Russia to receive 48 IL-476 / IL-76MD-90A transport aircraft

The Russian Air Force is to receive 48 IL-476 / IL-76MD-90A instead of the 39 previously reported. Last October, a $4 billion contract with the United Aircraft Corporation was signed for the delivery of 39 IL-476 aircraft by 2020.

The IL-476 prototype made its first flight last September. The first serial produced aircraft is expected to be delivered in 2014 and deliveries is to be complete by 2020.

The IL-476 is the latest version of the widely exported IL-76 designed by the Ilyushin design bureau. The aircraft retains the legacy airframe and fuselage of the old aircraft, but is significantly modernized with:

• new and redesigned wing
• new glass cockpit
• improved digital avionics
• digital flight control system
• more powerful and fuel efficient PS-90A-76 engines

While the IL-76 has been produced in large numbers, production of new IL-76 aircraft had been halted for many years, which includes a 2005 contract with China for the delivery of 34 IL-76 and 4 IL-78 aircraft that was never fulfilled.

All aircraft production has now been moved to the Aviastar plant in Ulyanovsk, which has taken over from the original Tashkent Aviation Production Association in Uzbekistan, where the IL-76 had traditionally been produced.


http://en.rian.ru/military_news/20130205/179242929/Russian-Air-Force-to-Get-48-Il-476-Transports.html

By Doomych [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons