An-124 Strategic Transport: News

Tsavo Lion wrote:the IL-106 didn't cancel it:

Russian analysts model 'Slon' outsize freighter

franco wrote:Another An-124-100 modernized and turned over to the Air Force. according to the article below there will be another 3 upgraded for the Air Force this year. Have lost count of those previously upgraded however plans were for a total of 20 aircraft to be upgraded.

Aviastar-SP JSC put into operation the An-124-100 Ruslan super heavy transport aircraft (No. 0502).

“The An-124-100 aircraft was manufactured at Aviastar-SP JSC on September 29, 1987,” said Sergei Dyachkov, director of the An-124 program. - Its operating time is 4058 flight hours. During the period of operation, he made a 1751 landing.

As part of the aircraft’s airworthiness restoration program on the An-124-100, Aviastar-SP JSC carried out work to assess the aircraft’s technical condition and aircraft’s airworthiness, made updates using bulletins, replaced damaged products, and eliminated operational damage. Ruslana

The resource of the updated An-124-100 extended to 33 years of its operation (until September 29, 2020) or 6000 flight hours and 2500 landings. The transferred aircraft successfully completed the ground and flight test program at the flight test station.

At present, Aviastar-SP is implementing a modernization program at the An-124-100VTA (No. 0508). In the near future it will be transferred to the flight test station for ground and flight tests. Two more An-124-100 (serial numbers 0503 and 0604) are undergoing a service and airworthiness restoration program. They will be given to the operator before November 1, 2019.

The Ulyanovsk enterprise Aviastar-SP has been engaged in the repair and modernization of the Ruslanov fleet in operation since 2004. Based on the results of additional tests and design and research work, the life of the Ruslan design is set at 50 thousand flight hours, 10 thousand flights and 45 calendar years.

EDIT: reviewed past posts and this aircraft appears to be the 12th of 22 planned for upgrades.

AN-124-100 said to have been destroyed in Libyan fighting

By Alexander Whiteman 24/06/2019

It appears the world’s stock of AN-124-100s has depleted further – images from social media show an apparently destroyed aircraft at Tripoli’s Mitiga Airport. One tweet from a Babak Taghvaee, shared by Aviation Safety, shows four images, one of which shows the rear end of the aircraft seemingly separated from the front half, while others show smoke pouring from the airplane. The tweet suggests it was “destroyed” during clashes involving the Libyan national army on 21 June. “An Antonov An-124 cargo plane was damaged beyond repair after being hit by artillery during fighting near the airport,” says Aviation Safety. “The Bashir al-Baqarah militia was engaged in a battle with the Deterrence Organization for Combating Organised Crime and Terrorism.”

GarryB wrote:Once they have developed the high bypass turbofan based on the NK-31 for the PAK DA and produced a 25-30K ton PD-35 engine that can be used on large transports that they could put on the An-124 and indeed the Il-106 the need to replace the An-124 will greatly reduce as the avionics are all Russian... the only real problem in the past has been the Ukrainian engines... but PD-35s should be significantly better and offer improvements in performance across the board...

GarryB wrote:

The issue to understand is if they will design and.build both the il-106 and the Slon (il-xxx?) Or just one of them.

My understanding is that the Il-106 is a replacement for the An-22 which they used quite a bit because it was a handy size that was not as expensive to operate as the An-124 which is a much bigger aircraft.

The An-124 started as a 120 ton payload aircraft but in later upgrades became a 150 ton payload capacity aircraft compared with the An-22 at 80 tons, so using the An-124 for jobs that are more than say 60 tons that the Il-476 could carry up to about 80 tons that the An-22 could carry is a bit wasteful.

I would expect they want the Il-106 to carry 80-90 ton payloads as a smaller and lighter transport than the An-124... I would think the PD-24 engines would be plenty for the Il-106 as they are actually slightly more powerful than the engines currently used on the An-124 which should give it plenty of power for shorter takeoffs or to operate at full weight with one engine out.

If they are going to fit PD-35s to the An-124s to upgrade them with all Russian bits and engines then four would be totally overkill... four 35 ton thrust engines would be the equivalent of the six engined An-225 but with a smaller lighter aircraft... they could probably give it an H tail like the An-225 had and use it for outsized external loads like they did with the An-225... 250 ton payloads in fact...

With the Slon I am not sure... I thought they were going for a three plane design with all of them based on the same basic shape and layout with a twin engine, a four engine and a 6 engine model to fit the An-22, An-124, and the An-225 replacement weight classes, but if they are producing the Il-106 then they don't need the twin engine member of the family and with PD-35 engines they probably don't need a six engine model either as it already has more power with four PD-35 engines than the An-225 does... 140 tons thrust compared with something like 138 tons for the six engined An-225.

Il-106 was pretty much a fully developed aircraft...

However, at the end of last year, Nikolai Talikov, chief designer of Il, said that Ilyushin was starting to create a new aircraft to replace the An-124. A new aircraft will be created in the years 2025-2026, as the Russian Ministry of Defense set such deadlines.


The new silt will meet all modern requirements for the aeronautical complex, as well as for the resource and for the transported goods. It is planned that during normal operation the aircraft will carry 80 tons of cargo, and under special operating conditions it will be able to "lift" 110-120 tons. The IL-106 cargo compartment will be the same size as on the An-124 Ruslan. In addition to the new avionics, the aircraft will receive new engines with a thrust of 24-26 tons, the creation of which are engaged in the United Engine Corporation. 

At the same time, IL will maintain the airworthiness of the existing fleet of An-124 Ruslan aircraft, which have not been produced in Russia since 2003

The An-22s were built in Tashkent in Uzbekistan and haven't been in production since the mid 1970s what makes you think building a new factory and digitising the design would be any quicker for this aircraft than the designs from the 1990s for the Il-106 that could be updated to meet the current requirements?

Getting the Il-106 into service will be useful.
..it looks like they now want to use the Il-106 to replace both the An-22 and in many lighter jobs the An-124 as well.

..that is really significant so if it is designed to carry the same payloads then it will need to carry a lot more fuel or suffer short range.... or carry heavier payloads.

Tsavo Lion wrote:They may also save $ & time by just stretching/scaling up the IL-476 to make it closer to or equal the C-17 payload capacity (77Ts), instead of building all those IL-106s, just like they r doing with cargo IL-96s & the proposed Slon- a scaled up An-124. The latter, as I been saying, will be "moved to the right" as the new An-124 follow on is easier & cheaper to implement.

The issue is that while "stretching" an aircraft is possible, changing the fuselage width of an existing aircraft is much more complicated, and in such case is probably better to start from a different design.