Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) plans to launch an automated assembly line that will speed up the production of Il-76MD-90A heavy military transport aircraft and its modifications in summer, a source in the aviation industry told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th March, 2019) Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) plans to launch an automated assembly line that will speed up the production of Il-76MD-90A heavy military transport aircraft and its modifications in summer, a source in the aviation industry told Sputnik.
"The launch is scheduled for summer," the source said.
In March 2018, Yury Tarasov, the technical director of UAC, told Sputnik that the installation of this assembly line had already started at Aviastar-SP, an aircraft manufacturing plant based in the city of Ulyanovsk in the Volga Region and a subsidiary of the Russian Ilyushin Aviation Complex. He qualified the assembly line as Russia's biggest one. According to him, the plant operates two robotic stations that automatically attach units of the fuselage, wings and empennage, as well as six automated stations for installation of different systems and engines.
Tarasov noted that this technology makes it possible to reduce the time to perform the most difficult operations during the aircraft assembly with a significant increase in quality.
The Il-76MD-90A is a deeply modernized version of Russia's world-famous Il-76 aircraft, featuring a fully-digital flight control system, new avionics and PS-90A-76 engines with improved fuel efficiency systems. The aircraft was designed for parachuting and landing of military personnel, military equipment, cargoes, fuel and containers.
The test flights of the aircraft are expected to be completed by 2021.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said earlier in March that the Russian Defense Ministry was planning to purchase by 2030 over 100 Il-76MD-90A aircraft that would be used in military transport and aerial tanker capacity.
