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title: "Ilyushin Il-112V: prototype transport history — OnlyPlanes"
description: "The Il-112V programme: development, first flight, design, testing and the fate of Russia’s light transport prototype."
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Military transport aircraft / Ил-112В

# Ilyushin Il-112V

The Il-112V was a Russian prototype light military transport developed as a possible An-26 replacement. It first flew on 30 March 2019 and did not enter serial service.

![Ilyushin Il-112V aircraft photograph](https://onlyplanes.ru/images/military-aviation/models/112.webp)

Development

## History

The Ilyushin Il-112V was a Russian prototype light military transport developed as a possible replacement for part of the Antonov An-26 fleet. It was intended to move personnel, equipment and freight between airfields, including some with limited facilities. The design occupied a category below heavy airlifters. In that class, the goal is not a record payload but the ability to deliver a relatively small, important load without assigning an unnecessarily large aircraft. Any account of the Il-112V must make its status clear. It reached flight testing but never entered routine serial service. Planned capabilities and results actually demonstrated by the prototype should not be combined as though they described an operational fleet.

The project responded to the ageing of light transport aircraft inherited from the Soviet period. Replacing such a fleet is not simply a matter of fitting new engines or avionics to an old design. A new aircraft needs a cargo compartment of suitable size, practical access through a ramp and the ability to use the airfields required by its operator. The Il-112V programme had to balance payload, cabin dimensions, runway performance and propulsion. These requirements influence one another. A larger hold can add weight, while added weight changes what the wing and engines must achieve. Development delays and redesign work should therefore not be attributed casually to one isolated component.

Ilyushin organisations, the Voronezh aircraft plant and propulsion developers took part in building the prototype. The aircraft had a high wing, two TV7-117ST turboprop engines and a rear cargo ramp. A high wing leaves more of the lower fuselage available for a freight space and positions the engines farther from the ground. The ramp was intended to ease the loading of equipment and containers. Every item would still have to meet limits for dimensions, mass, floor loading and balance. Manufacturer material emphasised that the Il-112V's cargo compartment was wider than the An-26's, potentially accommodating items awkward for the older machine. This intended advantage should not be described as a proven record of serial operations.

The Il-112V prototype first flew at Voronezh on 30 March 2019. That flight was an important initial check of aerodynamics and systems, not the completion of testing. Engineers continued to modify the aircraft afterwards, including work to reduce its weight. The next flight stage came almost two years later: the prototype flew again on 30 March 2021. Such a long interval shows that substantial development was still taking place. It would be inaccurate to call 2019 the beginning of normal transport service or to treat the second flight as proof that production aircraft were ready for delivery. For a prototype, each sortie is one step in investigating the design.

Two TV7-117ST engines and their propellers formed the powerplant. Rostec material describes an integrated control approach intended to manage engine and propeller operation together and use the available power effectively. Good calculated engine performance does not determine the capabilities of the entire aeroplane. Taking off with freight requires the propulsion system, wing, high-lift devices and landing gear to work together. Temperature, runway length and condition, fuel and safety margins also influence the result. The announced payload of up to five tonnes described the intended class and programme conditions. It should not be presented as the everyday performance of a large fleet of operational Il-112Vs, because no such fleet existed.

For a transport, the hold is as important as the engines. The Il-112V was planned to carry military stores, containers and personnel. Rostec said its larger compartment compared with the An-26 would allow some loads inconvenient for the predecessor. Whether a particular item can be carried depends on the opening and ramp geometry, not only on nominal payload. Secure restraints and acceptable distribution of weight across the floor are also necessary. Describing the prototype responsibly means explaining the purpose of its loading arrangement while avoiding claims that a proposed seating plan or cargo layout was proven by years of real military deliveries.

Testing a new aircraft involves far more than showing that it can lift off. Stability, controllability, systems performance over different operating conditions and responses to failures all need investigation. The Il-112V was modified after its first flight, and its second flight in 2021 marked a return to the air. Production preparations were discussed at the time, but a plan to build aircraft is not the same as delivering them to a customer. Press releases written during tests record the expectations of their moment. Later events can alter a programme entirely. A historical account should separate what was planned, what the prototype demonstrated and what actually entered service.

In August 2021 the only flying Il-112V prototype crashed near Moscow, killing its three crew members. The loss became a severe turning point for the programme. Reports mentioned a fire involving the right engine, but the precise chain of causes cannot be reconstructed responsibly from a short video or an early news report. The event calls for careful treatment because technical questions sit alongside the loss of people and the work of investigators. For a model catalogue, it is enough to record the confirmed event and its consequences for flight testing without presenting an unsupported accident theory. After the prototype was lost, the previous delivery timetable could no longer be treated as an accomplished fact.

Ideas for continuing or changing the project were discussed after the crash. Open sources use the Il-212 name for a substantially redesigned proposal with a different propulsion arrangement. That label should not automatically be treated as a simple new name for an otherwise identical aircraft. Changing from turboprop to jet propulsion affects aerodynamics, mass, engine placement and operational calculations. Between a statement about a possible redesign and a flying production aircraft lie design work, construction and testing. The Il-112V story should therefore end with the actual status of its prototype programme, while Il-212 is treated as a related but distinct line of development.

Comparing the Il-112V with the An-26 is useful only when the terms are clear. The older aircraft had an extensive operational history; the new design was intended to offer a different hold, equipment and service life. Dimensions and planned performance can be placed side by side on paper, but that does not show how quickly a new aircraft would unload at a particular field or how it would endure years of service. The Il-112V had no such operational record. Nor should every photograph of the prototype or a display model be labelled as an image of a production variant. Provenance and the distinction between the test aircraft and planned future configurations matter.

The Il-112V illustrates the difficulty of creating a new light transport. Requirements for cargo volume, weight, engines and access to restricted airfields must be satisfied together, while an initial flight tests only part of the concept. The programme produced a real flying aircraft and information for further engineering work, but it did not lead to routine service by a production fleet. This does not make the prototype irrelevant to aviation history: experimental aircraft reveal design choices and technical limits. Respect for the evidence, however, requires calling the Il-112V a prototype, distinguishing plans from test results and avoiding claims about military transport missions it never performed as a serial aircraft.

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