The Il-96 Gets Lighter — A Major Shift in Russian Aviation

Video from the channel Altitude Addicts about Ilyushin Il-96, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 11:36. Language: English. Video type: News.

According to the video, the Ilyushin Il-96 has reduced its empty weight by around 400 kg thanks to the adoption, in the 2020s, of fly-by-wire flight controls. This system replaces part of the mechanical cables, pulleys and rods with electrical signals interpreted by onboard computers, and the redesigned configuration passed certification testing.

The Il-96 is a long-range, wide-body four-engine aircraft developed by the Ilyushin design bureau in the late Soviet era, partly derived from the Il-86. It first flew in 1988 and entered commercial service in the early 1990s. It is about 55.3 m long, nearly 60 m in wingspan and 17.6 m tall, with a fuselage around 6.1 m in diameter. It has a supercritical wing and winglets. According to the video, its conservative structural margins made it heavy: the early Il-96-300 versions had an operating empty weight of around 120 tonnes and a maximum take-off weight of about 250 tonnes. Earlier improvements focused on high-bypass turbofan engines and digital avionics.

Although the reduction is small compared with the aircraft's mass, the video presents it as a step towards current engineering practices: less fuel burn, more payload margin and, in some configurations, more range, which already stands at around 11,500 km. It points to further reductions through wiring optimisation, lighter interiors and more efficient engines. Even so, it acknowledges that a legacy platform will hardly match designs conceived with composite materials.