Ilyushin Il-76 and Il-76M
The original Tashkent-built rough-field airlifter and its strengthened 42-tonne military version · First flight 1971 · In service 1974
Ilyushin conceived the Il-76 in 1967 to replace the turboprop An-12. The requirement was to carry 40 tonnes over 5,000 km in under six hours, from short and unprepared airstrips, and in the harsh weather of Siberia and the Soviet Arctic. The answer was a high-wing, T-tailed freighter with four turbofans, a rear loading ramp and a glazed navigator's station in the nose. The prototype flew from Moscow's Central Aerodrome on 25 March 1971, piloted by Eduard Kuznetsov, and was shown at the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget two months later.
Series production went to the Tashkent aviation plant in Uzbekistan, where the first production aircraft flew on 5 May 1973. The first Il-76 reached the Soviet Air Force in June 1974 and the type became the main Soviet strategic transport; Aeroflot began flying it in 1976. Military aircraft carry a manned tail turret with twin 23 mm cannon.
The Il-76M, first flown on 24 March 1978, has a strengthened fuselage that raised the payload to 42 tonnes. Many military Il-76s wore Aeroflot titles while flying for Military Transport Aviation, as on the aircraft in the photos. Tashkent built about 860 of the basic transport versions.
