72021 IL-20 RT

The Ilyushin Il-20 was a mid-range four-engine, all-metal reconnaissance aircraft in a Soviet-made low-wing configuration. The drive was provided by four Ivchenko AI-20M turboprop engines with a capacity of 4,250 HP each. The flight of the prototype took place in 1968, and serial production lasted in the USSR from 1969 to 1976, ending with the production of about 20 examples of this aircraft. The Il-20 was created as the basic medium-distance passenger machine for Aeroflot airlines, but it was also exported to many other countries, e.g. to Poland. The machine was primarily characterized by reliability, high passenger compartment capacity (as in the 1950s and 1960s) ensuring considerable travel comfort, good range and lifting capacity. The main disadvantages were, above all, the high level of vibration and noise of the aircraft in flight (especially in the passenger cabin). Several development versions of the basic model, designated Ił-18, other than passenger cars, were created in the course of serial production. One of them was the Il-18RT, which was supposed to receive information about telemetry data from Soviet spacecraft. The Il-20, a military reconnaissance aircraft, was also built, which was produced in several variants and differed significantly from the original. The design of the Il-18 aircraft turned out to be so successful that to this day (2017) these machines remain in the state of some shipping lines in the world!