Ilyushin Il-106 PAK VTA


The Ilyushin Il-106 Slon is a Russian next-generation heavy military transport aircraft, currently under development by Ilyushin within the PAK VTA programme. Not to be confused with the cancelled Ilyushin Il-106 of the nineties. The aircraft is intended to replace the Antonov An-124 heavy airlifter in Russia's Air Force service.

Development

The project was first presented under PAK TA designation with goal to develop a blended wing body, super-heavy transport plane being able to fly at supersonic speed while carrying up to 200 tons of cargo, and partially using renewable electric energy. 80 aircraft were planned to be built by 2024.
In 2016, General Director of Ilyushin Company Sergei Velmozhkin reported the project was officially named Il-106, designation previously applied to a cancelled Ilyushin transport plane of the 1990s.
In December 2018, Russian Defence Ministry announced the aircraft will actually be a deeply updated version of the cancelled Ilyushin Il-106 transport aircraft. According to Chief Designer of Ilyushin Company Nikolai Talikov, Il-106 is currently deep in development and will be updated with new avionics, engines, and other critical systems. The first flight is scheduled for 2024-2026.
In May 2019, Ilyushin has finished R&D works on the aircraft and contract for further development has been signed.
On 5 November 2019, Russia's Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute released pictures of a wind tunnel Il-106 model, showing that, contrarily to what was previously thought, the design of the new cargo plane will not be based on the Il-106 project of the 1990s. On 26 March 2020, TsAGI released new pictures of a wind tunnel model, indicating that the researchers of the Institute had completed the first cycle of aerodynamic testing of the model. The obtained results confirmed the calculated characteristics laid down at the stage of preliminary studies. If the PAK VTA design is approved by the Russian authorities, Ilyushin hopes to start the development of the first prototype in 2020, for a serial production before 2027.

Characteristics

The Il-106 is expected to be able to lift up to 180 tons of cargo, have a range of 7000 km, maximum speed of 850 km/h, and be powered by four Aviadvigatel PD-35 turbofans - an improved derivative of the still-in-development PD-14 engine, intended to power Russia's newest Irkut MC-21 airliner.