MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. Soviet and Russian aircraft designer and former chief designer of Ilyushin, an aircraft-building enterprise, Genrikh Novozhilov has died at the age of 93, a source in the aircraft-building industry told TASS on Sunday.
"It is said to announce that the world-acclaimed aircraft designer, who created such planes as Il-76 and Il-96, Genrikh Novozhilov had died today," the source said.
Genrikh Novozhilov was born on October 27, 1925 in Moscow.
He was a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union and later of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1984. He took part in design works on the Il-14 passenger plane, the Il-40 attack aircraft, the Il-46 and Il-54 bombers.
In 1970, he was appointed chief designer and head of the Ilyushin aircraft building company. He steered works on the Il-76, the most popular military transport and passenger plane. The plane’s modifications include the Il-76MF and Il-76MD military transport aircraft, the Il-76K plane used to train cosmonauts in transient zero-gravity conditions, the Il-76MD Skalpel flying hospital, and others. He was also in charge of works on the Il-86, Russia’s first wide-body passenger plane, and its military modification Il-80, the Il-96-300 wide-body long-haul plane (its special modification is used by Russian President Vladimir Putin). He took part in design works of the Il-96MO, a pilot plane with US-made engine and equipment, the Il-96T, a cargo plane, the Il-103, a light multi-role plane, the Il-114, and Il-114-100 aircraft.
Genrikh Novozhilov was one of the initiators of the International Aerospace Show (MAKS) in Zhukovsky outside Moscow.
He had numerous government awards.