Ilyushin Aviation Complex, an aircraft engineering enterprise, announced on 30 March that it has successfully completed the maiden flight of its Il-112V light military transport aircraft.

According to a news release put out by Ilyushin Aviation Complex, the first flight of new military transport plane was being performed on the eve of the 125th birth anniversary of Soviet aircraft designer Sergei Ilyushin.

“An Il-112V light military transport aircraft performed its maiden flight successfully,” the Ilyushin Aviation Complex press service said.

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This is the first military transport plane designed in Russia from scratch during the post-Soviet era. Work to create it has been in progress since 2014. According to its specifications, the new plane will be capable of carrying of up to 5 tonnes of cargo. It is designed to transport troops, military equipment and weapons.

An Ilyushin representative said: “In the long term the IL-112 aircraft will replace not only the AN-26, but will also compete with world-class transport aircraft of this class.”

Light military transport aircraft Il-112V is designed for transporting and parachuting of light weaponry and equipment, cargoes and military personnel, as well as for transporting a wide variety of cargoes when operated in commercial service.

It is capable of auto landing approaches to categorized aerodromes (minimum requirement being ICAO category II) and manual landing approaches to aerodromes poorly equipped with, or having no radio technical equipment.