Russia was developing a modernized Il-96-300 airliner with a lengthened fuselage and two engines, but the project was thwarted purely for political reasons. This opinion was expressed by Leonid Komm, former Vice President for Innovation at the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC, part of the Rostec State Corporation).
According to him, the aircraft was then equipped for the first time in the history of Russian aviation with American Pratt & Whitney engines with a thrust of 17.03 tons. As a result, the only machine saw the sky in 1993, but in 2009 the government considered the production of such aircraft unpromising, Komm noted.
The Americans decided that Russia didn't need to make such a competitor. Although the plane turned out very good, we never had such engines, and it became clear that we needed to develop our own.
In return, they allowed foreign aircraft with a capacity of more than 300 passengers to be imported into Russia. Komm is sure that the project failed "due to purely political reasons."
UAC announced plans to consider the possibility of creating an Il-96-300 with two Russian PD-35 engines, which is currently in the prototype stage. Aviation expert Roman Gusarov called this task difficult, but solvable.
Earlier, www1.ru reported that ODK has rid aircraft engines of a dangerous defect: the compressor surge problem has been solved.
