IL-86 - Features of the Soviet Giant

The largest Soviet civilian aircraft, an object of admiration and criticism, adoration and ridicule. Its appearance is impressive and its description raises countless questions. Hello, Yator Sky here, and today we meet the first Soviet wide-body airliner and one of the most unusual in its kind. I present to you the Il-86. In the 1960s, the world of air travel was in full swing. Flying, once considered an exclusive experience, had become a routine mode of travel. But it was also in full swing in a bad way. The infrastructure couldn't keep up with the growth of traffic. And it wasn't even the crowds of passengers in the terminals that were the problem. Hundreds of planes were crowded outside, on the ground and in the sky. Airways began to resemble highways on land, with traffic jams and delays. This was inconvenient, uneconomical and downright dangerous. The slightest mistake could lead to disaster. Naturally, the situation was not a happy one, and solutions had to be found. There were many ideas. Enlarge airports, increase their capacity, increase aircraft speed so fewer would be needed, or increase the size of aircraft. The first option developed naturally, but it wasn't a solution. Upgrading airports, or even building new ones by the dozens and hundreds, is, to put it mildly, an expensive undertaking. The second option was realized, giving birth to the supersonic 2144 and Concorde, but, as we know, it wasn't a solution either. A third option emerged. Increasing the size and capacity of aircraft allowed for the transportation of many more people at once, requiring fewer planes, significantly reducing the load on airfields and air routes. Furthermore, increasing the number of passengers per flight improves the profitability of operations, which is important for airlines. Yes, this option is called a wide-body airliner, a huge aircraft with a wide cabin, two aisles and a capacity for several hundred passengers. In 1969, Queen of the Skies, the Boeing 747, took flight, not only a pioneer of a new era, but also a record-breaker, a four-engine, double-deck, long-range giant. Other manufacturers didn't compete directly with the Queen. Being slightly smaller, they pushed for greater flexibility. Thus, in 1970, wide-body trijets took off, the Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011. Europe, with its own unique features, took a slightly different path. In 1972, the A300, the first creation of the fledgling Airbus group, took to the sky. This aircraft's distinctive feature was its twin-engine configuration, the most fuel-efficient, but with its own limitations in capacity and range. Despite enormous risks and numerous challenges, the concept proved exceptionally successful. The A300 became the forerunner of many modern airliners, and one of the reasons why this quaint European company has become a global aviation leader in our time. The Soviet Union also had its own unique challenges. On the one hand, passenger traffic wasn't as high as in its counterparts, but on the other, overheating was still a problem. Another problem was infrastructure. Hundreds of airports were scattered across the country, many of which were not designed to handle large airliners. So initially, compromises were sought here. One such project was the IL-62M-250. Based on the IL-62M, it was supposed to have a shorter range, a stretched fuselage, and a decent 250-seat capacity. But things didn't work out. The narrow-body aircraft's long cabin became a tube, and given the tighter layout, it became downright uncomfortable. There were other ideas, such as passenger versions of the IL-76, or UN-22 military transports, but they never progressed beyond the basic designs. Fortunately. The time for compromise was over. It was clear that only a civilian wide-body fuselage, and therefore a new aircraft, could solve the problem. A full-scale research program was initiated to determine what kind of aircraft the country needed. Engineers and airlines came to the following conclusions. A wide-body airliner with a capacity of 350 seats, and a range of 3,600 to 5,800 kilometers, depending on the load. Interesting. This would effectively be a medium-haul aircraft with a range roughly similar to the Tu-154, but with twice the capacity to alleviate the busiest medium-haul routes. Europe, with its high traffic volumes and a small area, initially followed the same path, while the Americans were clearly aiming for long-haul, transcontinental, and transatlantic routes. These requirements were compounded by additional demands from airports and airflot. The problem was on the ground. Airport conditions required operating on runways up to 2,600 meters long, which is quite short, and maintaining pressure on the pavement of those runways at the level of previous aircraft. And this wasn't enough. A large aircraft requires extensive equipment for handling and loading luggage and passengers, large ramps and other such equipment, which many airports might not have had. And without it, the flight preparation process could become excessively complicated and long, which is undesirable. It was immediately decided that the aircraft would be designed to be as lenient as possible on airport equipment, and this primarily concerned baggage handling. Various options were considered, ranging from let passengers carry their own baggage to we'll make regular containers and the airports will figure it out, as they had done on other giant airliners. Similar solutions could be seen on other aircraft, but it's one thing to have a small regional jet and quite another to have a 350-seat behemoth. This is precisely what ultimately transformed a fairly ordinary wide-body airliner into the exotic brainchild of a shadowy communist genius. And so, in 1970, all these requirements reached the Ilyushin Design Bureau. The choice of Ilyushin was obvious, they already had experience building large aircraft. The Il-62 and Il-76 both were capable, large aircraft. Ilyushins immediately set to work. Layouts were chosen, numerous mock-ups of the aircraft and its components were tested in wind tunnels. Structural engineers tried to understand how to make this giant reliable and durable. And power plant specialists decided where to mount the engines, under the wing or on the tail, as on the Il-62. We can see the results of their work in person, at the training center of the MSTU-CA, Moscow State Technical University of Civil Aviation. The proud owner of one of these aircraft, now used for student education. When choosing the fuselage layout, all sorts of exotic options were considered, such as a wide oval fuselage and a horizontal double bubble. These looked impressive, but they were risky, would have required enormous costs and offered no significant benefits. A double deck option was also discarded. The required capacity was less than that of the Boeing 747 and especially than that of the A380. And without it, all these humps and second decks were pointless. Eventually, a conventional single piece circular fuselage was chosen, with a diameter of 6 meters and 8 centimeters. Smaller than the Boeing 747 and slightly larger than the DC-10 and L-1011. These dimensions provided decent interior volume, comfort and layout flexibility. The fuselage, however, was still quite long, almost 60 meters. Longer than any wide body aircraft of the time. Again, with the exception of the Boeing 747. The wing was quite a toil. The overall low wing configuration was chosen right away, it was clear. But the aircraft needed to have a high cruising speed and a low take-off and landing speed. This presented a challenging task for the designers. The solution was a 48 meter span wing with a decent sweep angle of 35 degrees, designed for high speed cruise. Advanced high lift devices ensured the aircraft remained stable at low speeds. Large flaps, equally large leading edge slats, plus a full complement of spoilers and ailerons. To improve the efficiency of the solid leading edge slats, the engines were even positioned slightly lower to move the pylons out of the way. And small fins were added to the upper wing to stabilize the airflow. The aircraft's tail unit is a single fin with a horizontal stabilizer and a full complement of control surfaces. Everything is certainly large, but classic. Nothing particularly exotic. Thanks to the fin, the aircraft's height reached 15.8 meters. Since we're talking about the wing, let's also talk about its contents, the fuel tanks. There are six of them and they hold the entire reserve. This is generally accepted. But actually, the Il-86 has another tank in the center section, but it has a nuance. It's usually not filled, but used for fuel transfer, balancing the aircraft's center of gravity and other such things. Full tanks hold 88 tons of jet fuel, enough for a 3,800 km flight with a full load and 5,250 km ferry trip. By the way, in the video about the Il-62, my comment about the Il-96 replacing the Il-62 raised the question, what about the Il-86? The fact is, the Il-62 was a long-haul aircraft with a range of 10,000 km. The Il-86 was a medium-haul aircraft and was more likely to compete with the Tu-154 than the Il-62. The Il-86's maximum takeoff weight reached 215 tons, and this presented a challenge for the landing gear designers. It had to not only support this weight, but also exert pressure on the airfield pavement, roughly the same as the Tu-154, which was half the weight and, it's worth noting, was also quite the off-roader. The weight needed to be distributed over a large area, which meant more wheels. So, to the standard tricycle setup, a fourth leg was added in the center. The nose gear is two-wheeled, while the three main gears are four-wheeled. The Il-86 received the most powerful landing gear of any wide-body airliner of the time, with the exception, of course, of the Boeing 747. This, despite the fact that the L-1011 had heavier versions than the Il-86, but it was limited to a two-leg main landing gear, while the DC-10 added a third leg to its heavier versions, weighing nearly 250 tons. One of the main challenges facing the Il-86 designers was its powerplant. In aviation, it's often said that an aircraft is built around its engine, and for the competitors, that was generally true. If you look at the powerplant descriptions of all the wide-body airliners of that time, you'll see the same names. Pratt & Whitney JT9D, General Electric CF6, and Rolls-Royce RB211. These large turbofan engines generated enormous thrust for the time, and thanks to innovative solutions and a high bypass ratio, were also quite fuel-efficient. And the Soviet Union didn't have such engines. The first domestically produced large turbofans, like the D-18 or PS-90, only appeared in the 1980s, and the Yushin couldn't wait 10 years for them. They had to work with what they had. Even during the design stage, the engineers focused on the D-30KP engine, which they had already installed on the Il-76. However, over time, their focus shifted to another option, the NK-8, or more precisely, its top-of-the-line modification, which was to be developed specifically for the Il-86. Thus, the NK, surprise, 86 appeared. The engine that incorporated the best of what engineers had at the time. Updated materials and design, sound-absorbing coatings, electronic controls, safety systems, and so on. Moreover, reliability issues with the conservative design were not expected. Aviators had suffered greatly with the first generation of large turbofans. Its thrust was modest for a wide body, 13 tons-force. The bypass ratio was only 1.17, and fuel consumption was high, but the Yushin engineers had to cope. A compromise, of course, but there weren't many options. Four engines were mounted on pylons under the wing. Given the relatively small cross-section of these barrels, this gave the engineers some flexibility. They could make the pylons larger and mount the engines higher, to minimize the risk of foreign object ingestion. The combination of the airframe and powerplant performance gave the aircraft impressive flight performance. A service ceiling of 12 km, a cruising speed of 900 km per hour, and a maximum of 950 km per hour. Most modern aircraft don't fly that fast, although older aircraft still chasing speed records could. Of course, to provide additional power, the VSU-10 auxiliary power unit was installed in the tail. The aircraft's flight control system, as befits the Yushin design, combined healthy conservatism and advanced design. The Il-86 features four independent hydraulic systems, and very decent automation. All this hydro-booster mechanical beauty leads us into the nose of the aircraft to our favorite spot, the cockpit. From the outside, the wide, minimalist glazing, instead of complex assemblies with a bunch of small windows, immediately catches the eye. A modern solution. The cockpit is large and spacious. Considering the aircraft's size, it even feels a bit empty. The crew consists of four. Two pilots, navigator on the left, and flight engineer on the right. Generally speaking, it's a standard setup for the 1970s. The seats are comfortable and adjustable, and the rear pair even slides on rails from their stations to the center console. For instance, when the flight engineer's input is needed. Avionics, a scattering of switches, toggles, and analog indicators for every need. The designer's special pride is the digital navigation system, which has significantly simplified the crew's work, and with upgrades, freed up the navigator's place in the cockpit. A pair of large yokes are mounted in front of the pilots. Well, enough beating around the bush. It's time to talk about what directly affects passengers. The luggage-at-hand plus containers concept, and the plane's overall autonomy, made traveling quite an unusual experience. The IL-86 has its own retractable air stairs in the lower fuselage. It's a rare practice, but still, it happens. This can be seen, for example, on low-cost airlines, which also use them to reduce boarding time and be independent from the airport's infrastructure. We approach one of these air stairs and descend to the lower deck, where we find ourselves in a room with racks where we store our luggage. After that, we climb a large staircase to the upper deck, into the passenger cabin. It looks cool. You immediately realize you're in a huge airplane. There are three air stairs, which means three rooms with racks and three staircases. Meanwhile, the regular baggage compartments for containers, albeit small, remain. The same applies to the upper passenger doors. There are eight of them, two standard ones in the nose and tail, and two closer to the wing, emergency ones. So, let's say, the usual access is also possible, through the airstrip or via the airport ramp. The upper deck is almost entirely occupied by the passenger cabin, divided into three sections, each accessible by its own staircase from below. The standard cabin configuration is two aisles, with six seats in a 2-plus-2-plus-2 layout in luxury, and nine seats in a 3-plus-3-plus-3 layout in the tourist cabin. Yes, luxury and tourist are the Soviet versions of the business and economy class, more or less the same as similar aircraft. Meanwhile, the wider fuselage, and therefore the cabin, allowed for slightly wider aisles, making boarding and disembarking faster and more convenient. Depending on the configuration, capacity could vary from 234 to 350 seats, as originally planned. One detail that seems unusual today is the cabin's clear ceiling, without the middle hand luggage compartments. In fact, this was common practice on wide-body airliners of the time. Visual volume was greater, and people mostly checked their luggage, rather than carrying it into the cabin. Later, of course, luggage became more expensive, and there was more of it, so the central bins we know today were also added. In terms of amenities, there are three wardrobes near the stairs, two lavatories in the bow, six more in the tail, plus two small galleys. And when you look at these galleys, you might wonder, two tiny rooms with a bunch of small drawers and sinks, but where's the food for 350 people, not counting the crew? The IL-86's forward galley is two-story. Yes, you can go downstairs, and find yourself in a room where all the inflight meals are stored and prepared, loaded onto trolleys and sent upstairs in special elevators. The tasty cargo is also delivered here from outside, through its own door. The staircase here is of course simpler than on the 2-114, but it all works more efficiently. There are many more people to feed, and there's plenty of freed-up cabin space. The IL-86's sheer size is clearly noticeable here. Through the service doors, you can easily explore the entire lower deck, the kitchen, instrument and baggage compartments, even in flight. The only unreachable part from here is the center section, which is occupied by the main landing gear base, the central fuel tank, and a number of onboard systems. Although, I don't know, maybe it is possible to get there, but I decided to adhere to the rule of, you know, not sticking my head into the air conditioning system. But it's quite dark here. Numerous companies in both the USSR and the Eastern Bloc countries participated in the development of the IL-86. For example, some components were manufactured by the Polish PZL Mielec, which is now part of Lockheed Martin. The prototype was completed in 1976 and made its maiden flight on December 22nd. The aircraft immediately demonstrated excellent performance and, in the summer of 1977, departed for the Paris Air Show. Subsequent testing was extensive, but without any major problems. It concluded in 1980, when the IL-86 was certified and finally entered passenger routes. Serial production was established at the Voronezh Aviation Plant, which reached its peak output of 10 aircraft in 1985. Demand was there and it had to be met. The first steps were successful. The aircraft's undemanding nature and the luggage-at-hand concept proved their worth. The airliner quickly established itself and airports began operating it with only minor upgrades. Colleagues handling foreign giants had a more difficult time in this regard. The Queen demanded royal treatment. The size also played a role. The full-sized wide-body airliner was far more comfortable than any other Soviet aircraft. Its economic performance also improved. The increased passenger capacity reduced operating costs. By the way, Ilyushins have once again proven their ability to build reliable and safe aircraft. Over the course of its service, the airliner suffered only six incidents, two of which resulted in fatal crashes. Only one, in 2002, can be attributed to the aircraft itself, when it crashed shortly after takeoff, thankfully during a ferry flight, without passengers. The second incident in India in 1994 cannot be blamed on the IL. Another aircraft essentially crashed into it while it was parked at the airport. And sorry, no amount of redundancy can help here. Of course, the design bureau was actively developing modifications for its new flagship. In the early 1980s, the IL-86V was developed, with a stretched fuselage and a compact cabin layout, capable of accommodating as many as 450 passengers. A semi-mythical project, about which there is more speculation than actual information. But that's not so important, it never materialized. The Ilyushin team concentrated on the IL-86D project, which I'll discuss later. Next came the military version, the IL-80, also known as the IL-86VZPU, also known as the IL-86VKP, also known as the Maxdome by NATO classification. A command and control aircraft with all the unusual elements, designed to control armed forces during war, including nuclear war. A cousin of the American doomsday plane, the Boeing E-4B. Only four were built, one of which was seen at the 2010 Victory Day parade. As if in some other era. The IL-86 was quickly offered for export to friendly countries. They were slated for delivery to Poland and East Germany. But the work dragged on until the late 1980s, and then airlines decided not to buy them, clearly favoring Boeing and Airbus creations. During the Soviet era, Aeroflot remained the sole operator of the IL-86, and the only export shipment from the newly formed Russia, were the three aircraft sent to China in the early 1990s. The collapse of the USSR dealt a severe blow to the aviation industry. The IL delivery dropped to a handful, and in 1997 production ended with 106 units, including both serial planes and prototypes. The planes suddenly found themselves in the fleets of numerous airlines, fragments of Aeroflot, in various countries where they continued to fly on busy and charter flights. In fact, one of these airliners once became the first plane to lift me into the sky. And even then it was clear that the IL-86's time was over. The airliner's main problem was its power plant. Lacking access to new turbofan engines, IL engineers installed the NK-86. Proven and reliable, yes, but conceptually obsolete. These engines were inferior to the latest models, both in fuel consumption and noise levels. And, crucially, in thrust. It was woefully insufficient. The NK-86 had a thrust of 28,600 pounds-force, meaning the four engines combined produced 114,400 pounds-force. For example, the RB-211 engines from the L-1011 produced a whopping 50,000 pounds-force. Even though there were three of them, the total thrust reached 150,000 pounds-force, a third more, while the difference in weight between the airliners was relatively small. The thrust-to-weight ratio deficit prompted a joke among aviators that the IL-86 only takes off because of the curvature of the Earth. But jokes aside, it's clear that the Ilyushin team was forced to create this enormous aircraft under severe and numerous restrictions. And there were also requirements to reduce runway length and pavement pressure, and that meant more powerful high-lift devices and landing gear, which also weighed a fair bit. Some tricks had to be employed. I fully admit that the luggage-at-hand plus containers concept arose not only from the need to simplify aircraft maintenance, but also from the initial understanding that the 350-seat aircraft, created using the conventional design with large baggage compartments and fuel tanks on the lower deck, would be prohibitively heavy. And even with all the foresight of the engineers, the aircraft still had operating limitations, for example in hot and high conditions. Therefore, in southern regions, they tried to fly in the morning or evening, when it was cooler, or with a reduced load. Otherwise, they risked overrunning the runway during take-off. The irony was that, over time, this problem was solved by making the runways longer. But by then, the concept itself had lost its relevance. The equipment had also become available, and airports could handle everything themselves. The Il-86 found itself in a situation where its bonuses were no longer particularly useful, and all the retractable ramps, baggage rooms and stairs still needed to be carried around. I'll immediately answer the question that might arise when describing the aircraft's fuel system. Why is the tank in the center section usually left empty? Yes, again, due to thrust limitations and, consecutively, take-off weight. With a full payload, it was simply impossible to completely fill the tanks. The plane just wouldn't take off. They had to balance the load within the allotted 215 tons. Combined with the engine's gluttonous fuel consumption, this impacted range. Yes, the airliner was originally conceived as a medium-haul aircraft, but frankly, 3800 kilometers isn't a significant range for such a colossus. Airbuses' medium-haul, widebody concept also didn't quite work out, but they managed to increase the range through improvements and increased engine thrust. One might, of course, ask why the Ilyushin team didn't modify it in the same way. Didn't they understand all this? They understood it perfectly well. Back in the 1970s, when the Il-86 was still being developed, they were already developing the Il-86D, which was intended to become a fully-fledged long-range aircraft, and ultimately replaced the Il-62. But new engines were still unavailable. It wasn't until the late 1980s when it received its fiery heart, the PS-90A. This aircraft was finally born, and it's still flying. Yes, the Il-86D is the Il-96. The 86's life was drawing to a close. It was efficient in the Soviet economy. Even in the 1990s, airlines continued to fly it, but only until they could replace it with more efficient machines. And at the beginning of the 21st century, when noise regulations were tightened, the aircraft became even more difficult to fly. It was too loud. Thus, its use ceased. In January 2011, an Il-86 made a charter flight to Turkey, returned home, and that was it. It has not flown commercially since. Nowadays, only command and control aircraft can be seen in the skies. Well, the Il-86 is undoubtedly a landmark aircraft for Soviet civil aviation. It had its strengths, the result of the designer's engineering achievements, and its weaknesses, largely the result of technological limitations of the time. In any case, it has no shortage of originality. Walking around this colossus is quite an unusual experience. Thanks to the MSTU-CA team for allowing me to get acquainted with this giant in person. And you, enthusiasts of aviation, big and small, let me know what you think of this Soviet flagship. Fast flights in comfortable planes, and soft landings to you.