How Does The Ilyushin Il-96 Differ From The Older Il-86 Model?

The Il-96 was shorter than the Il-86 and had a much longer range.

Today we will look at the differences between the 1970s-designed Ilyushin Il-86 and the 1980s-designed Ilyushin Il-96. As we were moving ever faster into the jet age in the 1960s, airlines were looking for larger aircraft that could carry double the amount of passengers.

The plan was to build a plane capable of carrying 400 passengers. Not wanting to get left behind and to show it, too, was capable of producing what, at the time, they were calling “aerobuses,” the Soviet Union wanted its own aerobus.

Antonov wanted to build a passenger version of the An-22

Soviet national flag carrier Aeroflot predicted that it would be flying over a million passengers a year within a decade, and it needed a large-capacity aircraft. The first Soviet planemaker to respond to the idea was

Antonov. They proposed building a passenger version of the An-22 military transport that could carry 724 passengers.

This number was later revised down to 605 passengers, with the upper deck seating 383 and the lower deck 223. Before it even got started, the Soviet leadership did not go ahead with the plane as they thought the design was old-fashioned and because the Antonov Design Bureau had close ties with deposed leader Nikita Khrushchev.

Ilyushin was selected to build the plane

In the end, the Soviet leadership turned to Ilyushin, who would manufacture a plane similar to the Douglas DC-8 based on their Il-62.

Ilyushin envisaged the planes first flight being in 1976 and that it would enter service with Aeroflot in time for the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

The first flight of the Il-86 took place on October 25, 1977, but the plane still needed to be finished in time for the Olympics. In the end, it wasn’t entering service with Aeroflot on December 26, 1980, several months after the summer games had ended.

Specifications and general characteristics of the Ilyushin Il-86

• Crew: 3–4 on the flight deck and 11 flight attendants.
• Accommodation: 320 or 350 passengers depending on the configuration.
• Length: 197 feet 7 inches
• Height: 51 feet 5 inches
• Wingspan: 157 feet 8 inches
• Wing area: 3,229 square feet
• MTOW: 474,000 lbs
• Payload capacity: 88,000–93,000 lbs
• Fuel capacity: 190,000 lbs
• Engines: 4 × Kuznetsov NK-86 turbofans
• Cruising speed: Mach 0.782 – Mach 0.82
• Range: 2,700 nautical miles
• Max. rate of climb: 2,950 feet per minute

The Ilyushin Il-96

As we got into the late 1980s, more fuel-efficient and less noisy engines were available, as were advancements in avionics and other technologies. Wanting to compete with Airbus and Boeing in the long-haul high-density marketplace, the Soviet Union asked Ilyushin to build an advanced widebody plane. After making the Il-86, the natural step would be to create a similar plane with better performance and fuel efficiency.

Ten feet shorter than the Il-86, the Il-96 could fly double the distance of the Il-86 and non-stop from Moscow to the United States West Coast. Notable differences and upgrades to the Il-86 include the following:

• A fly-by-wire control system
• It can be flown with a crew of two
• A satellite navigation system
• Multi-function LED display screens
• A Traffic Collision Avoidance System
• A glass cockpit
• Winglets

If you were to look at the two planes side by side, you would first notice that the Il-96 has a shorter fuselage than the Il-86. It also has larger diameter engines.