Il76
In 1974, the Ilyushin Design Bureau of the Soviet Union designed the Il-76 medium-range medium transport aircraft, known by the NATO designation "Gengzhi". The Ilyushin Design Bureau has been reorganized into the Ilyushin Aviation Joint Stock Company (IJSC) consortium in Moscow and the Tashkent Aircraft Production Enterprise (TAPE) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Currently the IL-76 is used in the Russian Army as a combat support transport aircraft for infantry and light armored units, capable of landing and taking off from simple frontline airfields. The IL-76 can also perform parachute missions and can airdrop cargo or properly packed military vehicles.In the late 1960s, the Soviet Union, in an effort to increase its military airlift capability, decided to develop a transport aircraft that approximated a similarity to the U.S. C-141 heavy transport aircraft. The first IL-76 prototype flew for the first time on March 25, 1971 at Moscow's Central Airport, and was publicly displayed at the 29th Paris International Air Fair on May 27 of the same year. 1974 was the year of acceptance by the USSR Air Force's Air Transport Command, which found that the aircraft met its requirements. Test flights continued until 1975, after which it was put into batch production and delivered to troops and civil aviation. By the beginning of 1992, more than 700 aircraft were produced, with an annual output of more than 50 aircraft. The IL-76 transport aircraft ended its test flights in 1975, and was then put into batch production and delivered to the army and civil aviation. By 1997, more than 950 had been produced, with an annual production of nearly 50. In addition to the hundreds of IL-76 transport aircraft used by the Russian Air Force and civil aviation, more than 100 were exported to many countries around the world, such as Algeria, Iran, Britain, Syria, India, Czech Republic, Poland, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Cuba and China.
The IL-76 fuselage is an all-metal semi-monocoque structure, basically round. The nose is pointed and tapered. The rear of the cabin is equipped with two large clam-type hatches, and the cargo hold has a built-in large telescopic loading and unloading skips. The forward most part of the nose is the pilot house with a large number of observation windows, under which is a round radar radome. The upper monoplane is cantilevered with an all-metal multi-beam breakaway safety structure. The upper monoplane does not obstruct the cabin space and has a constant sweep angle of 25° for the 1/4 chord. The wing consists of one section of center wing panel, two sections of inner wing panels, and two sections of outer wing panels. The ailerons are static mass-balanced and have two segments of three-slit trailing edge flaps*** with 16 spoilers. The entire leading edge of the wing *** has 10 segments of leading edge slit flaps. The all-metal semi-monocoque fuselage is basically circular in cross-section, with two hatches in the forward fuselage and two clamshell hatches on the bottom of the aft fuselage, with downward-opening intermediate bulkheads that serve as cargo bridges. The military version was fitted with a turret at the tail, and some of the later versions were converted to the civilian version. The cantilevered all-metal T-tail had an adjustable flat-tail mounting angle and adjustment tabs on the rudder and each side elevator. The powerplant was four D-301M turbofan engines from the Soloviev Design Bureau, suspended under the inner wings on each side, with a single thrust of 117.6 kN. Each engine was fitted with a clamshell thrust reverser. Between the front and rear beams of the inner and outer wings are integral fuel tanks with a total fuel capacity of 81,830 liters.
The IL-76*** has a crew of seven, with the pilot and co-pilot sitting side-by-side in front in the cockpit, the navigator in the glass nose cowl under the nose, and two cargo handlers sitting in the rear of the cockpit. The cargo hold measures 20 meters by 3.46 meters by 3.40 meters, and can carry 150 heavily armed soldiers, or 120 paratroopers; it can also carry a variety of military vehicles or equipment. The rear of the cargo hold has a clamshell hatch and a cargo bridge with loading and unloading rails, which are adjustable in width. There are 2 electric cranes on the top of the cabin, each lifting 5000 kg. There are 2 winches with a towing pull of 3000 kg each. These randomized loading and unloading systems shorten the loading and unloading time at the airport and increase the turnover rate of the aircraft. The cargo hold is airtight and can maintain air pressure at an altitude of 3,000 meters at 10,668 meters. The cockpit can be pressurized if necessary.?
To accommodate rough front-line airport runways, the IL-76 features a low-pressure landing gear system and front and rear flaps that provide greater lift at low speeds during the takeoff and landing phases. The aircraft is equipped with winches, cabin roof cranes, rails and other essential loading and unloading equipment to facilitate loading and unloading. The IL-76 also has the ability to be converted into a flying hospital. Hydraulic retractable front three-point multi-wheeled low-pressure tire landing gear, **** 20 wheels. The front landing gear is two pairs of wheels with oil and gas shock absorbers, tire size 1100 mm x 330 mm, forward into the fuselage. Each of the two main landing gears has four wheels, which are incorporated into the fairings on both sides of the fuselage. When the wheels are incorporated, the wheel axle rotates around the strut so that the wheel axle is parallel to the fuselage axis, and the wheels remain vertical and 90° from the direction of flight after incorporation. The tires are equipped with a tire pressure adjustment system, which can be adjusted between 2.6 and 5.2×105 Pa (2.65 and 5.3 kg/cm2) in flight. The main tires measure 1300 mm x 480 mm.
The aircraft is equipped with all-weather day and night takeoff and landing equipment, including an automatic flight maneuvering system computer and an automatic landing system computer. The nose radome is equipped with a large weather and ground graphics radar. The IL-76 is fitted with electronic countermeasures equipment, including radar warning receivers, foil infrared decoy emitters, and external electronic countermeasures pods. Various improved versions of the Il-76 are fitted with radar-targeted two 23mm self-defense guns. This gun system is also found on many civilian Il-76s, due to the Soviet/Russian desire for civilian Il-76s to be quickly available to the military in wartime as well.
Improved versions of the Il-76 include the Il-76T, with increased fuel tank capacity in the mid-wing and increased range. The IL-76TII is a development of the IL-76T, with 10 tons of additional fuel, an increased range of 1,200 kilometers, and an improved D-30KII-1 engine, primarily for military transport. The IL-76M was an improved version of the T, designed specifically for the Soviet military, with a load capacity of 47 tons, almost triple the 28 tons of the base IL-76. In addition the M model has two additional 23mm self-defense cannons on the tail. The IL-76MD model modified the fuselage structure from the M model to carry more cargo and extend its range.
The latest addition to the IL-76 family is the IL-76MT, a modified version of the IL-76MII, designed by the Ilyushin Aviation Complex and manufactured by the Chkalov Aviation Manufacturing Complex. The aircraft is powered by a PS-90A-76 engine produced by JSC Perm Engines, and has a longer fuselage, allowing it to carry more personnel and large cargo (e.g., tanks, armored vehicles, and standard containers, etc.), and to meet a wider range of military and civilian airlift needs.The first of the new IL-76MTs was completed by the Chkarlov Aircraft Plant in Tashkent on August 2, 1995, and made its first successful flight. Test flights began in January 1996 and ended in the second quarter of 1996, after which the airworthiness license was granted and test production began. It is reported that in the near future the aircraft will be delivered to the Russian Air Force for full-scale testing.
Russia and Ukraine are both confident that the new IL-76MT transport aircraft will be put into production, and have already made offers to the Tashkent Joint Venture to buy them. One of the main reasons why the Russians and Ukrainians have made major improvements to the IL-76 transport aircraft and developed its latest model is that the prototype IL-76, although not small in terms of load capacity, has a limited cargo compartment size, which is unable to meet the needs of carrying large cargoes. For example, the IL-76 could have been loaded with up to 40 tons of tanks, armored vehicles and other heavy equipment, but because of the cargo hold limitations, if the transport of other materials and equipment, the weight of the load will not reach this number. For this reason, the improved design of the new IL-76MT, the full length of 53.39 meters (lengthened by 6.6 meters), the cargo volume increased from 321 cubic meters to 400 cubic meters, can carry 217 people (single-deck mode, an increase of 72 people), 305 people (double-deck mode, an increase of 100 people), can be loaded with BMII-3-type armored vehicles 3 (increased by 1) and other equipment and goods, maximum load capacity of 52 tons (increased by 13 tons).
Another improvement is the replacement of four PS-90A engines with higher thrust, each with 156.9 kN (+39.3 kN). Il-76MT aircraft fuselage lengthening, load increase, takeoff weight also increased, the requirement for engine thrust increase is very natural. In addition to this there is a reason is the original IL-76 aircraft with D-30KII type engine, noise and work to the atmosphere when the emission of hazardous substances have exceeded the standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, so that the airports of some countries to prohibit the landing and takeoff of such a transport aircraft, which seriously affects the use of the aircraft and the development of the aircraft. This situation necessitated the improvement of the IL-76. In contrast, the PS-90A-76 engine, which not only has high thrust, but also is quieter and emits fewer harmful substances, was naturally adopted for the new aircraft. In addition, the engines produced by the Perm Engine Manufacturing Enterprise have the added advantage of being economical. If the D-30KII engine consumes 8 tons of fuel per hour, the PS-90A engine consumes only 9 tons, and the fuel efficiency can be increased by 12.15%. After conversion, its range can be increased by 15-20% under the same conditions. Therefore, its economic benefits are very considerable. Compared with similar foreign engines, this type of engine also has an advantage in price, such as the United States PW2037 engine unit price of 10.8 million U.S. dollars, while the PS-90A engine is only 3.16 million U.S. dollars.
Improvements have also been made to the cargo hold equipment and the tail structure. The IL-76MT transport aircraft is fully capable of relying on onboard-equipped winches and small electric cranes for loading and unloading. It can carry 4 yyK-20 international standard containers or 4 yAK-10 air containers, 9 yAK-5 air containers or 9 IIO-5/6 air trailers, and even 2 large public **** cars. Because of its own equipped with loading and unloading transportation equipment, it can get rid of the dependence on the ground special equipment, and improve the flexibility of the aircraft to independently carry out the mission and field capability. The aft structure of the cabin has been improved to make it more convenient to load and drop supplies and equipment. The cargo compartment and cockpit are sealed to ensure a normal air pressure environment inside the compartment, so that both the crew members and the airborne soldiers traveling on the aircraft will feel very comfortable. In terms of flight performance, due to the increased takeoff weight of the IL-76MT, its takeoff and landing performance is not as good as previous models, and the takeoff and landing skidding distances are 1,600 meters and 1,000 meters respectively, which is about double that of the IL-76. The IL-76MT has triple slit flaps on the wings, which are intended to improve takeoff and landing and low-speed performance. The IL-76MT transport is said to be equipped with Kubo-3 navigation equipment and satellite navigation systems, allowing it to fly to any location in the world to perform its missions, which is very important for a large military transport aircraft. The aircraft also has an improved internal arrangement of the cockpit and more advanced on-board equipment as well, such as pointer engine gauges that have been replaced with two digital displays.
In January 2003, Russia's Voronezh Aircraft Manufacturing Plant will begin serial production of the latest variant of the IL-76MF/TF. Because the military lacks the required $100 million in funding, Ilyushin will bear the burden of financial allocations for technical preparations alone. Originally scheduled to be built in Tashkent, Ilyushin has been forced to decide to batch produce the new model in Russia. The General Command of the Russian Air Force has decided to make a preliminary assessment of the IL-76MF's compliance with the order requirements and the status of batch production at the Voronezh plant in the first quarter of 2003. The IL-76MF has a new PS-90A turbofan engine and a fuselage extension of 6.6 meters, which will increase the volume of the cargo hold by half, increase cargo capacity by 30-50%, improve fuel efficiency by 15%, increase range at standard cargo capacity by 15-20%, and significantly reduce noise and hazardous emissions. The Russian Air Force is said to have a demand for 100 IL-76MFs.
Based on the IL-76 prototype, it has also been modified into a variety of specialized aircraft, such as the A-50 airborne early warning aircraft, the IL-76III firefighting model, the IL-76MIIK for weightlessness training of cosmonauts, the IL-76MIIIC for search-and-rescue and the IL-78M aerial refueling tanker that has evolved from the MD model. The IL-78 can carry 35 tons of aviation fuel in its three cargo bays and refuel in the air at a rate of 2,000 liters per minute.
The fate of the Il-76 in Russia is in doubt due to the country's economic downturn. The IL-76 brings in a lot of revenue for Russia's air cargo, but its older engines continue to be replaced with newer ones and new aviation equipment is needed to meet new cargo demands. An improvement program for Russia's existing IL-76s would cost between $250 and $300 million. However, it would be difficult for all Russian parties to cover this cost. If the IL-76s are improved, they will be able to fly for another 10 to 15 years, thus maintaining the air cargo market. Without improvements, the IL-76 will probably be forced to retire due to old engines, which in turn will lead to Russia's loss of the world air cargo market. "Volga-Dnepr owns the new PS-90 engine made by the Perm engine plant, but it needs to meet the $12 million cost of retrofitting it. According to forecasts, the air cargo market is expected to triple in volume over the next 20 years. Although Russia has a large number of cargo planes, such as the IL-76, its share of the market is getting smaller and smaller, and it is now in danger of being squeezed out of the world air cargo market.?
Basic technical data
Length?46.59 meters
Height?14.76 meters
Wingspan?50.5 meters
Wing area?300 square meters
Empty weight?70 tons
Maximum takeoff weight?170 tons
Maximum fuel weight?70 tons
Maximum level flight speed?
Maximum level flight speed?850km/h
Cruise speed?760-780km/h (9,000m-12,000m altitude)
Cruise altitude?9,000-12,000m
Liftoff limit?20,695m
Takeoff runway distance?1,600m
Landing runway distance? 780 to 1,000 meters
Maximum load range?5,000 kilometers
Cargo hold length? (including cargo bridge) 24.5 meters? (without cargo bridge) 20 meters
Width 3.4 meters
Height 3.46 meters
Aft cargo door? 3.4 meters wide, 3.45 meters high