Russian cargo aircraft: photo, review, characteristics

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The task of moving goods from point A to point B can be solved in various ways. The fastest, but also the most expensive, is the use of aviation. Cargo aircraft in Russia are used both to meet the needs of the Armed Forces and in the national economy.

General classification

Cargo is also transported by passenger planes, but for them this is a passing task. To solve it as the main one, a whole family of aviation equipment has been created. There are two large groups of these machines: ramp aircraft and cargo with a side door. The bulk of cargo is transported by the second type, the first is used for military purposes and for the transportation of non-standard oversized cargo. Photos of Russian cargo aircraft of various types can be seen in the article.

Side door

With the development of cargo transportation, almost all major airports began to have the necessary handling equipment. Cargoes are transported in standard containers. This makes it redundant to have appropriate mechanismsdirectly on board the cargo aircraft. Therefore, from an economic point of view, an aircraft with a side door will always be more efficient than a ramp one. If only because of the lightweight construction.

Usually these are converted passenger planes or aircraft built on their platform. Such cargo aircraft in Russia are represented by the Il-96-400T, Tu-204S, Il-114T models. Mechanisms can be used to transport containers and standard cargo. Unfortunately, there are very few of them in operation.

Russian airlines mainly use Western equipment for these purposes. And the reason here is very banal. A small number of aircraft in operation objectively leads to poor maintenance. For several flying machines, the creation of a network of warehouses and technical centers is absolutely irrational. Vicious circle.

Ramp

A feature of these machines is their autonomy from airport equipment. They are equipped with winches, hoists and other devices that allow the crew to carry out all the necessary loading and unloading operations. Russian military cargo planes are of this type. There are also civilian versions of aircraft. Their difference lies in the absence of a number of systems that allow them to perform combat missions. For example, the airborne defense system, sighting systems and a number of others.

This family of Russian cargo aircraft is represented by a fairly large variety of models, mainly developed in the Antonov and Ilyushin Design Bureau. Unlike aircraft with a side door,these machines are in operation both in airlines and in the Armed Forces, with the bulk - in the army. Many of them are left in other countries.

Development and production

After the collapse of the USSR, our country did not have the opportunity to independently produce ramp cargo aircraft. Design facilities were concentrated in Kyiv, and production facilities were concentrated in Ukraine and Uzbekistan, which became independent states. This seriously aggravated the general problem of disruption of cooperation ties and shortage of components, including for machines in operation.

In recent years, Ukraine has ceased all cooperation, and Uzbekistan has liquidated its production capacity for the production of cargo aircraft for Russia. Therefore, in 2004, a decision was made to organize the production of ramp aircraft of the Il-76 family in our country. Currently, such production has already been organized in Ulyanovsk.

All Russian cargo planes can be divided into 4 classes depending on their carrying capacity. It is advisable to consider them in more detail.

Superheavy aircraft

This type includes the An-124 aircraft, which has unique characteristics in terms of carrying capacity and flight range, as well as the size of the cargo compartment. It is no secret that it was developed as a strategic transporter capable of crossing the ocean to deliver military supplies. Today, these machines are actively used forensuring operations in Syria.

Many samples of military equipment in service can only be transported by these aircraft. By the way, they were produced mainly in Russia, and not in Ukraine. The main photo shows exactly this aircraft

Heavy aircraft

The largest fleet of Russian cargo aircraft in operation is represented by this type. These are various modifications of the Il-76 aircraft made in Tashkent. A little less than a thousand of them were produced, and a significant part of them are still in operation. Recently, deliveries of an upgraded version of the Il-76MD-90A aircraft manufactured by Ulyanovsk Aviastar have begun.

The Il-96-400T cargo aircraft with a side door, on the basis of which a new wide-body passenger car will be created, also belongs to heavy aircraft. Also in this class, the An-22 "Antey" aircraft, which, unfortunately, was in operation in a single copy, should be noted.

Medium aircraft

Russian medium cargo aircraft include vehicles with a carrying capacity of up to 20 tons. At present, all ramp equipment is actually represented by one An-12 aircraft. This class also includes a cargo aircraft developed in Russia - the Tu-204S, which is in operation. The development of a new ramp medium cargo aircraft Il-276 is underway. Initially, it was planned as a result of the joint work of Russia and India. However, the Indian partners actually abandoned the idea, first freezing the project and then unofficially closing it.

Although jointthe Russian-Indian design team in Moscow has been actively working on the creation of a draft design for a year. The main reason for the Indians to leave the project is serious inconsistencies in the requirements for the aircraft due to differences in the climatic and relief features of the two countries.

Light aircraft

Aircraft of this class have a small carrying capacity - up to 10-12 tons, and are used to solve tactical problems of transportation over short distances. They are represented by old ramp aircraft An-72, An-32, An-26, L-410. As well as new Russian cargo aircraft, which are in the process of being prepared for production. This is an Il-114T aircraft with a side door and a new ramp Il-112V.

Key Features

The carrying capacity of Russian cargo aircraft, photos and their main characteristics are summarized in the following table:

Airplane	Type	Max cargo- rise. (tonnes)	Max off. weight (tonnes)	Qty prod. (pieces)	Cargo cabin dimensions (meters)	Max speed km/h	Max. range with max. load (km)
An-124	R	120	392	55	6, 4x4, 4	865	4800
An-22	R	60	225	69	4, 4x4, 4	650	5200
IL-96-400T	D	92	270	5	3, 45х3, 4	850	5000
IL-76 (Uzbekistan)	R	48	190	950	3, 45x3, 4	850	3800
IL-76MD-90A (Russia)	R	60	210	5	3, 45x3, 4	850	4000
Tu-204S	D	30	110	12	3, 4x2, 08	850	3900
An-12	R	21	61	1248	3, 5x2, 6	660	1800
IL-276	R	20	68	0	3, 45х3, 4	870	2100
An-72/74	R	7, 5	32	200	2, 2x2, 15	870	2700
An-26	R	5	24	1400	2, 2x1, 6	540	1100
IL-112	R	5	21, 4	0	2, 42х2, 45	550	1000
IL-114	D	7	23, 5	5	3, 25х1, 71	685	1000

Status and prospects

Combination of Soviet heritage, presencea large number of design bureaus and aircraft factories, competition between them - all this led to the heterogeneity of the fleet of cargo aircraft. Moreover, each aircraft has several versions or modifications. The 4 types of machines of different brands in operation and production are characterized by low unification, which makes their maintenance difficult and expensive.

The production of the entire range of ramp cargo aircraft from super-heavy to light in one country is generally a unique phenomenon. Moreover, there can be no talk of large-scale production, since the main customer is the army, and the main source of funds is the state budget.

In the USA, only heavy and medium aircraft are produced from ramp aviation, in Europe - medium and light aircraft. In Russia, in addition to the heavy Il-76, the following vehicles are at various stages of preparation:

• light IL-112V;
• medium IL-276;
• super heavy PAK TA.

As for the devices with a side door, they are manufactured within the existing capacity for the production of passenger aircraft and are almost completely unified. Moreover, decommissioned passenger aircraft are often converted into trucks. In Russia, everything is within the framework of global trends. Aircraft with a side door are also being produced or planned for production, as are passenger aircraft modifications. These are Il-96, Tu-204 and Il-114.