Camber Cravings: An IL-86 Wishlist

JC Wings has a variety of excellent moulds that barely get any use. A good deal of the blame for this can be laid at the door of their production partner Gemini Jets who I have heard block a lot of releases, however with Yu ModeLs producing an IL-86 on the JC mould soon there is hope we might get to see more of the big Russian Airbus.

The JC Wings / Gemini Jets Ilyushin IL-86 mould is superb, basically a perfect representation of the type. Unfortunately the mould's usage has been very limited with as of now only 9 models made using it (4 Geminis and 5 JC Wings) plus the upcoming China Xinjiang white tail version from Yu ModeLs.

With just over 100 production aircraft and almost no usage outside the CIS states livery possibilities are a little limited but there are still some really good models to be made for large airlines. Plus thanks to the nature of Russian aviation in the 2000s there are quite a few decent hybrids too.

​Here's a look through the remaining possibilities:

---

---

Aeroflot

The standard Soviet flag and Russian flag liveries have both been released already by Gemini but nobody has made the grey tailed version of the Russian flag scheme:

Dmitriy Pichugin (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

Some aircraft were also operated by Aeroflot Don:

Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

---

1990's Russians

AJT (Asian Joint Transport) was a decent sized airline in the 90s that flew at least 6 IL-86s alongside Tu-154s until 2002.

Konstantin von Wedelstaedt (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

---

---

Pulkovo / Rossia

Pulkovo was a major Russian airlines before it was merged into Rossia, which nonetheless kept some of the IL-86s in Pulkovo colours into the late 2000s.

Konstantin von Wedelstaedt (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

Vsevolod Aladyshkin, CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons

---

---

Sibir / Vnukovo

Sibir flew about 8 IL-86s in the 90s and acquired 7 more with its takeover of Vnukovo Airlines. They flew in a variety of schemes:

https://www.planespotters.net/photo/627253/ra-86105-s7-siberia-airlines-ilyushin-il-86

English: Alex BeltyukovРусский: Александр Бельтюков, CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons

Sergey Ryabtsev (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

aeroprints.com, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

---

---

East Line / Russian Sky / Atlant Soyuz

East Line leased 6 IL-86s at various points in the late 90s/early 2000s but was renamed Russian Sky in 2004.

Dmitriy Pichugin (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

Atlant Soyuz flew 11 IL-86s in its history. JC Wings made the hybrid with the Russian Sky tail above but not the original

Dmitry Terekhov from Odintsovo, Russian Federation, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Toshi Aoki - JP Spotters, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

English: Aleksandr MarkinРусский: Александр Маркин, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

---

---

Kras Air

Kras Air was a major airline in the early 2000s and flew 7 IL-86s including the example that had been flown by Transeuropean in basic Transeuropean colours.

parfaits, CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons

Konstantin von Wedelstaedt (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

---

VASO Airlines

VASO was a charter airline connected to the Voronezh factory where the Il-86 was built and operated the type in the 2000s until around 2007/2008.

Jakob Dahlgaard Kristensen (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

---

CIS States

Dmitriy Pichugin (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

---

---

Pakistan

---

Greenair

The Turkish charter airline Greenair leased a single Il-86 from Soviet-era Aeroflot.

Peter Bakema (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

---

Top 10

​For myself the top 10 IL-86s above that I'd like to see are:

• Aeroflot (Grey Tail)
• Vnukovo Airlines
• Sibir (Full original clrs)
• ​Sibir (Feather tail with S7 tail)
• Sibir (Vnukovo hybrid)
• AJT International
• ​Orient Avia
• Kazakstan Airlines
• Kras Air
• ​Atlant Soyuz