Category: Ilyushin IL-86

Candid About the Camber: Aeroflot's IL-86 Airbus

29/10/2022

The Ilyushin IL-86 'Camber' encapsulates a big chunk of what was wrong with the Soviet Union, but also some of the things they did well. By the 1980s when it entered service, it was obsolete. Its development was protracted, its service entry late, its performance anaemic and its production far too prolonged and slow. However despite this it had many unique features, which adapted it to Russian operations well, was solid, strong, reliable and very safe.

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Obscure Russians 2: Transeuropean Airlines

26/11/2020

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During the mid-late 1990s there was a wide variety of rather obscure airlines being formed within Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Aeroflot's iron grip on civil aviation duties. Some never acquired much in the way of their own identities however even some that did, like Transeuropean, appeared and disappeared quickly leaving little evidence of themselves.

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Soviet Airbuses in China: Xinjiang's IL-86s

23/7/2019

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Even when it was first put into service the Soviet IL-86 was hardly a picture of modernity or efficiency, so it is little surprise that on the foreign market it was not a popular choice. Nonetheless, a few aircraft did make it out of the CIS and three ended up with Xinjiang Airlines in China, one of China's first non-CAAC airlines.

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Looking West: Transaero in the 90s

29/4/2016

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Following the collapse of the Soviet Union the various Aeroflot directorates splintered into a diverse array of obscure airlines operating the fragments of the Aeroflot fleet. One airline however started fresh becoming the first truly new scheduled airline in Russia. This was Transaero which would grow into one of the most important and respected airlines in the country with an unusually modern fleet and a fresh image.

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Candid About the Camber: Aeroflot's IL-86 Airbus

Obscure Russians 2: Transeuropean Airlines

Soviet Airbuses in China: Xinjiang's IL-86s

Looking West: Transaero in the 90s

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