New variant of the Il-96-300 extends range by 2200 kms

Published: 5/11/1999

In an interview with Concise Aerospace, Mr Genrikh Novozhilov, general designer for Ilyushin, said that the design bureau is working on a new version of the Il-96 - the Il-96-300V - for Vnukovo Airlines. The “V" will have its flight range extended by 2200 km, but will retain the same take-off weight. It will also have two built-in passenger ladders, akin to the Il-86, in order to facilitate operations from Russian provincial airports, where there is generally a lack of support infrastructure. Perm Motors PS-90A engines will power the “V". Mr Novozhilov added that the first Il-96T could enter commercial service with Aeroflot during summer 1999. Acknowledging the repeated delay in delivering the aircraft, he said, “The tragedy is that our customers order aircraft without pre-payment. Since 17 September [1998] the aircraft - it got a Russian type certificate past year and was favourably assessed by American pilots - has been sitting at the factory in Voronezh because we did not have $2.5 million to replace some Russian-built components with expired lifetimes for new ones." Now the money has been found, and the Il-96T will resume flying by May 20th 1999. In 1998, the Il-96T completed a flight test program under the US/Russian bilateral aviation agreement on mutual recognition of national certificates and certification procedures, which funded by the US. In total, under the “shadow FAA certification" program the Il-96T performed 593 flights, lasting 1242 hours. Mr Novozhilov said that all FAA requirements but two have been met and those unresolved will be dealt with in the next two months. The first is dynamic tests on pilot seats for withstanding of 16 g loading factor. The second relates to “verification of software". Ilyushin hopes to get FAR-25 certificate for the IL-96T in summer 1999

Article ID: 508