The wide-body long-haul passenger aircraft IL-96-400M will become a flying laboratory for testing the PD-35 engine family with thrust from 24 to 50 tons. According to TASS, the first flight of the aircraft is scheduled before the end of the year.
Ilyushin has been developing the IL-96-400M since the early 2010s. It is an upgraded version of the first Soviet wide-body long-haul IL-96 aircraft, the serial production of which actually ceased by 2009. This is a liner from 55.3 to 63.9 meters in length with a wingspan from 57.7 to 60.1 meters. It can carry from 300 to 435 passengers at a distance of up to nine thousand kilometers and with a cruising speed of 870 kilometers per hour.
IL-96-400M received new avionics, as well as improved PS-90A1 engines. Ilyushin completed the slipway assembly of the first flight model of the aircraft in 2019 and planned to begin its flight tests last year.
The United Engine Corporation (UEC) has been developing the PD-35 since 2017 based on the groundwork from the development of the PD-14 . Prior to this, gas turbine engines in the 35-ton thrust class were not created in Russia. On the basis of the PD-35 gas generator, UEC plans to create a family of high-thrust engines. They are intended for wide-body long-haul airliners, such as the CR929, and heavy transport aircraft.
Deputy Minister of Industry Oleg Bocharov announced on January 20 that the IL-96-400M will become a flying laboratory for testing PD-35 engines with a thrust of 24 to 50 tons. The IL-96-400M is scheduled to make its first flight before the end of this year.
On the basis of the IL-96-400M in Voronezh, a promising air command post is also being built for the evacuation of the country's top military leadership and the management of the armed forces during a nuclear war. The aerospace Forces will receive two such "Doomsday planes".
Vasilisa Chernyavtseva