IL-76T and IL-76TD, design features and advantages. IL-76MD-90A

I will dwell on the two most interesting, in my opinion, models of the father of Russian transport aviation: the Il-76T and his younger brother, the Il-76TD.

The first is a civilian modification of the Il-76M. On the Il-76T, the stern cannon, the automatic for ejection of the dipole reflectors, the landing equipment and electronic devices for military purposes have been dismantled. The first flight of the Il-76T took place back in 1978, but despite its considerable age, this cargo aircraft is successfully operated today. The service life of the model is 30,000 hours / 10,000 landings / 30 years.

The modified Il-76TD is a development of the transport modification of the Il-76T. Its transport efficiency has been increased by increasing the maximum take-off weight from 170 to 190 tons, the maximum payload from 43.4 tons to 50 tons and the practical flight range with an increased maximum load to 3600 km. Due to the increase in the maximum take-off weight and payload, as well as to increase the resource, the IL-76TD has reinforced wing, fuselage and chassis structures, installed D-30KP series 2 engines, which ensure the preservation of maximum take-off thrust at higher ambient temperatures. With an increased take-off weight, this aircraft can operate from the same runways as the Il-76T. It is important that better fuel efficiency ensures an increase in the volume of freight traffic while consuming the same amount of fuel as the Il-76T. Isn't this always, and especially now, puzzled by most of the operators? In addition, the Il-76TD provides transportation of a large range of cargo in various conditions. The assigned resource of this model is higher than that of its predecessor - 35,000 hours / 10,000 landings / 40 years.

I can assure you that both of these models exceeded all my expectations, in fact, proving their simplicity in operation both from concrete and unpaved runways. It is on the IL-76T and IL-76TD that ZetAvia has been transporting heavy and oversized equipment, fragile and valuable cargo, and even animals for more than ten years in a row. The geography of flights is very extensive and covers the countries of the Middle East region, Africa, Southeast Asia, CIS.

I cannot but mention the modern version of the Il-76MD-90A, which is almost completely different from all the previous ones. The novelty, which has been serially produced since 2014, has new avionics, flight systems and various technical complexes. Soon, this aircraft will receive a promising modernized aircraft engine. The miracle engine for the Il-76, created from the PS-90A-76, is capable of adapting to various flight conditions! Airplane pilots can change engine parameters in manual and automatic modes depending on air temperature overboard, altitude and speed. The new engine is a modification of the PS-90A engine and is intended to replace the D-30KP engines during the remotorization of the Il-76 family aircraft and installation with new ones. Among its main advantages are the reduction of operating costs by 1.7 times, the increase in service life and reliability by 1.5–2 times, as well as a decrease in specific fuel consumption by 13–17%. And this is especially true during the period of the global trend towards lower costs. The new items are already operated by Volga-Dnepr OJSC, Silk Way Airlines, Indian Air Force, Equatorial Guinea and Egyptian Air Force. In addition, the new modification is also incredibly durable. With it, the Il-76 can fly to hot countries and the Arctic, Antarctica. IL-76MD-90A is capable of landing on the ground, snow or ice.

Oleg Sergeev