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Tests of new Ilyushin-476 due over by mid-2014

First Il-76MD-90A will go to the client in 2014

MOSCOW, October 4 (Itar-Tass) - The program of state tests of a new military-transport Ilyushin-76MD-90A /Il-476/ will be completed by the middle of next year, press service of the Aviastar aviation industrial complex told Itar-Tass on Friday.

“First Il-76MD-90A will go to the client in 2014,” the press service said.

Presently, the plant is assembling the first plane, on the second plane the systems are being installed, and on the third one the units are being put together.

A year earlier, Russia’s Defense Ministry and Aviastar signed a contract on production of 39 Il-76MD-90A planes. The contract’s price was 14- billion rubles - the highest in the Russian aviation construction industry.

Il-76MD-90A is a modernized version of a heavy military-transport Il-79MD plane. The new version is equipped with PS-90A-76 engines, where the use of fuel is reduced by ten percent. The plane’s range is 5,000 kilometers, against 4,000 kilometers of the earlier version. The modernized plane will be used for transportation of large-size equipment and cargo and for airdropping personnel, equipment and cargo. Besides, the plane may be used in emergency situations (for extinguishing wildfires).