There is a line that separates the strategically important projects of the Russian aircraft industry and the usual conditionally legal development of budget funds. The latter, for example, can be attributed to the sudden reincarnation of the old Soviet Il-96 airliner, which, whatever the course of events, will not meet the requirements of the time. And the customer is not a fact that he will find, even on the territory of his native country.
It is much more interesting to observe the progress of projects that are designed to "breathe" life into the Russian aircraft industry. That is, to show that Russia wants and can build modern aircraft. It is all the more interesting if such projects are really in demand. A striking example is the Il-112, a promising light transport aircraft. Today we will tell you about his difficult fate.
No Country for Old Men
No one doubts that the An-24 and An-26 need to be replaced. Recall that the latter is a modification of the former. An-24 made its first flight "eternity" back - in 1959. On the basis of this passenger turboprop, a whole family of various aircraft was built, including for the PRC.
The military transport An-26 has great merits: suffice it to say that over 1400 such vehicles have been produced over the years. True, there are many black pages in his history. According to unofficial data, by 2018 more than 140 aircraft were lost in accidents, the victims of which were approximately 1,450 people. There is no doubt that the new aircraft should, among other things, be safer. But so far, the Russian military has only complaints.
Make way for the little ones
The Il-112 aircraft is designed for its specific niche. Recall that as of the 21st century, the structure of the military transport aviation of the Russian Federation has four levels:
- Light military transport aircraft (An-26).
- Medium military transport aircraft (An-12).
- Heavy military transport aircraft (IL-76).
- Super heavy military transport aircraft (An-124).
The tasks for the An-26 and An-12 are similar … at first glance. If the carrying capacity of the An-26 is 5.5 tons, then the An-12 has a maximum payload of an "immodest" 21 tons. If the empty mass of An-26 is 16 tons, then the An-12 has an empty mass of an aircraft without fuel is almost 37 tons. That is, the machines are completely different and it will most likely not work to replace one aircraft with another: the light An-26 can be operated without any restrictions at all.
Like its "ancestor", the Il-112 can be used from poorly equipped airfields with unpaved surfaces. The main flight characteristics of the Il-112 are also almost identical to the An-26. So, for both cars, the cruising speed is within 450 kilometers per hour. However, it makes no sense to talk in detail about the dry characteristics of aircraft: this is far from the most important thing. Rather, there are a lot of other indicators that are no less significant in our century, for example, the quality of on-board electronics. However, with regard to the Il-112, we will not be able to judge it with confidence soon.
Also, we will not go into the details of the development of a new machine, we will only note that its birth was a direct consequence of Russian-Ukrainian political contradictions. Recall that, despite ambitious plans, in May 2011, the Russian Ministry of Defense abandoned the military transport Il-112 in favor of the Ukrainian An-140. The rest is easy to imagine: soon the military had to revive the Russian project.
It was done hard and with a creak: nevertheless, on March 30 of this year, the first flight of the Il-112V took place. The tests were carried out at the airfield of PJSC VASO, a member of the Transport Aviation Division of the United Aircraft Corporation. “A magnificent plane, there are no questions for it, the flight went well,” the crew commander Nikolai Kuimov commented on the flight.
Running with obstacles
As for the future prospects of the car, there are many "buts" here. In general, the Voronezh aircraft plant intends to enter the production of about twelve aircraft a year. There is interest both on the part of the RF Ministry of Defense (this is logical) and allegedly on the part of other states. However, technical difficulties can get in the way. "It will take at least eight to ten months to revise and redesign the Il-112V, so that the aircraft meets the tactical and technical specifications of the Ministry of Defense," an informed source told Interfax in April. According to him, the problem is the insufficient carrying capacity of the aircraft. Another source with knowledge of the situation confirmed the problem. “The plane does not yet meet all the customer's requirements,” he said.
At the same time, the staff of Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov is considering the problem from the position of eliminating "childhood diseases" inherent in any new technique. “The development of the aircraft is not easy, like any new technology. It is no secret that the previously established dates for the first flight have already been postponed. At the moment, based on the results of a recent meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov, UAC and Il PJSC were instructed to provide customers with an updated schedule for the completion of development work on the creation of the Il-112V,”the department noted.
But does the problem lie solely in the plane of aircraft novelty? There are objective doubts on this score, especially if we recall the statement made by the chief designer of the IL company Nikolai Talikov in December last year. “Yes, we overweight the plane. There are objective reasons for this - a change of generations of designers has taken place in the aviation industry. Replenishment was weak, technical universities lost their popularity. And a young specialist came to us, looked around, studied and went to the place where they pay more,”said the chief designer.
This fairly straightforward assessment, no doubt, illustrates the general situation in the industry. And if nothing is changed, then the consequences will be very dire. It is appropriate to recall here that, as the example of Germany and Japan shows, its own aircraft industry is easy to "hack to death", but difficult to resurrect if the base has already been lost. It is very difficult to create something new, and even in demand on the world market, from scratch, even with huge capital investments.
At the same time, the situation in Ilyushin itself seems to be deplorable even by the standards of the KLA. Recently it became known that Alexei Rogozin, the son of Dmitry Rogozin, has left the post of CEO of the company, although he was appointed there only in 2017. In fairness, we note: he still managed to do something. After all, the first flight of the Il-112V is, among other things, his merit. And the problems in the company began earlier: just remember the "slippage" with the Il-76MD-90A transporter, the reason for which is the incorrect calculations made back in 2012 and which led to huge losses for the manufacturer in the person of Aviastar-SP. But the sudden reshuffle in the aircraft industry itself, and even at such a high level, is not the best sign.
In conclusion, I would like to recall the above. The Il-112V is, despite all the problems, a necessary and important aircraft for Russia, no alternative to which is planned in the foreseeable future. This means that the car will most likely have to be refined, even by reworking individual components.
It is also important to promote the Il-112V in foreign markets. By the way, in February it became known that it was proposed to create a special version of the Il-112 aircraft for India. This is perhaps the most correct outward direction. For all the complexities of Russian-Indian friendship, this South Asian country is the only foreign customer willing to buy large volumes of Russian equipment. China has long been reoriented to its own military-industrial complex, and Arabs and Africans are unlikely to order a lot of equipment. There are exceptions, but they are exceptions.
