A TRIBUTE TO THE IL-76
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THE AIR CARGO ‘WORKHORSE’ RIDES AGAIN
2014 marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of one of the world’s most visionary aircraft designers, Sergey Vladimirovich Ilyushin. To this day the name Ilyushin is respected across the world of aviation and no more so than for designing and building the iconic IL-76 transport aircraft.
As recently as 2002, despite demand all over the world for its services, the future of the IL-76 looked far from certain after it was banned from operating in major commercial markets in Europe, the United States, Japan and Australia for failing to meet new ICAO noise and emissions
standards. This, however, was to simply mark the start of a new beginning for the aircraft.
Volga-Dnepr Group led the initiative to modernise the IL-76 with new engines and avionics and placed a multi- million dollar order for five of the new
generation IL-76TD-90VD. The first of these new freighters entered service in 2006 and today all five Volga-Dnepr IL-76TD-90VD’s continue the legacy of the IL-76 by operating for customers all over the world in full compliance with ICAO’s requirements.
CUSTOMERS PAY THEIR PERSONAL TRIBUTES TO THE IL-76
Shahe Ouzounian, Chief Operating Officer of the Chapman Freeborn Group of Companies
‘The Ilyushin 76 is the most versatile and cost effective airlifter produced to date and a credit to the engineers and test pilots of Ilyushin which conceived this remarkable
aircraft in the early 1970s. Its design characteristics include a ramp door, heavy duty floor and onboard cranes, allowing the maximum potential to operate with little or no ground support when carrying the most challenging types of air cargo imaginable – from containers (particularly the perfect fit cabin for three 20 ft containers,) tracked vehicles, helicopters and many other forms of outsize cargo.
Allied to this are performance capabilities which were unmatched for a jet aircraft at
the time of the IL-76’s entry into service; short field performance and enhanced landing gear to allow for take-offs and landings from unprepared runways (from gravel surfaces to ice runways), although when airborne the IL-76 becomes a typical heavy jet with a high velocity cruise speed, good medium range capability when loaded and a long ferry range when empty. All of these superior characteristics are tied to a maximum landing weight which allows for delivery into ill-equipped locations with a useful payload and ferry fuel on board - yet another factor enhancing the aircraft’s versatility.
Since the 1990s every humanitarian crisis has had a significant portion of flying which was perfectly suited to the IL-76, from the transport of outsize specialised items where time is of the essence, cost
‘The Il yushin 76 is the most
versatile and cost effective airlifter produced to date.’
effectively and above all, reliably to the most austere of locations. Be it ultra long range flights from the heart of Europe to shuttles into hard to access parts of Africa and elsewhere, transporting urgent relief supplies, shelter or emergency vehicles, the IL-76 is even capable of providing non-parachute air drop of food utilising specialised and cost effective systems that are easy to install and use and able to deliver to large numbers of displaced people in locations otherwise cut off from seasonal surface routes or impacted by conflict.
While the humanitarian domain is the theatre in which the IL-76 has had the most impact, the aircraft is an essential part of peacekeeping operations too and has had a role supporting deployment and sustainment for expeditionary forces since entering service, belying its original specification as a strategic and tactical military airlifter. While many of the attributes that make the IL-76 such a capable aircraft with a unique niche
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