Russia has built a new military transport aircraft Il-476. Minister for Industry Denis Manturov told President Vladimir Putin that the transport plane was ready for its first test flight.
According to the minister, the technical characteristics of the aircraft are absolutely. The plane is "fully digitalized, changes were made in the control system, there is a new power system, a new pilot complex, a state-of-the-art glass cockpit." "The production was moved from Uzbekistan to Russia. In fact, it is a new production, a project in its final stage," Manturov said.
The flight range was increased by 25 percent. The load capacity was increased by 15-17 percent. The Minister added that such aircraft are manufactured only in the United States and Russia. "We are forming a package of orders," the minister said, expressing a hope that "there will be other customers after the Ministry of Defense."
By now, the plane has already performed two short flight; the plane is now ready for testing.
Vladimir Putin positively accepted the news. "This is good, good news. There are not many such planes in the world, and they are in high demand in the civil and defense fields," said the president. According to him, "one needs to finalize all the details connected with the organization of the procurement" so that the price matches the product, NTV said.
The President also instructed the head of the Ministry for Industry and Trade Denis Manturov to prepare a meeting to discuss the development of the domestic aviation industry, RBC said.
The IL-476 is an upgraded version of the military transport aircraft Il-76, which was previously produced commercially in Tashkent. In contrast to IL-76, the new plane has four Turbofan Engine with the thrust of 14.5 tons each. The engines are produced by Aviadvigatel (Perm). The maximum load was increased from 47 to 52 tons; the maximum take-off weight of the aircraft - from 190 to 210 tons. The range was increased up to 5,000 km. The state trial of the new aircraft is to be completed in 2013.
However, according to Vzglyad, sources at the Defense Ministry said that the IL-476 did not meet the requirements of the Russian Air Force, as the aircraft did not have several important systems. It goes about the equipment for setting active and passive noise, the rear fire point, the formation flight system, the warning system for the use of arms. In addition, the aircraft should be complete with handling equipment for dropping the cargoes with multy-canopy parachute systems.