Il-114 - the eternal wanderer of air routes

By the beginning of the eighties, the AN-24, considered the main passenger aircraft of the USSR and widely used on domestic routes, was morally obsolete. In addition, the fleet of these machines began to decline rapidly due to the development of their resource. The same factor was added here, such as increased volumes of air transportation - both passenger and freight. An-24 no longer met the requirements and requirements of the new time. He needed an urgent and qualitative replacement.

In 1982, the OKB them. Ilyushin, headed at that time by the chief designer G. V. Novozhilov, came up with the initiative to build a new type of passenger aircraft, Il-114, for use on local airlines. The basis for this machine was to be a thirty-year experience of operating various modifications of the IL-14.

This initiative was supported by the Minister of Civil Aviation himself, which was the beginning of the design of the Il-114 local aircraft. Design work lasted for long five years, as they were conducted in parallel with the very laborious development of the trunk wide-bodied civilian long-range aircraft IL-96-300.

And only in July 1987, a full-scale model of the machine was constructed, in which almost all the systems of the future IL-114 were reproduced. The most complete reflection in the layout found a salon for sixty seats, and the cockpit of the crew was also modeled in detail. After detailed and thorough consideration by the dummy commission of the submitted IL-114 project, a decision was made to start its serial production.

The leading enterprise for the production of this machine was the aircraft manufacturing association of Tashkent, which had produced many models of the Ilyushins before. As the second serial enterprise, the Moscow aircraft factory Znamya Truda was chosen, which has been leading its history since 1909.

The aircraft was constructed from high-strength aluminum and titanium alloys, as well as from a variety of composite and non-metallic materials. The fuel system of this aircraft includes two caisson tanks located in the wing. Their total capacity is 8360 liters.

The main structural feature of this machine is that it is schematically designed as a free-carrying monoplane with a low-wing wing. A pair of turboprop engines TV7-117С is installed on the plane. The diameter of the screw is 3.6 meters, and the takeoff power of one engine is 2.5 thousand liters. from.

The first flights of this model with passengers on board took place only in 1999 (already in another country), when it was put into operation after multiple tests. The excellent aerodynamic qualities of the new aircraft, as well as its cost-effectiveness, reliability and low maintenance cost, were to make the IL-114 a very popular vehicle in the civil aviation transport system. However, only 17 aircraft were produced. As of 2012, their production in Tashkent has been discontinued.

To date, the modification of this IL-114-100 is rather active, which differs from the "one hundred and fourteenth" with the installation of more powerful PW-127H engines of Canadian production, which significantly optimized the flight characteristics of this model. This is especially noticeable in the high mountainous and hot climate of southern latitudes, for which the Il-114-110 is, in principle, intended.