Ilyushin Il-96

The Il-96 grew out of the long-range version of the Il-86, whose weak point was precisely its range. That project, the Il-86D, envisaged a longer-range version powered by Lotarev D-18 engines, and that line of work eventually evolved into the Il-96. The result was an aircraft with an entirely new supercritical wing tipped with winglets, quieter and more economical engines, a glass cockpit with six colour displays, inertial and satellite navigation, a traffic collision avoidance system and fly-by-wire controls. The Il-96-300 was launched in 1985 and the prototype flew on 28 September 1988, powered by four 157 kN Aviadvigatel PS-90A turbofans.

Aeroflot opened services on 29 December 1992 and operated seven aircraft delivered between 1992 and 1994; the last of them, RA-96007, was retired and sold to Cubana in 2015. The family branched into three lines: the basic Il-96-300; the Il-96M, stretched by ten metres, fifteen tonnes heavier and fitted with Western avionics and Pratt & Whitney PW2337 engines for 312 passengers in three classes; and the Il-96-400, equivalent to the latter but with Russian avionics and PS-90A1 engines, able to carry up to 436 passengers. The Il-96M/T never materialised after the US Export-Import Bank suspended financing talks for its engines and avionics under pressure from Boeing. In 2005 Russia grounded the Il-96-300 fleet indefinitely over faults in the braking systems, weeks after a technical glitch forced President Putin to use a back-up aircraft.

The Il-96-300PU, adapted as a command post, is the backbone of the Russian presidential fleet: five aircraft have served Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, operated by a special squadron of Rossiya Airlines. In February 2013 Cubana signed for three 350-seat Il-96-400s. The Il-96-400T freighter spent most of its life in storage until December 2023, when Sky Gates leased an overhauled example to carry cargo to and from Russia. The most recent derivative, the Il-96-400M, with a fuselage 9.65 m longer than the Il-96-300 and a planned 390 seats, was rolled out on 7 June 2023 and made its first flight on 1 November that year. By 2026 two decommissioned Il-96s had been restored to service in response to the shrinking Russian civil fleet. In its entire operating history no accident has caused the death of a passenger or crew member.