il-86 project was the lack of a suitable engine. It was never resolved. By the close of the 1960s, the US and the
UK had
turbofans
The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which achieves mechani ...
with
bypass ratio
The bypass ratio (BPR) of a turbofan engine is the ratio between the mass flow rate of the bypass stream to the mass flow rate entering the core. A 10:1 bypass ratio, for example, means that 10 kg of air passes through the bypass duct for ev ...
s of 4 or 5 to 1. The first Soviet large turbofan, the
Lotarev D-18T, did not appear before the mid-1980s. The
Soloviev D-30
The Soloviev D-30 (now the Aviadvigatel PS-30) is a Soviet two-shaft low-bypass turbofan engine, officially referred to as a "bypass turbojet". It is probably the single most important turbofan engine developed in the Soviet Union. Development o ...
, originally intended for the Il-86, was the most advanced Soviet civil
aeroengine
An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...
. It had a bypass ratio of 2.4 to 1 and aerodynamic clamshell
thrust reversers
Thrust reversal, also called reverse thrust, is the temporary diversion of an aircraft engine's thrust for it to act against the forward travel of the aircraft, providing deceleration. Thrust reverser systems are featured on many jet aircraft to ...
. It failed to attain the required thrust, however: "only after the lapse of three years that were spent on preparing the advanced development project did it become clear that these engines would not provide the necessary take-off performance." The less-advanced
Kuznetsov NK-8
The NK-8 was a low-bypass turbofan engine built by the Kuznetsov Design Bureau, in the thrust class. It powered production models of the Ilyushin Il-62 and the Tupolev Tu-154A and B models.
Variants
;NK-8-2: (Tupolev Tu-154)
;NK-8-2U: (Tupo ...
series engine, adopted on March 26, 1975, had a bypass ratio of 1.15 to 1 and drag-inducing grilles over its cascade thrust reversers. Both these engines had high
specific fuel consumptions and were
noisy. Being ultimate developments of smaller engines, they could not offer growth to future Il-86s.
The appropriate/intermediate technology principles to which most Soviet airliners before the Il-86 had been designed meant that they had typically five-member flight crews. The design and entry into service in 1972 of the
Tu-154
The Tupolev Tu-154 (russian: Tyполев Ту-154; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian ...
, an airliner built to
high tech
High technology (high tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or the newest te ...
nology principles (more automation, less human input), showed that Soviet science lagged behind in the development of avionics which would remove the need for navigators and radio operators. A programme of avionics development was mounted to enable the Il-86 to operate in most weather with a three-member flight crew, matching Western technology of the time.
The shortage of manufacturing facilities for the Il-86 was a problem from the outset: "The rapid modernisation of the Soviet Air Force ... has left limited scope for the expansion of commercial production ... the lack of production capacity is being remedied partly by ... international cooperation."
["Russia's New Long-Hauler," ''Flight International'' August 20, 1977, p 524.] This meant involving the Polish aircraft industry in the project.
Interest in foreign technology
![Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-86 Shannon Airport Gupta](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Aeroflot_Ilyushin_Il-86_Shannon_Airport_Gupta.jpg)
The Soviets tried to import technology to solve the issues with the powerplant, avionics and manufacturing capacity. The attempts took two directions. First was wholesale
technology transfer
Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...
similar to the
Li-2
The Lisunov Li-2 (NATO reporting name: Cab), originally designated PS-84, was a license-built Soviet-version of the Douglas DC-3. It was produced by Factory #84 in Moscow-Khimki and, after evacuation in 1941, at TAPO in Tashkent. The proj ...
deal of the 1930s. This would have delayed Il-86 development, since the programme would have been demoted to a reserve status. The second direction was to import individual systems and items. This would have speeded Il-86 development. The fact that Il-86 development was protracted indicates that for long periods the programme was pursued as backup insurance in case wholesale technology transfer failed.
Before the
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022.
After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...
had flown, a Ministry of Civil Aviation delegation visited the United States for a series of detailed sales presentations on the type lasting three days. At the 1971 Paris Salon, Ilyushin bureau head
Genrikh Novozhilov
Genrikh Vasilevich Novozhilov (; 27 October 1925 – 28 April 2019) was a Soviet and Russian aircraft designer. He was a key designer of multiple Ilyushin passenger aircraft including the Il-18, Il-62, Il-76, and Il-96.
Family and early lif ...
and Boeing's
Joe Sutter
Joseph Frederick Sutter (March 21, 1921 – August 30, 2016) was an American engineer for the Boeing Airplane Company and manager of the design team for the Boeing 747 under Malcolm T. Stamper, the head of the 747 project. '' Air & Space/Sm ...
are claimed to have arranged an informal technology
trade-off
A trade-off (or tradeoff) is a situational decision that involves diminishing or losing one quality, quantity, or property of a set or design in return for gains in other aspects. In simple terms, a tradeoff is where one thing increases, and anot ...
. Over supper in a
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
restaurant, the Soviet side ceded information on
titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...
technology to the Americans, while the latter, "sketching on the tablecloth," ceded information on pylon-mounted podded engines and "the structural and aerodynamic amity of the
aeroelastic wing." Soviet interest in buying the 747s continued until the end of
détente
Détente (, French: "relaxation") is the relaxation of strained relations, especially political ones, through verbal communication. The term, in diplomacy, originates from around 1912, when France and Germany tried unsuccessfully to reduce ...
in the late 1970s.
At the peak of ''détente'', on March 11, 1974, a
Lockheed L-1011 TriStar arrived in Moscow for three days of sales presentations and demonstrations. The TriStar matched the Il-86 in size and performance and had development potential. Negotiations to buy 30 TriStars of the L-1011-385-250 version and licence-produce up to 100 a year in a new factory employing 80,000 people
continued until mid-1976. Any residual will to export TriStars was scotched when US President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
made human rights a
US foreign policy
The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...
factor. TriStar exports would have needed
Coordinating Committee clearance: the type embodied advanced technology banned from potential enemies. In 1978, the US Department of Commerce vetoed export of 12
General Electric CF6-50
The General Electric CF6, US military designations F103 and F138, is a family of high-bypass turbofan engines produced by GE Aviation. Based on the TF39, the first high-power high-bypass jet engine, the CF6 powers a wide variety of civilian a ...
engines ordered by the USSR for planned long-range Il-86s.
By analogy with other aircraft programmes, a third direction in the efforts to acquire foreign technology may have involved illicit action along the lines of the
reverse engineering
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...
of the
Tu-4
The Tupolev Tu-4 (russian: Туполев Ту-4; NATO reporting name: Bull) is a piston-engined Soviet strategic bomber that served the Soviet Air Force from the late 1940s to mid-1960s. It was reverse-engineered from the American Boeing B-29 ...
from the
B-29 and the copying of the
Rolls-Royce Nene
The Rolls-Royce RB.41 Nene is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine. The Nene was a complete redesign, rather than a scaled-up Rolls-Royce Derwent"Rolls-Royce Aero Engines" Bill Gunston, Patrick Stephens Limited 1989, , p.111 w ...
jet engine as the
Klimov VK-1
The Klimov VK-1 was the first Soviet jet engine to see significant production. It was developed by and first produced by the GAZ 116 works. Derived from the Rolls-Royce Nene, the engine was also built under licence in China as the Wopen WP-5. ...
. Oblique reference to this comes in an account of the An-124 by the then-powerplant head of the Antonov bureau, V. G. Anisyenko: "The MAP leadership wanted to have a uniform large engine also capable of civil aviation applications, such as the Il-86. The most suitable analogue from this viewpoint was considered to be the
Rolls-Royce RB.211-22. To purchase it, in 1976 a MAP procurement party went to Great Britain, headed by engine construction deputy minister Dondukov ... Our ultimate task was to copy the RB.211-22, for which purpose we had to buy not fewer than eight examples ... The English ... would only sell us the engine in quantities ... to power no fewer than 100 aircraft. As a result, we did not get a sample ... "
Design, testing, and certification
![Il-86 Soviet stamp](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Il-86_Soviet_stamp.jpg)
The design process at Ilyushin was managed by Sergey Ilyushin's successor as head of the bureau, Genrikh Novozhilov. The timescale announced in 1973 envisaged first flight in 1976 and service entry in time for the
Moscow Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...
in 1980.
The prototype flew at
Khodynka airfield (where Ilyushin's experimental factory was) on December 22, 1976 (Soviet airliners often flew before the close of calendar years to meet the requirements of
five-year plans). It was announced that the type had a patented electromagnetic pulse
deicing
Deicing is the process of removing snow, ice or frost from a surface. Anti-icing is the application of chemicals that not only deice but also remain on a surface and continue to delay the reformation of ice for a certain period of time, or prev ...
system. which used 500 times less energy than conventional deicers. It is claimed that over 50 new technological processes were introduced into Soviet practice as a result of the Il-86 programme.
The initial test programme was flown by Ilyushin staff, ending two months ahead of schedule on October 20, 1978. Other sources claim that these tests were completed on 22 September 1978.
(According to a faster schedule announced at the time of the first flight, Ilyushin tests were to have ended in time for the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution on November 7, 1977.) In-house testing involved speeds up to Mach 0.93 and bank angles up to 11 degrees greater than specified.
Initial
certification
Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...
flying by pilots independent of Ilyushin ended on June 6, 1977. State acceptance trials began on April 24, 1979 and ended on December 24, 1980. Certification by Gosaviaregistr SSSR
he USSR State Aviation Registrywas granted under certificate number 10–86. The Il-86 entered Aeroflot service on 26 December the same year. The service-entry deadline of summer 1980, announced by Minister of Civil Aviation Boris Bugayev in 1977 had passed, however, and the Il-86 missed the Moscow Olympics in the summer of 1980.
Overall development of the Il-86 occupied over a decade. The length of this period was due to the sensitivity of the airliner's configuration, problems with its powerplant, prolonged avionics development and the low priority of civil as opposed to military aircraft. In its earlier stages, the Il-86 programme was also held back by hopes of US airliner imports. Certificating the Il-86 to the very demanding set of Soviet and
Comecon
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (, ; English abbreviation COMECON, CMEA, CEMA, or CAME) was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc#List of s ...
standards called NLGS-2 also delayed progress; it was the first Soviet aircraft to undergo a full certification programme since certification was introduced in the USSR in 1967 and became mandatory five years later.
Manufacture
Production of the Il-86 began in late 1976 and continued until 1991. There was no prototype. The first two machines were handmade by Ilyushin at the bureau's own Moscow facility in 1976 and 1977. One was used for flight testing and the other for static ground testing.
Beyond these initial examples, Ministry of Aircraft Manufacture ("MAP," "Minaviaprom") Factory 64 at
Voronezh
Voronezh ( rus, links=no, Воро́неж, p=vɐˈronʲɪʂ}) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the ...
(today
VASO
Vaso is a village located in Kheda district of Gujarat, India. The ZIP Code, zip code is 387380.
Places of interest
Vithalbhai Haveli is a of late 18th century ''haveli'' with beautifully carved wooden pillars, frames, beams, ceilings and do ...
) was tasked with building more than half of each Il-86 and performing final assembly. Three aircraft were assembled at Voronezh by 1979. The first (flown on October 25, 1977) was built largely by hand, subsequent machines making increasing use of production equipment. These aircraft were used in certification and development flying before handover to Aeroflot. Voronezh factory production engineers conducted a "redesign cycle" of over 50 areas, cutting some 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) of airframe weight.
Capacity at Voronezh was insufficient and the Polish aircraft industry was involved in the Il-86 project from the start. The arrangement involved significant
technology transfer
Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...
to Poland:
PZL
PZL (''Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze'' - State Aviation Works) was the main Polish aerospace manufacturer of the interwar period, and a brand of their aircraft. Based in Warsaw between 1928 and 1939, PZL introduced a variety of well-regarded air ...
(Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze)
Amalgamation Mielec factory Director Jerzy Belczak said it involved “… a radical retooling of our enterprise” involving “over 50 new processes.” Observers noted that "work on the Il-86 will bring Poland's ... WSK-Mielec to a new level of capability ... in the manufacturing processes involved with an aircraft of this size, including titanium structures, chemical milling and the machining of integral panels."
By the mid-1980s, PZL was planned to produce half of the Il-86, including the entire wing, and also to work on Il-86 developments (“Now we are preparing to manufacture units for the next model of the Il wide-body plane,” according to Belczak). From May 1977, the Polish factory manufactured entire
empennage
The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third e ...
s including
tailplane
A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...
s and the
fin
A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...
, all
control surfaces, high-lift devices and engine pylons for the Il-86, representing "about 16 per cent of these aircraft." Amid labour and political unrest in Poland from 1980 onwards, the Voronezh factory was instructed to retain wing manufacture.
After certification in 1980, annual Il-86 outputs were: 1980, 1; 1981, 0; 1982, 11; 1983, 12; 1984, 8; 1985, 9 (including the four for 8 ADON); 1986, 11; 1987, 10; 1988, 10; 1989, 9; 1990, 11 (including the three for export to China), 1991, 3. Of the 106 examples built, one never flew (being used for static tests) and three were exported.
The
five-year plan in force when the USSR ceased to exist called for 40 more aircraft to be manufactured by 1995, but the manufacturing facility closed in early 1992.
Design
Configuration and wing
All-metal low-wing land monoplane with four wing-mounted low-bypass
turbofan
The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which ac ...
engines.
Cantilever three-spar structure of modified trapezoid planform. Centre section integral with fuselage. Inboard sections, outboard sections and detachable leading and trailing edges. High-lift devices comprise full-span six-segment
leading edge slats
Slats are aerodynamic surfaces on the leading edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft which, when deployed, allow the wing to operate at a higher angle of attack. A higher coefficient of lift is produced as a result of angle of attack and speed ...
(contiguous at engine pylons) at up to 17.5% of chord (drooping to 35°), two-segment fixed-vane double-slotted trailing edge
flaps occupying some 75% of the span (deploying to 40°) and five-segment spoilers (outboards used as
spoileron
In aeronautics, spoilerons (also known as spoiler ailerons or roll spoilers) are spoilers that can be used asymmetrically as flight control surfaces to provide roll control.
Operation
Spoilerons roll an aircraft by reducing the lift of the ...
s at high speeds, inboards used as lift dumpers on the ground). Two-segment outboard ailerons for low speed roll control.
Boundary layer
In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is the thin layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a bounding surface formed by the fluid flowing along the surface. The fluid's interaction with the wall induces a no-slip boundary condi ...
fences over pylons. Engines suspended from the wing on pylons act as anti-flutter weights. Trim range is 16–33% of mean aerodynamic chord.
Fuselage
Circular-section structure of frames and stringers with a continuous main deck and lower decks fore and aft of the centre section. Rectangular windows in most interframe bays, eight ICAO Type 1a passenger doors on the main deck and three more on the lower deck portside; two freight hold doors and a galley supply door on the lower deck starboard. The main deck houses the flightdeck, two wardrobes, eight toilets, two pantries and a three-section passenger cabin. The lower deck houses three entry vestibules/luggage stores with hydraulic boarding stairs to ground level and fixed stairs to the main deck, a midships galley linked with the main deck by an electric lift, two freight holds (fore and aft of the passenger facilities), an avionics bay and two technical bays. The entire accommodation is
pressurised and
air-conditioned
Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
with "earphones for music or on-board cinema."
Empennage
Cantilevered trapezoid planform swept-back surfaces. Two-segment elevators and rudder. Tailplane area ; incidence adjustable between 2° and 12° by electric motors commanded by yoke trim thumbwheels and console trim wheels. Fin area . Landing gear of near-conventional layout, with a twin-wheeled nose leg and three four-wheel
bogie
A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...
main gear legs (centreline and two outers). Track is .
Powerplant
Four
Kuznetsov NK-86 two-spool with five-stage LP compressors, six-stage HP compressors, annular combustor cans, single-stage HP turbine and two-stage LP turbine turbofan engines power the Il-86. The cascade thrust reversers are canted 15° in respect to the horizontal axis. Pneumatic starters start the engines (airborne relights use the windmill effect). The forward-facing ejectors blow away detritus during taxi.
International Standard Atmosphere
The International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) is a static atmospheric model of how the pressure, temperature, density, and viscosity of the Earth's atmosphere change over a wide range of altitudes or elevations. It has been established to provide a ...
hourly fuel consumption per engine is 7.7 t (16,975 lb) at maximum continuous rated thrust, 6 t/13,230 lb at nominal maximum thrust, 5.1 t (11,243 lb) at 85% thrust, 4.2 t/9260 lb at 70%, 3.6 t (7,937 lb) at 60%, 2.45 t (5,400 lb) at 40% and 1 t (2,205 lb) at idle. Overall hourly fuel consumption at long-range cruise and 190 t (419,000 lb) is 9.75 t (21,495 lb) reducing to 7.79 t (17,174 lb) at 140 t (308,650 lb). Outboard engine pylons on the latter two-thirds of all Il-86s are marginally extended to cut drag.
The VSU-10
APU
APU or Apu may refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Apu Trilogy'', a series of three Bengali films, directed by Satyajit Ray, with the fictional character Apu Roy, comprising:
** ''Pather Panchali'' (''Song of the Little Road'') (1955), the first ...
generates power and heats/cools the interior on the ground, and provides engine start air.
Controls
Hydraulically
Hydraulics (from Greek language, Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is th ...
driven. An SAU-1T-2
automatic flight control system offers assisted manual or automatic flight, with no manual option. Four independent hydraulic systems power all flight controls and the built-in airstairs. Fluid is to the NGZh, rather than AMG, formula.
Avionics
Pizhma-1 navigational system with
OMEGA
Omega (; capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and final letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/isopsephy (gematria), it has a value of 800. The wo ...
inputs.
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
transceiver
In radio communication, a transceiver is an electronic device which is a combination of a radio ''trans''mitter and a re''ceiver'', hence the name. It can both transmit and receive radio waves using an antenna, for communication purposes. The ...
s and a
TCAS fitted retroactively during the 1990s. Pizhma-1 can be used throughout the flight from departure terminal area to landing and taxi to stand. Pizhma-1 has full-time roll and yaw dampers.
Airfield approach aids enable
instrument landing system
In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...
-coupled approaches to ICAO Category II weather minima.
Other radio aids include
VOR
VOR or vor may refer to:
Organizations
* Vale of Rheidol Railway in Wales
* Voice of Russia, a radio broadcaster
* Volvo Ocean Race, a yacht race
Science, technology and medicine
* VHF omnidirectional range, a radio navigation aid used in a ...
and
DME receivers, a
weather radar
Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly puls ...
, and
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
identification aids.
Cockpit voice recorder
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has ...
s and
flight data recorder
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has ...
s standard.
Four GT-40PCh6 engine generators generate energy from the
Kuznetsov NK-86. The
APU
APU or Apu may refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Apu Trilogy'', a series of three Bengali films, directed by Satyajit Ray, with the fictional character Apu Roy, comprising:
** ''Pather Panchali'' (''Song of the Little Road'') (1955), the first ...
or ground sources supply 200/115 V, 400 Hz current to the primary system or two secondary systems (36 V/400 Hz AC and 27 V DC). Recipients include high-lift devices, tailplane trim, deicing, galley lift (elevator) and interior services.
Service life
The expected service life of an Il-86 is twenty years (up to 25) or 10,000 landings (from 20,000 up to 35,000 hours) prior to major servicing.
Operational history
An inaugural service from Moscow to Tashkent was flown on December 26, 1980 but services-proper commenced after February 1, 1981. Aeroflot first operated the Il-86 on peak domestic routes. Foreign services began in June 1981 to Eastern Europe. Services to larger West European cities began with the winter timetable starting in October that year. Charter flights to European points followed, with services on high-density medium/long-range routes within the Soviet Union coming last.
Long-range operations
Although the Il-86 was a medium-range airliner, from 1982 Aeroflot put it into scheduled service from Moscow to
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. via
Shannon and
Gander, "perhaps with limited payload or with additional tankerage." Other scheduled long-range services flown by the type were to
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
,
Montevideo
Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
and
Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...
,
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
and
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...
, all via
Sal, Cape Verde
Sal (Portuguese for "salt") is an island in Cape Verde. Sal is a tourist destination with white sandy beaches and over 350 days of sunshine a year. It is one of the three sandy eastern islands of the Cape Verde archipelago in the central Atlantic ...
.
Post-Soviet operations
![Siberia Airlines Ilyushin Il-86 Milinkovic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Siberia_Airlines_Ilyushin_Il-86_Milinkovic.jpg)
After the collapse of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in 1991, national airlines emerged in the 15 successor republics. Il-86s serving with Aeroflot administrations ("Directorates") in these nations accrued to their airlines and many were traded.
From April 2002, the European Union, the US and much of the rest of the world banned noisier aircraft, including the Il-86. On October 23, 2006, Aeroflot Deputy Director General Igor Desyatnichenko said that the Il-86 was to be withdrawn from service starting November 15 that year as it operated for just two or three months in the summer."
In March 2022, due to
sanctions against Russia by the EU due to the
Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
,
S7 Airlines
S7 Airlines, legally JSC Siberia Airlines (russian: АО «Авиакомпания "Сибирь"», "АО Aviakompania Sibir"), is an airline headquartered in Ob, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia, with offices in Moscow. As of 2008, it was Russia's ...
has confirmed that they will bring back three Il-86s as passenger aircraft, converted from cargo aircraft. This will be the first time that the Il-86 has flown commercially since 2011.
Unused facilities
The Il-86's "luggage at hand" carry-on luggage facility was rarely used. Vul'fov, A, notes: "Thank God no civil servant got it into his head to refuse the parallel opportunity offered to passengers of electing to drop their luggage when checking-in at airports. Otherwise, the loading of luggage into the aircraft by passengers would have turned into a proper nightmare lasting hours."
In 1987
Radio Moscow
Radio Moscow ( rus, Pадио Москва, r=Radio Moskva), also known as Radio Moscow World Service, was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics until 1993. It was reorganized with a new name ...
reported that Aeroflot "resisted the change" to a three-person crew. Vul'fov further reports that the type continued to be operated by four-member crews. Navigators, occupying the observer seat (devoid of instrumentation), stood unsecured on final approach to oversee the pilots' instruments and read-out indications (despite voice synthesizers being fitted). Soviet operations of the Tu-154 airliner similarly employed four or five flightdeck crew, despite foreign operators using three-person flightdeck crews.
Military operations
![Airborne command and control aircraft IL-86VKP (2)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Airborne_command_and_control_aircraft_IL-86VKP_%282%29.jpg)
With its built-in stairs and below deck holds, the Il-86 was widely expected to serve in the personnel transport role with the Soviet air forces: "The wide-bodied Il-86 can perform not only as a troop transport ... but may also in the future form the basis for a command and control aircraft for airborne coordination of Warsaw Pact forces."
In the event, four airframes (c/n 042, 043, 046 and 048, carrying quasi-civil registrations SSSR-86146, '7, '8 and '9) were delivered to the 8th Special Purposes Aviation Division at the Chkalovsky air base near Moscow. These are variously claimed to be designated
Il-80,
Il-82,
Il-87 or
Il-86VKP (Russian: “ВКП” for “воздушный командный пост”; transliterated: "vozdushniy komandnyi post" “veh-kah-peh” and meaning "aerial command post"). This version has the
NATO reporting name
NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...
''Maxdome''.
Marketing
![China Xinjiang Airlines Ilyushin Il-86 Spijkers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/China_Xinjiang_Airlines_Ilyushin_Il-86_Spijkers.jpg)
Il-86 provision to Aeroflot did not constitute a sale: it was part of the centralised Soviet supply and allocation system coordinated by offices called
Gosplan
The State Planning Committee, commonly known as Gosplan ( rus, Госплан, , ɡosˈpɫan),
was the agency responsible for central economic planning in the Soviet Union. Established in 1921 and remaining in existence until the dissolution of ...
and
Gossnab
State Supplies of the USSR, known as the Gossnab of USSR (russian: Госснаб СССР) was active from 1948 to 1953, and 1965 to 1991. It was the state committee for material technical supply in the Soviet Union. It was charged with the prim ...
which controlled the entirety of planning and distribution in the USSR (except the
black market
A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the se ...
). Built aircraft were allocated to Aeroflot regions and Soviet Air Force units as follows (in order of first acceptance): the
Vnukovo Aviation Entreprise, 21; the TsUMVS Administration of International Air Communications centred on
Sheremetyevo Airport, 22; the
Tashkent
Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...
Air Enterprise, 9; the Sheremetyevo Air Enterprise, 10; the
Pulkovo Pulkovo may refer to:
*Pulkovo Heights marking the southern limit of Saint Petersburg, Russia
*Pulkovo Airport serving Saint Petersburg, Russia
*Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise
Pulkovo Federal State Unified Aviation Service Company (ФГУАП “ ...
Air Enterprise, 8; the
Alma-Ata
Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1936 as an autonomous republic as part of t ...
Air Enterprise, 8; the
Chkalovsky Soviet Air Force
The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...
Base 8 ADON (or 8th Special Purposes Aviation Division), 4; the
Kol'tsovo Air Enterprise, 6; the
Tolmachevo Air Enterprise, 6; the
Erevan
Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...
Air Enterprise, 2; the
Yemelyanovo Air Enterprise, 3.
Selling the Il-86 commercially (which under the Soviet system meant solely exports) was the job of the
Soviet foreign trade organisation V/O Aviaeksport. The division of responsibilities between the influential TsAGI research establishment, design bureaux (acting like
naval architect This is the top category for all articles related to architecture and its practitioners.
{{Commons category, Architecture occupations
Design occupations
Architecture, Occupations ...
s) which designed aeroplanes, factories (independent of the bureaux) which constructed them, independent service facilities which repaired them and an independent organisation which marketed them alongside designs by all other bureaux, has been seen as diluting responsibility for the fate of a product.
As part of supply provisions within the
Comecon
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (, ; English abbreviation COMECON, CMEA, CEMA, or CAME) was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc#List of s ...
,
Lot
Lot or LOT or The Lot or ''similar'' may refer to:
Common meanings Areas
* Land lot, an area of land
* Parking lot, for automobiles
*Backlot, in movie production
Sets of items
*Lot number, in batch production
*Lot, a set of goods for sale togethe ...
was allocated four Il-86s as
barter
In trade, barter (derived from ''baretor'') is a system of exchange in which participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. Economists disti ...
for component manufacture; the airline deferred deliveries which were cancelled by 1987. In 1988 the East German airline
Interflug
Interflug GmbH (german: Interflug Gesellschaft für internationalen Flugverkehr m.b.H.; ) was the national airline of the German Democratic Republic from 1963 to 1990. Based in East Berlin, it operated scheduled and chartered flights to Europea ...
is said to have prepared to take delivery of two Il-86s and to have allocated them the registrations DDR-AAA and DDR-AAB. Instead, that same year the airline took delivery of two
Airbus A310
The Airbus A310 is a wide-body aircraft, designed and manufactured by Airbus Industrie, then a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers.
Airbus had identified a demand for an aircraft smaller than the A300, the first twin-jet wide-bod ...
s. The sole export order for the Il-86 − and the sole commercial transactions involving factory-built rather than secondhand examples − was by
China Xinjiang Airlines which received three aircraft in 1990.
The Il-86 prototype was displayed at the
Paris Salon International de l'Aéronautique in 1977. It was noted that its interior used patented fire-resistant materials and hydraulics employed a fire-resistant fluid. At that time a version without the "luggage at hand" system was offered, seating 375 or alternatively weighing 3,000 kg (6,600 lb) less and having longer range. This version offered 7% lower seat-mile operational costs. The type was again displayed at Paris in 1979, 1981, 1983 and 1985, the
Farnborough Air Show in 1984 and other world air events.
Setting records was a traditional Soviet way of promoting aviation products. On Tuesday September 22, 1981, an Il-86 flown by Commander G Volokhov and Second Pilot A Tyuryumin set
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
The (; FAI; en, World Air Sports Federation) is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintai ...
records for flying payloads of 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60 and 65 tonnes over a 2,000 km closed circuit at an average of 975.3 km per hour. Two days later, the same crew and machine set FAI records for flying payloads of 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75 and 80-tonne payloads over a 1,000 km closed circuit at an average of 962 km/h. Of these 18 records, one was broken by a
Tu-144
The Tupolev Tu-144 (russian: Tyполев Ту-144; NATO reporting name: Charger) is a Soviet supersonic airliner, supersonic passenger airliner designed by Tupolev in operation from 1968 to 1999.
The Tu-144 was the world's first commercial sup ...
in 1983, five were superseded or discontinued and 12 still stood in 2010.
In September 1982 the type made a sales call on
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
, followed by calls in July 1983 on Hungary and
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
. Potential buyers received no hard information on the type in advance. Little solid information was given during the sales calls: "constructor Novosilov sidestepped all questions
n fuel consumption
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
...
hechief pilot ... provided a measure of veiled explanation: 'The consumption of the Il-86 is not higher than that of the Il-18,' he said." While welcomed as “proof of friendship with the USSR,” these sales calls failed to attract orders. Observers tacitly noted that the aircraft marked a 10/15-year lag by Soviet civil aviation compared with the West.
Undeveloped Variants
Only the base version of the Il-86 and a small batch of military derivatives entered service. Further versions were mooted but none entered service. Freight or combined passenger-freight versions are not known to have been proposed.
Proposed long-range version
On June 26, 1972, a long-range version of the Il-86, the Il-86D (for Russian: "дальний"; transliterated: "dal’niy"; meaning "long-range"), was ordered into development by the Soviet cabinet. Design was completed in June 1976. The Il-86D would have had a marginally extended wing span, carried additional fuel, and had a range of some 8,500 km (4,600 nmi). Later announcements stated that a version of the Il-86D with Lotarev D-18 engines had entered development in March 1975.
This version would have had a 147,500 kg (325,000 lb) empty weight, a 300,000 kg/660,000 lb maximum take-off weight, a fuel capacity of some 150,000 kg (330,000 lb), a wing area of 325 m
2 (5,300 ft
2), and a range of 10,200 km (5,500 nmi). It evolved into the
Il-96
The Ilyushin Il-96 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-96) is a Russian quadjet long-haul wide-body airliner designed by Ilyushin in the former Soviet Union and manufactured by the Voronezh Aircraft Production Association in Russia. It is powered b ...
.
Proposed high-capacity version
A "minimum-change" development of the Il-86, stated to have been designated Il-86V, was test-flown on 1 June 1982 and was ready for service by 27 April 1985. It was said to have 450 seats, with the underfloor vestibules fitted with seats and possible changes to main-deck seating. The version is not known to have entered passenger service but may have been used by the military.
Proposed re-engined versions
In the 1980s, there were moves to fit the Il-86 with
RB211-22 engines. Designated Il-86V (second use of this designation), this would have had a range of over 9,000 km (4,860 nmi) and/or increased payload. Another 450-seater Il-86V powered by
RB211-524G engines was also projected. Amid the disintegration of the Soviet economy, these versions did not progress.
In 1991, there were moves to fit the Il-86 with Franco-American
CFM56-5C2 engines. Finances precluded progress. In 1995,
International Aero Engines
IAE International Aero Engines AG is a Zürich-registered joint venture aero-engine manufacturing company.
It was founded during 1983 specifically to develop an aircraft engine to address the 150-seat single aisle aircraft market, the V2500 tu ...
offered the
V2500
The IAE V2500 is a two-shaft high-bypass turbofan engine built by International Aero Engines (IAE) which powers the Airbus A320 family, the McDonnell Douglas MD-90, and the Embraer C-390 Millennium.
The engine's name is a combination of the Rom ...
engine to five Il-86 operators with proposals to re-engine 25 aircraft. The offer was not taken up.
Operators
Civil
As of 28 May 2011, no civilian Il-86s remained in service.
Former civil operators:
Military
As of 21 March 2010, four Il-86VKPs (
Il-80s;
Il-87s) remained in service:
Former military operators:
Accidents and incidents
As of August 2013, the Il-86 is known to have been involved in at least 10 incidents, including 4
hull loss
A hull loss is an aviation accident that catastrophically damages the aircraft beyond economical repair, resulting in a total loss. The term also applies to situations in which the aircraft is missing, the search for their wreckage is terminate ...
es with a total of 23 fatalities unrelated to passengers. During its passenger-carrying operations the Il-86 has not been involved in any fatal accident.
The following are reported significant recorded safety events involving the Il-86:
* On an unknown date during the 1980s, an unknown Il-86 on approach to
Mineralnye Vody
Mineralnye Vody (Min-Vody) ( rus, Минеральные Воды (Мин-Воды), p=mʲɪnʲɪˈralʲnɨjə ˈvodɨ, mʲɪn ˈvodɨ; lit. ''mineral waters'') is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Stavropol Krai, Russia, located a ...
, Russia, suffered a hydraulic failure resulting in asymmetrical deployment of the high-lift devices. The flight crew brought the machine to a safe landing without further incident. No casualties.
* On an unknown date in 1980, the aircraft registered SSSR-86004 (constructor's number 51483200002
002" experienced a fire in engine No 4 on departure from Vnukovo on an acceptance testing flight; the crew initially shut down No 1 in error, then No 4, but landed safely on the reciprocal runway to the one from which they had departed, after performing a 180° turn. No casualties. The investigation into this fire resulted in a modification to the engine.
* In 1984, SSSR-86011 (c/n 009) was found to have suffered a tail strike on landing at Simferopol. No casualties.
*
On March 8, 1994, RA-86119 (c/n 087) parked at
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
airport was struck by debris of crashing
Sahara India
Sahara India Pariwar (''pariwar'' being Hindi for "family") is an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The group operates business sectors such as finance, infrastructure & housing, real estate, sports, power, ma ...
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington.
Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...
(VT-SIA) flown by a trainee; both aircraft were destroyed. All 4 crew on the 737 were killed. Two Aeroflot employees and Russian ground engineer died inside Il-86 due to fire and an airport worker was killed on the ground.
* In June 1998, RA-86080 (c/n 051) was found to have been overstressed, most likely by a recent heavy landing, and repairs were considered inexpedient in view of coming retirement. No casualties; aircraft stored pending retirement.
* On May 1, 2000, RA-86113 (c/n 081) suffered an apparent engine failure and fire on departure from Sochi. The flight crew brought the machine to a safe overweight landing. The failure and fire indications were found to have been spurious. No casualties.
* On August 26, 2000, RA-86066 (c/n 033) experienced a failure and fire in No 2 engine shortly after take-off from Moscow Sheremetyevo for
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
. The crew landed on the reciprocal runway with no further incident. No casualties.
* On September 21, 2001, RA-86074 (c/n 041)
belly-landed at
Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
after a flight from
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, the flight crew having switched off the ground proximity warning due to heavy workload on the approach and then neglected to extend the
landing gear
Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...
; no casualties; aircraft written off.
* On July 28, 2002,
Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 9560 RA-86060 (c/n 027) crashed shortly after departure from Moscow on a repositioning flight to
Saint Peterburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. The trim toggle button on the control column caused a spontaneous
retrimming of the tailplane, rapid transition to nose-heavy trim and a
dive
Diving most often refers to:
* Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water
* Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes
Diving or Dive may also refer to:
Sports
* Dive (American football), a ...
. The four flightdeck crew, two ground support staff and ten cabin crew aboard the aircraft died, making the crash the deadliest aviation accident involving the Il-86. The two injured survivors were cabin crew members.
Following the Moscow crash in July 2002, the MAK Interstate Aviation Committee withdrew the Il-86's certificate of airworthiness, temporarily grounding the type. The certificate was rapidly restored in stages by early 2003. The accident prompted the Egyptian civil aviation authorities to attempt to ban Il-86 operations to Egypt. Amid continuing negotiations, by 2007 the intention had lapsed, with intensive Il-86 operations to and from Egypt continuing.
Specifications
See also
Notes
References
External links
Il-86 English page on Ilyushin websiteIl-86 page on The State Aviation Museum of Ukraine National aviation university*
{{Ilyushin aircraft
Il-086
Poland–Soviet Union relations
1970s Soviet airliners
Quadjets
Aircraft first flown in 1976
Low-wing aircraft
Wide-body aircraft