Ilyushin Il-62 Classic

The IL-62 is a long-range turbojet passenger airliner. For many years this airplane remained the flag aircraft of the national air fleet. This airplane is able to perform flights in adverse weather conditions, at all latitudes and at any time of the day.

On December 17, 1956 the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution that conferred the Chief Designer title to S.V. Ilyushin and charged him with a duty of Executive Director at Plant No. 240 of The Ministry of Aviation Industry (the MAI). In mid-1960-s the domestic airlines began to receive second-generation turbojet airplanes. These airplanes differed from the previous generation airplanes by higher speed and enhanced comfort for the passengers. The IL-62 designed by the ILYUSHIN team really represented the aircraft of that generation.

IL-62 was built in the Design Bureau. Ilyushin in the early 1960s, some time after the creation of the British Vickers VC-10. Externally, the fuselage of both aircraft is very similar. Of course, Soviet aircraft designers did not copy the plane completely. The fact is that the airports of the USSR were "imprisoned" only for domestic equipment. There could be no talk of any foreign technologies. The only bureau that had large resources and relative freedom of engineering was Ilyushin Design Bureau. And besides, in those years other design bureaus were engaged in more important developments, and they simply had no time for Western aircraft. IL-62 received other engines than its British counterpart. They became turbojet AL-7 RV. At that time, they were installed on the Su-7 and subsequent versions.

The layout engine aft fuselage, adopted by the Il-62, reduces noise, improves comfort, increases the fineness "clean" wing and the effectiveness of its mechanization, located across the scale wing. The application of this scheme chassis, developed by EDO (and patented in 9 countries including the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Japan), significantly reduced the weight and cost to create construction on the effectiveness of some weight equivalent planes with engines under the wing. Aerodynamic design sagittal wing with unusual speed form the front edge has provided strong resistance characteristics in the whole range of angles of attack. The T-shaped tail is much smaller than that of the aircraft-analogs, which reduced the mass of the aircraft and greatly simplified management system (deleted hydraulic booster). Fuel tanks (valve bends wing) are located throughout the body of the wing, including the center. IL-62 can take off safely complete failure of one engine, a cruising flight and landing approach - in case of failure of two engines. The reliability of all provided with multiple redundant systems.

The four engined Il-62 was the Soviet Union's first long range jetliner designed for intercontinental flights such as Moscow to New York nonstop. Designed for Aeroflot's intercontinental routes and looking more than a little like the British VC-10, the Il-62 made its first flight on 03 January 1963 (Crew CO's: V.K.Kokkinaki and E.I.Kuznetsov). This aircraft crashed on 25 February 1965. On this day, the crew of pilot test AS Lipko had to perform the 127th flight with a maximum takeoff weight. The plane left the ground at a great angle of attack and the lack of speed (as determined afterwards, because of a surge and the loss of traction by one of the engines). The crash killed ten, including the crew and lead designer P.V.Kazakov.

It is widely believed that four prototypes were built, including the one that crashed in 1965. Another was used solely for water tank pressurisation tests. In 1967 the aircraft was presented at the Paris Air Show, it had more powerful engines and increased weight, indicative of initial problems with both the airframe and engines.

It entered scheduled passenger services on 10 March 1967 from Moscow to Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk. The first scheduled international service was on 15 September 1967 to Montreal, following which the aircraft became a familiar sight all over the Aeroflot network.The IL-62 was certified to fly in accordance with Standards for Airworthiness of the ICAO for civil aircraft. These airplanes by their technical data were at the same level with the best foreign intercontinental airliners of the same generation. A number of leading industrial countries of the world even now used principally new type of landing gear designed for Il-62.

Airplane configuration with four engines placed in the rear part of the fuselage, rational "pure" wing shape with the effective wing aerodynamic devices ensured the optimal flight, take-off and landing characteristics, decreased the noise level inside the cabin, increased the passenger comfort level. The flight control navigation equipment, automatic control system, unique manual control system for a jumbo size aircraft combined with a multiple redundancy system of aggregates and the main parameters control system ensured the airplane high reliability and operational safety.

However, during operation, serious problems were identified. Firstly, the aircraft was equipped with outdated systems that lagged behind their Western counterparts. One of the main shortcomings, due to which the plane brought a lot of trouble, was the lack of duplication of aircraft control systems. By the way, most Western countries, if not all, demanded the presence of the above system. There were attempts to replace our obsolete equipment with new, western equipment, but Ilyushin Design Bureau did not want to take part in this.

Unreliable engines were also installed without taking into account some points. For example, if one of the engines failed, the others could also fail. The close proximity of engines during a breakdown could provoke the destruction or damage of aircraft controls. There were cases of depressurization of the rear of the cabin. The Soviets did not recognize obvious errors, ignoring the complaints of friendly countries that received IL-62 through exports from the USSR. After a series of setbacks, the designers developed a modernized version - the Il-62M. Unfortunately, there were also incidents with the new version of the aircraft.

The modification works of the IL-62 long-range passenger airplane began in 1969 at the Il'yushin design office. Flight tests of IL-62M aircraft were held in 1970- 1972. On 15 of February of 1972 a new serial modernized passenger IL-62M aircraft (Reg No SSSR-86656, Ser No 0901) made its first flight at the airdrome of Kazan Aviation Production Association named after S.P.Gorbunov. The crew chief was Hero of the Soviet Union, Boris Vyacheslavovich Mashkovtsev. The improved Il-62M appeared at the 1971 Paris Airshow and introduced more economical Soloviev D30KU turbofans, increased fuel capacity and modified mechanised cargo holds capable of housing containers. Regular passenger traffic at IL-62M started on the 8th of January of 1974, the first flight was made by the crew of P.G.Khmelnitsky. The IL-62M remains in operation till now. IL-62M aircraft operate on the most extended routes. In 1975 IL-62M made a flight from Moscow to Seattle (USA) through North Pole.

Finally the airplane was equipped with a more efficient turbojet engines designed by P.A.Soloviev. The engines were installed inside the nacelles that had improved aerodynamic shape. There was an additional fuel tank installed inside the airplane fin, and that modification increased the airplane flight range. The IL-62M airplane cruising speed finally increased, and the more effective double-slotted flaps allowed to reduce landing speed. The modified airplane was equipped with the luggage power-driven loading system, the modified stabilizer control system, the new steering control wheels (in order to improve vision for pilots and to provide for the standard instruments location at the pilots control panel), the improved auxiliary power plant designed for both the main engines start and cabin air conditioning.

The modernized IL-62M differs from the basic one with new more economizing and up-to-date D-30KU engines instead of NK-8-4 used before. Aerodynamic configuration of the engine body was also modernized. An additional fuel tank of 5000 liters volume was installed in the fin. All these enhanced operational range of the aircraft from 8 700 km to 10 000 km. Cruise speed increased from 850 km/h to 870 km/h. However geometric parameters of the aircraft weren’t changed, wing span was 42.5 m, its square was 279.55 sq m, length was 53.12 m, height was 12.35 m, landing gear tread was 6.8 m.

Roll power was increased at the modernized aircraft due to use of spoilers together with ailerons, tail authority was extended, more effective double-slotted flaps were fixed and a new equipment of reverse thrust was applied. New control panel, new steering wheel and lighting system were applied in the cockpit. The elements of the airframe related to increase of gross weight were enhanced. Improved navigation system and automatic control system provided for IL-62M feasibility of landing approach in meteorological minimum conditions as per 2nd ICAO category.

The first serial IL-62M was given to Domodedovo special aviation crew. In August of 1972 this aircraft participated in check joint flight with basic IL-62 (SSSR-86686) on the route Tokio-Moscow for comparing of flight performance of the two aircraft in the same weather conditions. The crew chief of IL-62M was K.N.Tskhovrebov, of IL-62 – S.V.Bondarenko. The average hourly fuel consumption of IL-62M was 6.8 tonnes, of IL-62 – 7.3 tonnes, where commercial load of IL-62M was three tones more. The flight time was 9:55 hours for IL-62M and 10:02 for IL-62.

Depending on the route mileage IL-62M appeared to carry commercial load by 43 percent more than the basic aircraft. So, for example IL-62M carried 18 tonnes when flew from the capital of USSR to the one of Japan, while IL-62 carried only 13 tonnes. The increase of commercial load together with high speed provided a considerable boost of economic efficiency of the aircraft. v Great work was done in the engine development in order to provide the cleanliness of the air taken from the compressor for air conditioning system, which delayed start of operation. Total 193 aircraft in various modifications were built. IL-62M stayed as a flagship of “Aeroflot” and the only long-range Soviet aircraft which could connect continents. It was always a symbol of reliability, safety and high comfort for passengers.

IL-62MK appeared in 1978, designed for transportation of 195 passengers. The maximal take-off weight of aircraft was increased up to 167 tons, and payload reached 25 tons. The common avionics complex with electromechanical means of indication is used on board the aircraft. Use of more perfect equipment allows to make automatic landing in bad weather conditions under category III of ICAO.

Production at Kazan was once said to have continued until 1995, though subsequent reports said that the last aircraft were built during 1993. As the last aircraft was certified by mid 1993 this seems correct. Including the prototypes, total production now is surmised at as many as 289. However, the factory states 292 (5 prototypes, 94 Il-62's and 193 Il-62M's). The last four aircraft remained unsold at the factory in 1997 and the last delivery was reported as being on 10 January 1996, though RA-86586 of Magma was probably delivered in 1999.

Early models of the Il-62 had a five digit serial number which denoted the year of manufacture, the batch number and the number of the aircraft in the batch (never more than 05). In 1977, after completion of the fourth aircraft in the 25th batch, a new system was introduced using a seven figure number, which showed the quarter of the year in which manufacture took place as well as the batch number and the number of the aircraft in the batch. However, the fifth and the seventh digits have no meanning, as the Kazan plant added random numbers to make it all look more complexe. Some aircraft which originally had five digit serial number now display the seven digit variety and these are given where known.

On 20 January 2017 Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu directed a to study the possibility of replacing passenger aircraft Tu-154, Tu-134 and Il-62M used in military with new Russian analogues. The Ministry of Defense and enterprises of the United Aircraft Corporation were to agree on a "road map": determine which aircraft will be the first out of service, and to build a production schedule for the uniform loading of plants. To replace the Tu-134 the short-haul SSJ 100 can be used, and instead of the Il-62 and Tu-154 a long-range Tu-214 could be used. At the same time, according to sources, the minister instructed the Defense Ministry to upgrade the fleet, though without additional funds. The exact timing of execution of the order was not specified in the mandate.