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 as a commercial freighter in 1967, to replace the Antonov An-12. It was developed to deliver heavy machinery to remote, poorly served areas. Military versions of the Il-76 have been widely used in Europe, Asia and Africa, including use as an aerial refueling tanker or command center.
| Il-76 | |
|---|---|
| |
| ARussian Air Force Il-76MD | |
| Role | Strategic and tactical airlifter |
| National origin | Soviet Union / Russia |
| Design group | Ilyushin |
| Built by | Tashkent Aviation Production Association Aviastar-SP |
| First flight | 25 March 1971 |
| Introduction | June 1974[1] |
| Status | In service |
| Primary users | Soviet Air Forces (historical) Russian Aerospace Forces Ukrainian Air Force Indian Air Force |
| Produced | 1971–present |
| Number built | 969[2] |
| Variants | Ilyushin Il-78 Beriev A-50 Beriev A-100 KJ-2000 |
The Il-76 has seen extensive service as a commercial freighter for ramp-delivered cargo, especially for outsized or heavy items that cannot be carried by other means. It has also been used as an emergency response transport for civilian evacuations as well as for humanitarian aid and disaster relief around the world. Thanks to its ability to operate from unpaved runways, it has been useful in undeveloped areas. Specialized models have also been produced for aerial firefighting and zero-G training.
The aircraft was conceived by Ilyushin in 1967 to meet a requirement for a freighter able to carry a payload of 40 tonnes (88,000 lb) over a range of 5,000 kilometres (2,700 nmi; 3,100 mi) in less than six hours, able to operate from short[vague] and unprepared airstrips, and capable of coping with the worst weather conditions likely to be experienced in Siberia and the Soviet Union's Arctic regions. It was intended to replace the Antonov An-12. Another project design for a double-decked 250-passenger airliner was cancelled. The Il-76 first flew in March 1971 (1971-03).[3]
Production of Il-76s was allocated to the Tashkent Aviation Production AssociationinTashkent, Uzbekistan, then a republic of the Soviet Union. Some 860 of the basic transport variants were manufactured.[4] In the 1990s, modernized variants also equipped with Soloviev D-30 turbofan engines[5] were developed (MF, TF), with a cargo compartment 20 m (66 ft) long by 3.4 m (11 ft) wide by 3.4 m (11 ft) tall; these larger variants were not produced in significant quantity due to the financial difficulties being experienced by the Russian Air Force, which was the primary operator of the type.[citation needed]
From 2004 onwards, a number of aircraft in commercial service were modernized to the Il-76TD-90VD version; this involved the adoption of the newly developed PS-90 engine to comply with European noise limitations.[1] In 2005, the People's Republic of China placed an order for 34 new Il-76MDs and four Il-78 tankers.[citation needed] In June 2013, Russian military export agency Rosoboronexport announced an order by China for 12 Il-76MD aircraft.[6]
The Il-76 has also been modified into an airborne refuelling tanker, designated the Il-78, around 50 aircraft having been produced.[4] A variant of the Il-76 also serves as a firefighting waterbomber. Its airframe was used as a base for the Beriev A-50 'Mainstay' AEW&C (airborne early warning and control) aircraft; around 25 aircraft were made.[4] Another application for the type was found in Antarctic support flights and for conducting simulated weightlessness training for cosmonauts (akin to the "Vomit Comet" used by NASA).[7] Beriev and NPO Almaz also developed an airborne laser flying laboratory designated A-60, of which two were built, much of this project's details remaining classified.[8]
It was announced in 2010 that the production of a modernized Il-76, the Il-76MD-90A (also known as project Il-476 during the design stage), would begin; a proposed new production line would be located in Aviastar's facility in Ulyanovsk, Russia, and be operated in cooperation with the Tashkent works.[4] At that point, the construction of two Il-76MD-90A prototypes had begun at the Ulyanovsk facility.[9] The first Il-76MD-90A was rolled out at Aviastar's Ulyanovsk plant on 16 June 2014.[10] On 29 April 2015, it was reported that the Russian Aerospace Forces received the first Il-76MD-90A built at the Ulyanovsk plant "Aviastar-SP" from the 2012 contract for 39 aircraft.[11] The Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) received its first serial production Ilyushin Il-76MD-90A airlifter on 2 April 2019.[12] As of late-2023, 27 aircraft are ordered to be delivered in the period up to 2028 and 20 had been built, 6 in 2023.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]
The first aircraft was delivered to the Soviet Air Force in June 1974[1] and subsequently became the main Soviet strategic transport aircraft. From 1976, it was operated by Aeroflot.
Between 1979 and 1991, the Soviet Air Force Il-76s made 14,700 flights into Afghanistan, transporting 786,200 servicemen and 315,800 tons of freight. The Il-76 carried 89% of Soviet troops and 74% of the freight that was airlifted. As Afghan rebels were unable to shoot down high-flying Il-76s, their tactics were to try and damage it on takeoff or landing. Il-76s were often hit by shoulder-launched Stinger and Strela heat-seeking missiles and large-calibre machine gun fire, but because the strong airframes were able to take substantial damage and remain operational, the aircraft had a remarkably low attrition rate during this period of conflict. Building on that experience, the bulk of the Canadian Forces equipment into Afghanistan was flown in using civilian Il-76s.[23] In 2006, the Russian Air Force had about 200 Il-76s. Civilian users in Russia have 108.[4]
On 3 August 1995, an Airstan Ilyushin Il-76 piloted by a Russian crew was forced down by a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan Air Force fighter in what became known as the Airstan incident. The crew were imprisoned for nearly a year, but later escaped out of their confinement and managed to sneak into their aircraft still at the airport and fly out of Afghanistan.[24]
In 2004, a Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Il-76 carried out a flight mission in Afghanistan, and later in 2011, PLAAF Il-76s were sent to Libya to evacuate Chinese citizens. The two missions were the reported first steps of PLAAF developing long-range transportation capability.[25]
On 23 March 2007, a Transaviaexport Il-76 was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile while taking off from Mogadishu, Somalia. Everybody on board, seven crew and four passengers, were killed.[26]
Syrian Air Force Il-76s, operating as civil Syrianair aircraft, have been reportedly used to ship weapons, money, and other cargo from Russia and Iran to Syria, according to a defected Syrian military pilot. Since the start of the war, in April 2011 (and up to July 2012), around 20 military flights have been conducted to and from Tehran, via Iraqi airspace. Further information exposes that since around 2012, Syrian Il-76s have regularly flown to Moscow's Vnukovo Airport to fetch shipments of Syrian banknotes that have been useful to Bashar al-Assad's government to survive international sanctions.[27][28][29]
On 14 June 2014, a Ukrainian Air Force Il-76 was shot down by ground fire from pro-Russian separatists while on approach to landing at Luhansk, resulting in the deaths of 40 soldiers and 9 crew members on board.[30][31][32]
On 30 January 2017, an Il-76 firebomber of the Russian EMERCOM agency was deployed to Chile to assist firefighters. The assignment took 39 days.[33]
All Il-76 transport aircraft in service with the RF Aerospace Forces were to receive anti-missile systems, and aircraft reconfiguration started in spring 2019.[34]
On 25 February 2022, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian State Special Communications Agency and US officials claimed that Russian Il-76s were shot down over Bila Tserkva.[35] As of September 2022, no wreckage of the planes has been found.[36]
On 4 April 2022, photographs of two destroyed Il-76s from the Ukrainian 25th Transport Aviation Brigade were displayed; these cargo planes were destroyed on the ground by Russian forces at Melitopol Airport.[37]
On 30 August 2023, four Il-76s were reportedly destroyed by Ukrainian kamikaze drone strikesatPskov Airport.[38][39]
On 24 January 2024, an Il-76 crashed near Yablonovo in Russia's Belgorod Oblast near the Russian-Ukrainian border. In the immediate aftermath, multiple unsubstantiated, conflicting accounts regarding the circumstances of the crash were presented by Ukraine-aligned sources and Russian state media outlets and officials.[40][41]
On 12 March 2024, an Il-76 crashed near the Ivanovo Severny airbase, after a fire occurred in one engine, and the aircraft was unable to reach the airfield. All eight crew and seven passengers were killed in the crash.[42]
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this articlebyadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
You can help expand this section with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (October 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at [[:ru:Ил-76]]; see its history for attribution.{{Translated|ru|Ил-76}} to the talk page. |
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this articlebyadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
Military and civil operators in 38 countries have operated more than 850 Il-76 in large numbers. While Russia is the largest military operator of the Il-76, followed by Ukraine and India, Belarus' TransAVIAexport Airlines is the largest civilian operator.
Algeria
Angola
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
China
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
India
Iran
Jordan
Russia
Sudan
Syria
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Iraq
Libya
Soviet Union
Yemen
Zimbabwe
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Kazakhstan
North Korea Russia Syria
Turkmenistan Ukraine
United Nations
United States
United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Angola Armenia
Bahrain Belarus
Burkina Faso
Cambodia Democratic Republic of the Congo
Republic of the Congo
Cuba Equatorial Guinea
Georgia
Hungary Iran
Iraq Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia Libya
Mali
Moldova Russia
Serbia
Sierra Leone Soviet Union Sudan
Ukraine Yemen
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this articlebyadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Ilyushin Il-76" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
As of January 2024, a total of 95 Il-76 series aircraft have been written off in crashes and other accidents. Previous 94 aircraft details can be found here.[78]
Data from Ilyushin,[119] Aviadvigatel,[120] Volga-Dnepr Airlines.[121]
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
Related development
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
Related lists
Volga-Dnepr has 5 modernized Ilyushin-76-TD-90-VD aircraft in its fleet.
