Russia's Aviastar aircraft plant has completed the first flying prototype of the Ilyushin Il-76MD-90A transport aircraft and sent it off for test-flights, the plant's general director, Sergei Dementyev, said on Thursday.
The plant has built two of the modernized aircraft, he said.
"The first one can only partly be called a plane - it is a testbed we sent to TsAGI (the central aerodynamics institute) in Moscow last year. Today, we completed the second. In addition we have also started building three production-standard aircraft. Assembly of the first of these three production planes will start in August," he said.
The factory plans to build 16 of the aircraft per year by 2016, for which the plant will take on an additional 5,000 staff he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry has a stated requirement in its rearmament plan for 90 of the modernized transport aircraft, he said, but no company contract has yet been signed. Aviastar foresees a total production run of around 190 aircraft, with likely civilian customers including Russian cargo airlines Volga-Dnepr and Polet, as well as possible exports to China, India and Israel.
The new aircraft is fitted with the PS-90A turbofan in place of the older D-30 engine, increasing the aircraft's speed, range, and cargo capacity, which is up from 52 to 60 tons. The modernized Il-76MD090A, also known as the Il-476, also has new cockpit avionics allowing a smaller flight crew.
"It's a completely new plane," said Chief Designer Sergei Urasov, "which completely differs from its predecessor in terms of systems."
The Soviet Union produced hundreds of early model Il-76s at its Tashkent factory in Uzbekistan in the 1970s and 1980s. The Il-76 is capable of landing on rough strips and carrying large cargos, and remains popular with outsize cargo airlines and many air forces across the world.
