Видите самолёт? Нет? А он есть! Что на самом деле запатентовали авиаконструкторы в России

The United Aircraft Corporation (UAC, part of Rostec) has patented a new wide-body airliner. «Pervy Tehnicheskiy» is figuring out exactly what and when Russians will be flying on.

Something remarkable

According to the data in the patent, the flight range of various modifications will be up to 13.6 km. The airliner will be 3% more economical in operating costs and 6% more economical in direct operating costs than even the modern Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

But there is a nuance — there is only a general outline of the aircraft in the patent description, but there is no aircraft project. And the prospects for its appearance are still vague.

In the current version of the comprehensive program for the development of the aviation industry until 2030, nothing is said about creating a new wide-body aircraft. So far, the plans only include the production of Il-96 aircraft.

When will airlines receive the Il-96

It is almost impossible for an ordinary passenger to fly on the Il-96. The plane lived a bright but very short life in Russia. The airliner appeared at the wrong time, in 1988, and the main deliveries to airlines occurred in the early 90s.

The borders opened and it quickly became clear that operating twin-engine Boeings and Airbuses was much cheaper than the Il-96 with four gluttonous PS-90 engines.

Currently, 17 aircraft of this family are in operation. And 11 of them are listed in the special flight detachment «Russia», which serves, among others, the President of the Russian Federation.

There are developments

Engineers have some developments in the design of a wide-body aircraft — the development of the Russian-Chinese CR929 aircraft has been underway since 2014. But the Chinese gradually reduced the participation of Russian specialists, and in 2023 they continued to work independently.

It was for the CR929 that the PD-35 engine began to be developed, but so far it exists only as a demonstrator on the test bench.

The problem is the small size of the market

The Russian market is too small to make a new aircraft mass-produced and inexpensive. For example, Boeing has produced more than 1,100 Dreamliner aircraft since 2011, and the production run of the Boeing-777 has exceeded 1,700 units.