Aeroflot Soviet Il-86 Documentary
Video from the channel Nico Delano Leo about Ilyushin Il-86, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 14:08. Video type: Archive footage.
What it shows
A Soviet promotional film introducing the Ilyushin Il-86, the USSR's first wide-body airliner. It frames growing passenger traffic and presents the aircraft as the answer: a double-deck design, with passenger cabins on the upper deck and baggage and container holds below. It covers bench testing of the flight control system, with control surfaces split into sections and duplicated systems, electro-impulse anti-icing protection, manufacturing with automatic machines, surface treatment of parts with tiny projectiles, honeycomb panels and the flight simulator.
When and where it was filmed
It was filmed in the Soviet Union around the time the Il-86 entered regular service, which the narration presents as a new stage in civil aviation. It features general designer Guenrikh Novozhilov, who recalls the Ilyushin design bureau's more than 30 years of work on passenger aircraft, as well as the chief test pilot and a Polish aviation industry executive.
Context
The narration credits the aircraft with 350 passengers, four Nikolai Kuznetsov turbofan engines with 52,000 kgf of combined thrust, runways no longer than 2,600 m, a payload of 42 t, three built-in stairways, the "carry-on baggage" system and a crew of two pilots and a flight engineer. Poland, as part of Council for Mutual Economic Assistance cooperation, manufactured parts such as the wing mechanisation, engine pylons and tail unit.