THE GENERAL DESIGNER’S STORY


G.V. Novozhilov, General Designer of the IL-76 aircraft, recalls how a set of technical requirements moved from the drawing board into one of the world’s most successful and iconic transport aircraft


BRINGING THE IL-76 TO LIFE


The IL-76 aircraft was designed as a military transporter aircraft for carrying paratroopers and military technology.


The initial tactical and technical requirements for the aircraft were:


• Good take-off and landing capabilities, for use in unprepared earth airfields with ground solidity of 5 kg/cm3, with the length of the landing strip not exceeding 2200-2500m


• An airborne load of 20 tonnes must be transported for a distance of 5000km


• The cross section of the cargo hold must be 3.45x3.4m, the length 20m


• The power plant must consist of four new turbo-jet engines.


along the perpendicular axis to the direction of movement, two on each side.


In order to avoid dirt and sleet from the earth runway getting into the compartment after release of the undercarriage, its flaps are closed. Only the IL-76 has this construction. The cargo hold has two doors in the front section and a ramp in the rear section, allowing cargo to be loaded. The ramp is closed by four flaps, one of which hermetically seals the cargo hold and three that ensure that the fuselage is streamlined when the ramp is closed.


The control system has no equal and


The first IL-76, on the demand of the Hero of the Soviet Union, astronaut Georgy Timifeyevich Beregovoy, was designated for giving astronauts weightlessness training.


Then came the IL-76 kerosine tanker, the Scalp IL-76 flying hospital, and the Dreif rescue craft and fire prevention craft etc.


In 1995, the IL-76MF with PS-90 engines took off in Tashkent, not yet the PS90A-76. The fuselage was extended to 6.6m and the take-off weight increased to 210 tonnes.


The design of the engines was assigned to Pavel Alexandrovich Solovlyov, (Perm), who created the D30KP engine, and to achieve the characteristics stated, wings with an area of 300m2 were selected. We worked with the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (CAI/ TCAGI) on creating them for several years.


When we received the assignment in 1967, we had a good idea of the aerodynamics of the future aircraft. In the process of the subsequent work in CAI’s tunnels, 28 models were tested. In order to allow the aircraft to be operated on the ground, a unique undercarriage was designed with four main supports, each of which carries four wheels, not situated along the axis of the aircraft, one after the other, but


allows a transfer to boosterless manual control in an emergency situation, while the system for loading and unloading containers, including sea containers, has been carefully developed.


After the meeting with Dmitry Fyodorovich Ustinov, at that time Secretary of the CC CPSS, responsible for the defence industry, at the request of Marshal A.A. Grechko, the Minister of Defence, the operation of an aircraft from both ground and tarmac runways was proposed. The demand of the Deputy Minister of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Chairman of the MIC, Leonid Vasilyevich Smirnov, to transport a tank led to the increase in the take-off weight and the airborne load. Thus, the IL-76 aircraft was born.


Thanks to Volga-Dnepr Airlines, in 2005, an IL-76TD-90VD was put into serial production.


When the IL-76 was created, we did not expect a large number of these aircraft in the air transportation market. I do not exclude the possibility that this was assisted by the situation that arose after the collapse of the USSR, when an IL-76 could be obtained for a small amount of money.


It should not be forgotten that the Tashkent Chkalov Aircraft Production Association issued more than 950 IL-76 aircraft of various types. The experience of civil airlines of operating it showed that if it is used correctly, it can generate revenue.


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