The resumption of flight tests of the Il-112B light military transport aircraft has been postponed again. It is now planned to perform a second flight almost two years after the first ascent in the air in February 2021. This is reported by RIA Novosti with reference to a source in the aircraft industry.
"The second flight of the IL-112 has been postponed again and will not take place until the end of this year. The most optimistic time frame for continuing flight tests is February 2021, " the source said. According to him, the postponement of the resumption of flight tests of the Il-112B is partly due to the fact that "the main forces of PJSC Ilyushin are thrown on the topic of Il-114-300." The interlocutor specified that by the second flight, improvements were made to the main systems and the weight of the aircraft was reduced by almost two tons.
"Earlier it was planned to finish work on the relief structure of the aircraft and lift it a second time into the air until the end of 2019, and then everything shifted to the beginning of this year, then April, then summer and at the end of this year", - said the source.
The chronology of promises:
June 25, 2019
General Director of OJSC "Il" Yury Grudinin: "it is planned to resume flight tests of the il-112b light military transport aircraft at the end of [2019] after the reconstruction of the runway of the vaso airfield is completed. now the first prototype of the aircraft is being retrofitted with measuring equipment."
November 5, 2019
general director of pjsc "il" yuri grudinin: "the first modified car before the end of [2019] will go to the stage of preliminary tests - running on the runway, taxiing. And in the first quarter of next year, it will rise again in the air. As for the third and fourth aircraft, we plan to make them by the end of 2021, and from 2022 they will join the test program. It is on these machines that the entire range of weight loss measures will be implemented, which cannot be done on the first plane."
December 16, 2019
Online publication "Zhukovsky news": "Flight tests of the IL-112B light military transport aircraft will continue in the first quarter of 2020. at the official level, it was announced that the timing of the resumption of flight tests of the il-112b light military transport aircraft has been postponed from 2019 to 2020."
December 27, 2019
Yuri Grudinin, General Director of PJSC Il: "The program has implemented the necessary measures to finalize the design documentation and reduce the weight of the structure. These aircraft will meet the requirements of the technical specification of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Production of the prototype vehicles is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2021. In 2022, the aircraft will join the flight test program."
February 18, 2020
General Director of PJSC "IL" Yuri Grudinin: "In the month of April [2020], we raise the first Il-112 aircraft at the Voronezh plant, and immediately organize serial production of the Il-112 aircraft at the Voronezh enterprise."
In July 2020, the runway of the VASO Pridacha airfield was put into operation. Previously, it was planned to complete its reconstruction in April.
October 6, 2020
Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov: "The reconstruction of the Pridacha airfield will make it possible to resume Il-112B test flights. The third and fourth vehicles have already been put into production, and the IL-112B will be delivered to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in 2023. By the end of next year [2021], it is necessary to transfer an additional two first samples for subsequent state tests to the Ministry of Defense. From 2023, it is planned to start delivering the first production vehicles to the Ministry of Defense."
December 8, 2020
Anonymous source in the aircraft industry: "The resumption of flight tests of the Il-112B light military transport aircraft has been postponed to February 2021."
Note that the first flight of the IL-112B was repeatedly postponed. According to the plans, the plane was supposed to take to the sky for the first time before July 1, 2017. However, in April 2017, it turned out that the plane has problems and it is impossible to raise it in the specified time frame. At the very end of 2018, the Il-112B began running and taxiing at the VASO airfield, and the date of the first flight was set for the last days of January 2019. The first and so far only time the IL-112B took off on March 30, 2019. That flight lasted 40 minutes.
