Published: 5/22/1998

The Il-114 airliner started demonstration flights in Russia on 12 May, with the aim of showing its real capabilities to potential customers, according to Nikolai Talikov, the chief designer at the Ilyushin aircraft building complex. The Il-114 regional plane, which will replace the An-24 and Yak-40, flew to St.Petersburg and back to Moscow carrying officials of the Federal Aviation Service, representatives of the Ilyushin company, the Tashkent aircraft plant, and Inkombank which plans to set up a leasing company to introduce the type initally on the domestic market. The second flight was to Nizhny Novgorod, followed on 20 May with flights to Tymen, Omsk, Rostov, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, Magadan, Yakutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Yekaterinburg, Samara, and Mineralnye Vody. It is planned to return to Moscow in June. Talikov said that the first passenger flight by the Il-114 will be by Uzbek National Airlines in June. Following that, the type will be supplied tothe Russian companies which have placed orders for the aircraft, although at the moment they have no money to pay for them. To ease the introduction of the Il-114 into operation, Inkombank has set up a leasing company. According to Talikov, the Tashkent plant will be able to meet all the orders for production of the plane, having a capacity of five to seven aircraft a month. Currently, there are 11 completed Il-114s, two of which are ready for service.(IN598.1) (VZ)  

Article ID: 156