The Story of the Ilyushin Il-86 and Il-96

Video from the channel Ruairidh MacVeigh about Ilyushin Il-96, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 24:24. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

A documentary on Ilyushin's two wide-body airliners: the Il-86, the Soviet answer to large Western airliners, and the Il-96, its long-range derivative. It covers their design, manufacturing, commercial careers and accidents.

In the late 1960s the USSR called for a wide-body airliner, the Aerobus project, seating 350 and able to operate from class B airfields with limited infrastructure. In 1969 an Antonov proposal based on the An-22 was rejected, and on 8 September that year the task passed to Ilyushin. The result was an original design with built-in airstairs and a hold beneath the cabin where passengers stowed their own baggage. With no suitable engine available, the Il-62's Kuznetsov NK-8s were used, which were thirsty and noisy. Manufacturing was shared with Polish industry, at WSK-Mielec and PZL. Attempts to buy the L-1011 TriStar or General Electric CF6-50 engines fell through because of the Carter administration's policy toward the USSR. The Il-86 first flew on 22 December 1976 and made its first commercial flight on 26 December 1980, from Moscow to Tashkent. Its short range limited it to domestic and European routes, and 106 units were built by 1991.

The long-range Il-86D project was revived in 1985 as the Il-96: Aviadvigatel PS-90 engines, a fuselage 5 m shorter and 300 passengers in nine-abreast seating. It flew in September 1988 and entered service with Aeroflot on 19 December 1992, on routes such as New York and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Even so, its performance fell short of the A340 and the 777. The Il-96M, stretched 10 m for 340 passengers and fitted with Pratt & Whitney PW2000 engines, and the Il-96T freighter ended up in a dispute with Boeing that left Aeroflot's order at five units. Production never exceeded three aircraft a year. Cubana was its only foreign commercial operator, and Aeroflot retired the Il-86 in 2006 and the Il-96 in 2014. In 2005 the Il-96-300 fleet was grounded over brake failures. The only Il-96 lost, already retired, burned at Sheremetyevo on 3 June 2014.