Tests of the Il-112V new generation military transport aircraft will continue after the crash of the first flight prototype. For this next year, the third and fourth prototypes will be used, RIA Novosti reports, citing a source in the military-industrial complex.
“At present, the second prototype of the Il-112V is undergoing strength tests at the stand, the third and fourth prototypes will be connected to flights. It is expected that the third and fourth samples will take to the air to continue flight tests, ”the source said. According to him, test flights will resume in a year, in the summer of 2022.
The prototype Il-112I crashed yesterday, on August 17, in the area of Kubinka near Moscow during a training flight. All three crew members were killed, including the test pilot, Hero of Russia Nikolai Kuimov, who was at that moment at the helm. According to preliminary data, the right TV7-117ST engine caught fire at low altitude. To investigate the cause of the incident, a commission was created, headed by the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Oleg Bocharov, who oversees the aircraft industry; the Investigative Committee also opened a criminal case on the fact of the disaster.
Il-112V is the third large aircraft of a new type, created entirely in post-Soviet Russia for the needs of the Ministry of Defense. Work on it began in the mid-2000s, then was curtailed and reactivated since 2014, when the joint project of a military transport aircraft with Ukraine was frozen for political reasons. The Il-112V is to replace the obsolete and physically obsolete Soviet An-24 and An-26, which are preparing for decommissioning by 2030, which form the basis of the fleet of small military transport aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces. The first flight of the Il-112 was performed in 2019.
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