By the mid -1980s, the Soviet Ministry of Aviation Industry (MAI) began to seek proposals from design bureaux for a replacement for the Antonov An-24 short-haul regional twin-turboprop, which had been in service since 1962. The idea was that the new aircraft could also serve as a replacement for the tri-jet Yakovlev Yak-40.
The MAI required the new aircraft to carry 60 passengers over a range of 1,000km (540nm), and also called for substantially improved operating economics - the An-24 was designed at a time when Soviet fuel was plentiful and cheap, and its reported fuel consumption of 37grammes per passenger kilometre (pkm) is about double that of equivalent Western turboprops. In 1986, the then-Soviet Government and the MAI accepted Ilyushin's proposal for an aircraft in the category of the British Aerospace ATP and the ATR ranges - a twin turboprop capable of carrying 64 passengers 1,000km, with fuel consumption of 20grammes pkm.
In January 1987, Ilyushin general designer Genrikh Novozhilov appointed Nikolai Talikov as chief designer for the new project, dubbed the Il-114. Early plans called for the prototype to be flown in 1989, with the flight-test programme to be completed by the beginning of 1990. The Soviet Union had begun a period of political and economic crisis, however. Its new policy of openness - perestroika - was joined by budget shortages, so that funding for the Il-114, and decisions on its future, was delayed.
First flight
Constructed at Ilyushin's design shop at Khodinka, the prototype Il-114 was completed by early 1990, and the first flight took place on 29 March the same year - from Moscow's central airport, Khodinka, to the test base at Zhukovsky. The original intention was to introduce five aircraft to the flight-test programme within three or four months, but funding problems prevented the second prototype (also built by Ilyushin at Khodinka) from having its first flight until December 1991, and the third aircraft, the first production model, was not flown - from the production factory airfield in Tashkent - until mid-August 1992. The second production airframe was reserved for static ground tests and the fourth for dynamic testing.
A major setback to the programme occurred on 5 July, 1993, when the second prototype was lost in a take-off accident. With a candour not always evidenced by designers and manufacturers, Ilyushin has acknowledged that the accident was caused by a failure of the automatic engine-control system, and by human factors.
Subsequent analysis of the aircraft's flight-data recorders shows that the control failure occurred while the aircraft was taxiing for take-off. Standard operating procedures require the crew to hold before take-off for a systems check, but, on this occasion, the crew took off on the roll. It took about three times the normal ground run, and the engineer, working from the manual, reduced the power of both engines after lift-off. The aircraft stalled at 125ft (40m) and hit the ground 40m from the runway, killing seven of the nine on board. Contributory factors included a lapse of more than three months since the captain had flown an Il-114, and it was the flight engineer's first flight on the type.
Nikolai Talikov describes the accident as a tragedy for Ilyushin. "We lost seven excellent people, plus a development aircraft, and the accident caused the Russian Government to stop funding the programme. The limited money we were getting went elsewhere, which means that Ilyushin has had to fund the programme itself since then, with only the Tashkent aircraft-production factory [TAPO] as a partner," he says. Talikov describes TAPO as "the strongest" aircraft-production factory in the former USSR, with total output of the Ilyushin Il-76 freighter now "over 900 units".
Working towards certification
By November 1996, says Talikov, the flight-test programme was 92% complete, with only the flight-navigation-equipment tests remaining to be done. A total of 87 reports remained to be approved before Russian certification could be issued. Of these, 40 were already agreed with the certification authorities, 20 have since been submitted, and the remaining 27 are under preparation. "So far," says Talikov, "the flight-test programme has shown the need for only minor changes. Allowing for the normal delays in the Russia of today, we expect certification to be secured in mid-1997," he adds.
TAPO has now completed eight production Il-114s. Ilyushin is flying three of these, plus the remaining prototype. On the development and test programmes, two are being flown with Uzbekistan Airways on the pre-certification operational trials - Russian certification requires one year's operational experience on non-passenger flights (cargo services) before the issue of full certification. Three aircraft are parked at the factory awaiting customers.
The An-24 was developed as part of a family - apart from the passenger aircraft, the An-26 is a 6t payload freighter, the An-30 is a surveyor and the An-32 is a "hot-and-high" freighter. Talikov plans to develop a similar range from the Il-114. The first new version, the Il-114T freighter, had its first flight from the production factory's airfield at Tashkent on 14 September, 1996, before being flown to Zhukovsky Aerodrome near Moscow to join the flight-test programme. The Il-114T should receive certification shortly after the standard version, which is expected to be cleared on 25 April.
Budgetary difficulties
Ilyushin has offered 17 versions of the Il-114 for civil and military roles, but budgetary difficulties will prevent many of these from being built. Versions include aircraft capable of the roles of surveillance, maritime-patrol and "hot-and-high" operations, as well as various equipment options. These include replacing the Novikov TV-7-117S turboprop engines, designed and manufactured in Russia, with either Pratt & Whitney PW127s or Allison engines, and offering AlliedSignal and Rockwell-Collins avionics.
To replace the ageing Antonovs, Talikov sees a need for 25-50 Il-114s by 2000, with a further 75 to 150 in each of the next two five-year periods and a further 100-200 by 2015. "One-third of these will be Il-114Ts," he says, "designed to take all modern cargo-loading methods."
He says that more than 500 airlines have been set up in Russia, with perhaps 200 more in the other former Soviet republics. "Traffic has fallen, however, to just 30% of Soviet levels and most carriers have no money for new aircraft, even if they want them. With each Il-114 costing $9-10 million, it is not difficult to see that what is needed is some way to lease and/or finance the aircraft. Ilyushin and Tashkent are examining ways to deal with this - possibly by setting up a leasing company," says Talikov.
Source: Flight International
