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Russia to test new IL-476 military transport aircraft in mid-March

Livanov said that the state would receive the first planes under the state arms procurement program in 2014

MOSCOW, March 5 (Itar-Tass) - The IL-76MD-90A military transport plane also known as IL-476, will start test flights in mid-March, according to Viktor Livanov, the general director of the Ilyushin design bureau

“In February, we moved the aircraft to Zhukovsky where preparations for the test flights are full steam ahead. I hope, if everything goes well, that we will be able to start test flights according to a military program on March 12-14,” Livanov said in a live interview with Ekho Moskvy radio station on Monday.

Livanov said that the state would receive the first planes under the state arms procurement program in 2014.

The first stage of test flights of the IL-76MD-90A aircraft, which is a modernized version of the IL-76 heavy military transport plane, provides for about 50 flights. Twenty-two flights are expected to take place in Zhukovsky in the first quarter of 2013 to test the aircraft. They will be followed by about 28 flights at the Chkalovsky and Zhukovsky airfields as part of joint state exercises with the customer.

The Russian Defense Ministry and the Unified Aircraft Building Corporation signed a 140-billion-ruble contract for delivery of 39 IL-76MD-90A transport aircraft.