MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/. Russia’s latest Ilyushin Il-112V military transport plane has made a flight to the town of Zhukovsky near Moscow and will be unveiled to guests of the Army-2021 forum, the press office of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC, part of the state tech corporation Rostec) announced on Friday.

"The first prototype of the Il-112V new light military transport plane made a flight on August 13 from the Voronezh Aviation Enterprise (within the UAC’s transport aviation cluster of Rostec) to the Ilyushin Company’s base in the suburban town of Zhukovsky to prepare for participation in the 7th Army-2021 international military-technical forum," the statement says.

The plane was piloted by chief pilot of the Ilyushin Aircraft Company, 1st-class test pilot, Hero of Russia Nikolai Kuimov, 1st-class test pilot Dmitry Komarov and 1st-class test flight engineer Nikolai Khludeyev, the press office said.

"This is an important event for our factory and for the entire domestic aircraft-building industry. We are proud that the first Il-112V military transport plane prototype built at the Voronezh Aviation Enterprise will take part in the country’s key annual military event, the Army-2021 international military-technical forum. The participation in the forum is another serious stage in implementing this program," the press office quoted Voronezh Aviation Enterprise Managing Director Farit Sharafeyev as saying.

"Preliminary trials of the first Il-112V are underway and the second prototype is undergoing endurance tests. Work is underway at the Voronezh Aviation Enterprise with the participation of the transport aviation cluster’s parent company Ilyushin to launch the Il-112V into serial production. In particular, a project is being implemented to create a continuous production line for the assembly of the plane on the premises of the existing production capacities," he said.

Il-112V light military transport plane

Chief Designer of the Ilyushin Company (part of the United Aircraft Corporation within Rostec) Sergey Ganin told TASS in late July that the trials of the Il-112V military transport plane proceeded according to schedule. He added that the Il-112V would eventually renew the fleet of Russian light military transport aircraft that mostly consisted of An-26 planes.

The Il-112V is the first military transport plane developed in Russia from scratch in the post-Soviet period. The work on the plane’s development has been going on at the Ilyushin Aircraft Company since 2014. The Il-112V is capable of carrying up to 5 tonnes of cargo and is designated to transport personnel, military hardware and armaments.

Completely domestic components, systems and equipment were used to develop the new light military transport plane. Russia is developing the Il-112V to replace An-26 and An-24 turbo-prop planes. The Il-112 performed its debut flight on March 30, 2019, and took to the skies for the second time two years later. Russia is developing the plane in two modifications: for civil aviation (Il-112T) and for military transport aviation (Il-112V). The plane’s serial production is expected to begin from 2023. The Voronezh Aviation Enterprise will have a capacity to produce up to 12 Il-112V planes a year.