The Ilyushin IL-76 was a fixed wing, four-engine turbofan designed in 1967 by the Soviet Union’s Ilyushin Design Bureau as a commercial cargo ship to replace the Antonov An-12.
Originally, it was developed to provide a lot of equipment to remote areas that do not have of good quality soil facilities, which only flew in March 1971. The IL -76 could carry a large variety of heavy load, and with its ramp system it much needed little loading equipment and was therefore ideal for large or heavy objects that could not be transported by air at the time.
The plane was devised in 1967 to meet the need for a cargo ship that can handle a load of 40 tonnes for up to 5,000 kilometers in about six hours. The aircraft, which was mainly built for military purposes, could work from short, rough air strips and handle extreme weather conditions as in Siberia and the Arctic region.
The main disadvantage and final downfall as a commercial cargo ship was because it was very noisy and did not meet international noise boundaries. Thanks to the ability to carry heavy loads to poor landing conditions, it has become a popular transportation for emergency response for the delivery of humanitarian aid and disaster relief around the world.
Specialized models were subsequently manufactured for firefighting. In the 1990s, modernized larger variants, also equipped with Soloviev D-30 Turbofan engines, were developed, but only a few were actually built. After 2004, some IL76s were modernized to the IL-76TD-90vd-with a newly developed PS-90 engine that met the European noise restrictions.
Over the next decade, different improvements and changes have been added, but new fuel and noise-effective aircraft developed by Boeing and Airbus have complied with increasingly strict regulations and the old Workhorse cargo ship has disappeared from airports. The upgraded aircraft are still in use for military and firefighters in different regions of the world.
The post that the Soviet Working Pore first appeared on Air Cargo Week.
