1.
Aeroflot
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OJSC Aeroflot – Russian Airlines, commonly known as Aeroflot, is the flag carrier and largest airline of the Russian Federation. The carrier operates domestic and international passenger and services, mainly from its hub at Sheremetyevo International Airport, Aeroflot is one of the oldest airlines in the world, tracing its history back to 1923. During the Soviet era, Aeroflot was the Soviet national airline, following the dissolution of the USSR, the carrier has been transformed from a state-run enterprise into a semi-privatised company which ranked 19th most profitable airline in the world in 2007. Aeroflot is still considered the de facto national airline of Russia and it is 51%-owned by the Russian Government. As of September 2013, the Aeroflot Group had 30,328 employees, the company has embarked on a fleet modernisation programme, extensive route restructuring, and an image overhaul. The airline joined SkyTeam in April 2006, becoming the 10th member of the alliance, on 17 January 1921, the Sovnarkom of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic published About Air Transportation. The document signed by Lenin set out the regulations on air transport over the territory of the RSFSR. The document was significant as it was the first time that a Russian state had declared sovereignty over its airspace, in addition, the document defined rules for the operation of foreign aircraft over the Soviet Unions airspace and territory. After Lenin issued an order, a State Commission was formed on 31 January 1921 for the purpose of civil aviation planning in the Soviet Union. This was followed by the formation of Deruluft-Deutsch Russische Luftverkehrs A. G. in Berlin on 11 November 1921, as a joint venture between the Soviet Union and Germany. The company, whose aircraft were registered in both Germany and the Soviet Union, began operations on 1 May 1922 with a Fokker F. III flying between Königsberg and Moscow, the service was initially operated twice a week and restricted to the carriage of mail. On 3 February 1923 Sovnarkom approved plans for the expansion of the Red Air Fleet, the artist Alexander Rodchenko became involved in the ODVF at this time. He designed posters encouraging citizens to buy stock in Dobrolet and the famous Winged Hammer, regular flights by Dobrolet from Moscow to Nizhniy Novgorod commenced on 15 July 1923. During the same period, an additional two airlines were established, Zakavia being based in Tiflis, and Ukrvozdukhput based in Kharkov, during 1923 an agreement was signed establishing a subdivision of Dobrolet to be based in Tashkent, which would operate to points in Soviet Central Asia. Services between Tashkent and Alma Ata began on 27 April 1924, and by the end of 1924 the subdivision had carried 480 passengers and 500 kilograms of mail and freight, in March 1924, Dobrolet began operating flights from Sevastopol to Yalta and Yevpatoriya in the Crimea. Dobrolets route network was extended during the 1925–1927 period to include Kazan, plans were made for Dobrolet flights to Kharkov to connect with Ukrvozdukhput services to Kiev, Odessa and Rostov-on-Don. Expansion of air routes which had taken shape in the late 1920s, the agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany relating to Deruluft expired on 1 January 1937 and wasnt renewed, which saw the joint venture carrier ceasing operations on 1 April 1937. On that date Aeroflot began operations on the Moscow to Stockholm route, under the third Five-Year Plan, which began in 1938, civil aviation development continued, with improvements to airport installations being made and construction of airports being commenced
2.
Dushanbe
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Dushanbe — is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan. Dushanbe means Monday in the Tajik language and it was so named because it grew from a village that originally had a popular market on Mondays. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe, as of 2014, Dushanbe had a population of 778,500. Situated at the confluence of two rivers, Varzob and Kofarnihon, Dushanbe is the capital of Tajikistan. Although archaeological remnants dating to the 5th century BC have been discovered in the area, the first written mention of the village of Dushanbe occurred in 1676. It was at the crossroads, where a large bazaar occurred on Mondays, hence the name Dushanbe-Bazar from Dushanbe, in the village, there were more than 500 households and a population of about 8,000 people. By 1826, the town was called Dushanbe Qurghan Russified as Dyushambe, the first map showing Dyushambe was drafted in 1875. At that time, the town was a fortress on a bank on the left bank of the Varzob River with 10,000 residents. In 1920, the last Emir of Bukhara briefly took refuge in Dyushambe after being overthrown by the Bolshevik revolution and he fled to Afghanistan after the Red Army conquered the area the next year. A Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic separate from the Uzbek SSR was created in 1929, in the years that followed, the city developed at a rapid pace. The Soviets transformed the area into a centre for cotton and silk production, the population also increased with thousands of Tajiks migrating to Tajikistan following the transfer of Bukhara and Samarkand to the Uzbek SSR as part of national delimitation in Central Asia. On 10 November 1961, Stalinabad was renamed Dushanbe, the name it retains to this day, severe rioting occurred in February 1990, after it was rumored that the Soviet government planned to relocate tens of thousands of Armenian refugees to Tajikistan. In January 2017, Rustam Emomali, current President Emomali Rahmons son, was appointed Mayor of Dushanbe, a key position, Dushanbe features a Mediterranean climate, with strong continental climate influences. The summers are hot and dry and the winters are chilly, the climate is damper than other Central Asian capitals, with an average annual rainfall over 500 millimetres as moist air is funnelled by the surrounding valley during the winter and spring. Winters are not as cold as further north owing to the shielding of the city by mountains from extremely cold air from Siberia, January 2008 was particularly cold, and the temperature dropped to −22 °C. Tajik Air has its office on the grounds of Dushanbe Airport in Dushanbe. Somon Air has its office in Dushanbe. Tajikistans principal railways are in the region and connect Dushanbe with the industrial areas of the Gissar and Vakhsh valleys and with Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan
3.
Tajikistan
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Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a mountainous, landlocked country in Central Asia with an estimated 8 million people in 2013, and an area of 143,100 km2. It is bordered by Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the south, the Republic of Uzbekistan to the west, the Kyrgyz Republic to the north, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan lies to the south, separated by the narrow Wakhan Corridor. Traditional homelands of Tajik people included present-day Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, a civil war was fought almost immediately after independence, lasting from 1992 to 1997. Since the end of the war, newly established political stability, Tajikistan is a presidential republic consisting of four provinces. Most of Tajikistans 8 million people belong to the Tajik ethnic group, many Tajiks also speak Russian as their second language. Mountains cover more than 90% of the country and it has a transition economy that is highly dependent on remittances, aluminium and cotton production. Tajikistan means the Land of the Tajiks, the suffix -stan is Persian for place of or country and Tajik is, most likely, the name of a pre-Islamic tribe. Tajikistan appeared as Tadjikistan or Tadzhikistan in English prior to 1991 and this is due to a transliteration from the Russian, Таджикистан. In Russian, there is no single letter j to represent the phoneme /ʤ/ and дж, Tadzhikistan is the most common alternate spelling and is widely used in English literature derived from Russian sources. Tadjikistan is the spelling in French and can occasionally be found in English language texts, the way of writing Tajikistan in the Perso-Arabic script is. The earliest recorded history of the dates back to about 500 BCE when much, if not all. After the regions conquest by Alexander the Great it became part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, northern Tajikistan was part of Sogdia, a collection of city-states which was overrun by Scythians and Yuezhi nomadic tribes around 150 BCE. The Silk Road passed through the region and following the expedition of Chinese explorer Zhang Qian during the reign of Wudi commercial relations between Han China and Sogdiana flourished. Sogdians played a role in facilitating trade and also worked in other capacities, as farmers, carpetweavers, glassmakers. Later the Hephthalite Empire, a collection of tribes, moved into the region. Central Asia continued in its role as a crossroads, linking China, the steppes to the north. It was temporarily under the control of the Tibetan empire and Chinese from 650–680, the Samanid Empire,819 to 999, restored Persian control of the region and enlarged the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara which became the cultural centres of Iran and the region was known as Khorasan. The Kara-Khanid Khanate conquered Transoxania and ruled between 999–1211, during Genghis Khans invasion of Khwarezmia in the early 13th century the Mongol Empire took control over nearly all of Central Asia
4.
Airline
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An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines utilize aircraft to supply services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements. Generally, airline companies are recognized with an air operating certificate or license issued by a governmental aviation body, Airlines vary in size, from small domestic airlines to full-service international airlines. Airline services can be categorized as being intercontinental, domestic, regional, or international, the largest airline currently is American Airlines Group. DELAG, Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft was the worlds first airline and it was founded on November 16,1909 with government assistance, and operated airships manufactured by The Zeppelin Corporation. The first fixed wing scheduled air service was started on January 1,1914 from St. Petersburg, Florida to Tampa, the four oldest non-dirigible airlines that still exist are Netherlands KLM, Colombias Avianca, Australias Qantas, and the Czech Republics Czech Airlines. The earliest fixed wing airline in Europe was the Aircraft Transport and Travel, using a fleet of former military Airco DH. 4A biplanes that had been modified to carry two passengers in the fuselage, it operated relief flights between Folkestone and Ghent. On 15 July 1919, the company flew a proving flight across the English Channel, flown by Lt. H Shaw in an Airco DH.9 between RAF Hendon and Paris - Le Bourget Airport, the flight took 2 hours and 30 minutes at £21 per passenger. On 25 August 1919, the company used DH. 16s to pioneer a regular service from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome to Le Bourget, the airline soon gained a reputation for reliability, despite problems with bad weather and began to attract European competition. In November 1919, it won the first British civil airmail contract, six Royal Air Force Airco DH. 9A aircraft were lent to the company, to operate the airmail service between Hawkinge and Cologne. In 1920, they were returned to the Royal Air Force, the first French airline was Société des lignes Latécoère, later known as Aéropostale, which started its first service in late 1918 to Spain. The first German airline to use heavier than air aircraft was Deutsche Luft-Reederei established in 1917 which started operating in February 1919, in its first year, the D. L. R. Operated regularly scheduled flights on routes with a length of nearly 1000 miles. Network was more than 3000 km long, and included destinations in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, another important German airline was Junkers Luftverkehr, which began operations in 1921. It was a division of the aircraft manufacturer Junkers, which became a company in 1924. It operated joint-venture airlines in Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the Dutch airline KLM made its first flight in 1920, and is the oldest continuously operating airline in the world. Established by aviator Albert Plesman, it was awarded a Royal predicate from Queen Wilhelmina. Its first flight was from Croydon Airport, London to Amsterdam, using a leased Aircraft Transport and Travel DH-16, in 1921, KLM started scheduled services
5.
Bukhara
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Bukhara, is one of the cities of Uzbekistan. Bukhara is a city-museum, with about 140 architectural monuments, the nations fifth-largest city, it had a population as of 31 August 2016 of approximately 247,644. Humans have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, the mother tongue of the majority of people of Bukhara is yet Persian Language. Located on the Silk Road, the city has served as a center of trade, scholarship, culture. UNESCO has listed the center of Bukhara as a World Heritage Site. Bukhara was known as Bokhara in 19th- and early 20th-century English publications, according to the Encyclopædia Iranica the name Bukhara is possibly derived from the Soghdian βuxārak Muhammad ibn Jafar Narshakhi in his History of Bukhara mentions, Bukhara has many names. One of its name was Numijkat and it has also been called Bumiskat. It has 2 names in Arabic, one is Madinat al Sufriya meaning - the copper city and another is Madinat Al Tujjar meaning - The city of Merchants. But, the name Bukhara is more known than all the other names, in Khorasan, there is no other city with so many names Since the Middle Ages, the city has been known as Buḫārā / بخارا in Arabic and Persian sources. The modern Uzbek spelling is Buxoro, the history of Bukhara stretches back millennia. It is now the capital of Bukhara Region of Uzbekistan, located on the Silk Road, the city has long been a center of trade, scholarship, culture, and religion. During the golden age of the Samanids, Bukhara became an intellectual center of the Islamic world. The historic center of Bukhara, which contains numerous mosques and madrassas, has been listed by UNESCO as one of the World Heritage Sites, Bukhara has been one of the main centres of world civilisation from its early days in 6th century BCE. From the 6th century CE, Turkic speakers gradually moved in and its architecture and archaeological sites form one of the pillars of Central Asian history and art. The region of Bukhara was a part of the Persian Empire for a long time, the origin of many of its current inhabitants goes back to the period of Aryan immigration into the region. The Samanid Empire seized Bukhara, the capital of Greater Khorasan, Genghis Khan besieged Bukhara for fifteen days in 1220 CE. Bukhara was the last capital of the Emirate of Bukhara and was besieged by the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. During the Bukhara operation of 1920, an army of well-disciplined, on 31 August 1920, the Emir Alim Khan fled to Dushanbe in Eastern Bukhara
6.
Junkers F.13
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The Junkers F.13 was the worlds first all-metal transport aircraft, developed in Germany at the end of World War I. It was an advanced cantilever-wing monoplane, with enclosed accommodation for four passengers and it was in production for thirteen years and in commercial service for almost twenty. The F.13 was an advanced aircraft when built. Even later in the 1920s, it and other Junkers types were unusual as unbraced monoplanes in a biplane age and it was the worlds first all-metal passenger aircraft and Junkers first commercial aircraft. The designation letter F stood for Flugzeug, aircraft, it was the first Junkers aeroplane to use this system, earlier Junkers notation labelled it J13. Russian-built aircraft used the designation Ju 13, internally, the wing was built up on nine circular cross-section duralumin spars with transverse bracing. All control surfaces were horn balanced, behind the single engine was a semi-enclosed cockpit for the crew, roofed but without side glazing. There was an enclosed and heated cabin for four passengers with windows, passenger seats were fitted with seat belts, unusual for the time. The F.13 used a fixed conventional landing gear with a rear skid. The F13 first flew on 25 June 1919, powered by a 127 kW Mercedes D IIIa inline upright water-cooled engine, the first production machines had a wing of greater span and area and had the more powerful 140 kW BMW IIIa upright inline water-cooled motor. Many variants were built using Mercedes, BMW, and Junkers liquid-cooled inline engines, the variants were mostly distinguished by a two letter code, the first letter signifying the airframe and the second the engine. Junkers L5-engined variants all had the second letter -e, so type -fe was the long fuselage -f airframe with a L5 engine. Any manufacturer of civil aircraft immediately after World War I was faced with competition from the large numbers of surplus warplanes that might be cheaply converted – for example. Junkers picked up orders abroad in 1919 in Austria, Poland and the USA and, in the years with SCADTA. John Larsen Aircraft in the USA purchased a licence, their machines being designated JL-6. In 1922 there were sales in England, France Italy and Japan, in Bolivia, LABs first airplane was a Junkers F-13, first flight took off from Cochabamba on September 23,1925. Junkers set up its own airline – Junkers Luftverkehr AG in 1921 – to encourage the acquisition of the F.13 by German airlines which was flying 60 of them by 1923 and they also established a branch of this airline in Iran. Other marketing techniques were used, providing F. 13s on cheap leases and free loans, when Junkers Luftverkehr merged into Luft Hansa in 1926,9.5 million miles had been flown by them
7.
Lisunov Li-2
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The Lisunov Li-2, originally designated PS-84, was a license-built version of the Douglas DC-3. It was produced by Factory #84 in Moscow-Khimki and, after evacuation in 1941, the project was directed by aeronautical engineer Boris Pavlovich Lisunov. The Soviet Union received its first DC-2 in 1935, although a total of 18 DC-3s had been ordered on 11 April 1936, the government of the USSR purchased 21 DC-3s for operation by Aeroflot before World War II. A production license was awarded to the government of the USSR on 15 July 1936, Lisunov spent two years at the Douglas Aircraft Company, between November 1936 and April 1939 translating the design. One of the engineers who accompanied him to Douglas was Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev, design work and production were undertaken at State Aviation Factory 84 in Khimki. The Soviet version was given the designation PS-84 - Passazhirskiy Samolyot 84, customary units to suit Soviet standards. No small task for Vladimir Myasishchev to accomplish, the Russian standard design practice also usually mandated fully shuttered engines in order to cope with the extreme temperatures. A slightly shorter span was incorporated but many of the alterations were less evident. The passenger door was moved to the side of the fuselage. The structural reinforcement included slightly heavier skins necessitated since the metric skin gauges were not exact duplicates of the American alloy sheet metal. Standard Russian metric hardware was different and the various steel substructures such as engine mounts and landing gear, wheels, later modifications allowed the provision of ski landing gear in order to operate in remote and Arctic regions. The first PS-84s began to emerge from the GAZ-84 production line by 1939, by the time Germany invaded the USSR on 22 June 1941,237 PS-84s had been built at GAZ-84, all in civil passenger configuration. After a monumental struggle, the factory was producing PS-84s again by January 1942, some military versions of the Li-2 also had bomb racks and a dorsal turret, unlike the military C-47 development of the DC-3. The PS-84 had flown with Aeroflot primarily as a passenger transport before World War II, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941 many of the PS-84s were taken into military use and redesignated the Lisunov Li-2 in 1942. The military models were equipped with a 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun, the aircraft were used for transport, partisan supply, bombing, and as ambulance aircraft. A version designated Li-2VV had a nose for extra defensive armament. Smaller bombs could be carried inside the fuselage and thrown out of the hatch by the crew. A total of 4,937 aircraft were produced of all Li-2 variants between 1940 and 1954 and it saw use in Eastern Europe until the 1960s
8.
Junkers Ju 52
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The Junkers Ju 52/3m is a German trimotor transport aircraft manufactured from 1931 to 1952. Initially designed with an engine but subsequently produced as a trimotor it saw both civilian and military service during the 1930s and 1940s. In a civilian role, it flew with over twelve air carriers including Swissair and Deutsche Luft Hansa as an airliner, in a military role, it flew with the Luftwaffe as a troop and cargo transport and briefly as a medium bomber. The Ju 52 continued in service with military and civilian air fleets well into the 1980s. The Ju 52 was similar to the companys previous Junkers W33, in 1930, Ernst Zindel and his team designed the Ju 52 at the Junkers works at Dessau. The aircrafts unusual corrugated duralumin metal skin, pioneered by Junkers during World War I, the Ju 52 had a low cantilever wing, the midsection of which was built into the fuselage, forming its underside. It was formed around four pairs of circular cross-section duralumin spars with a surface that provided torsional stiffening. A narrow control surface, with its outer section functioning as the aileron, the inner flap section lowered the stalling speed and the arrangement became known as the Doppelflügel, or double wing. The outer sections of this operated differentially as ailerons, projecting slightly beyond the wingtips with control horns, the strutted horizontal stabilizer carried horn-balanced elevators which again projected and showed a significant gap between them and the stabilizer, which was adjustable in-flight. The fuselage was of rectangular section with a domed decking, all covered with corrugated light alloy, there was a port side passenger door just aft of the wings, with windows stretching forward to the pilots cockpit. The main undercarriage was fixed and divided, some aircraft had wheel fairings, there was a fixed tailskid, or a later tailwheel. Some aircraft were fitted with floats or skis instead of the main wheels, in its original configuration, designated the Ju 52/1m, the Ju 52 was a single-engined aircraft, powered by either a BMW IV or Junkers liquid-cooled V-12 engine. However, the model was underpowered, and after seven prototypes had been completed. Originally powered by three Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engines, later models mainly received 574 kW BMW132 engines. Export models were built with 447 kW Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp and 578 kW Bristol Pegasus VI engines. In 1932, James A. Richardsons Canadian Airways received CF-ARM and it was used to supply mining and other operations in remote areas with equipment too big and heavy for other aircraft then in use. The Ju 52/1m was able to land on wheels, skis or floats, before the nationalisation of the German aircraft industry in 1935, the Ju 52/3m was produced principally as a 17-seat airliner. It was used mainly by Luft Hansa and could fly from Berlin to Rome in eight hours, the Luft Hansa fleet eventually numbered 80 and flew from Germany on routes in Europe, Asia and South America
9.
Antonov An-2
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The Antonov An-2 is a Soviet mass-produced single-engine biplane utility/agricultural aircraft designed and manufactured by the Antonov Design Bureau beginning in 1946. Its remarkable durability, high lifting power, and ability to take off, the An-2 is still produced and remains in service with military and civilian operators around the world. In certain wind conditions it can hover or even fly backwards, the An-2 is used as a light utility transport, parachute drop aircraft, agricultural work and many other tasks suited to this large slow-flying biplane. Its slow flight and good field performance make it suited for short, unimproved fields. Antonov designed a single bay biplane of all-metal construction, with an enclosed cockpit. The first prototype, designated SKh-1 and powered by a Shvetsov ASh-21 radial engine, initial Soviet production was at State Factory 473 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR where the bulk of up to 5,000 units had been produced by 1960. Later Soviet production was at State Factory 464 at Dolgoprudniy, Russian SFSR, after 1960, however, most An-2s were built at Polands WSK factory in Mielec, with over 13,000 made there before full production ended in 1991. Limited production from parts stocks, as well as spares and maintenance coverage continued until 2001, China also builds the An-2 under licence as the Shijiazhuang Y-5. It has been occasionally and erroneously reported that there was East German production of the An-2, while An-2s were extensively refurbished in East Germany, there were no new aircraft built there. The An-2 was designed as a utility aircraft for use in forestry, however, the basic airframe is highly adaptable and numerous variants have been developed. The most common version is the An-2T 12-seater passenger aircraft, all versions are powered by a 750 kW nine-cylinder Shvetsov ASh-62 radial engine, which was developed from the Wright R-1820. It uses 43 gallons of avgas per hour, the An-2 has design features which make it suitable for operation in remote areas with unsurfaced airstrips, It has a pneumatic brake system to stop on short runways. It has an air line fitted to the compressor, so the pressure in the tires, the batteries are large and easy to remove, so the aircraft does not need a ground power unit to supply power. There is no need for a fuel pump to refuel the aircraft. It has a minimum of complex systems, the crucial wing leading edge slats that give the aircraft its slow flight ability are fully automatic, being held closed by the airflow over the wings. Once the airspeed drops below 64 km/h, the slats will extend because they are on elastic rubber springs, take-off run,170 m, landing run,215 m. A note from the pilots handbook reads, If the engine quits in instrument conditions or at night, the An-2 indeed has no stall speed quoted in the operating handbook. Pilots of the An-2 say one can fly the aircraft in control at 48 km/h
10.
Ilyushin Il-18
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The Ilyushin Il-18 is a large turboprop airliner that first flew in 1957 and became one of the best known and durable Soviet aircraft of its era. The Il-18 was one of the worlds principal airliners for several decades and was widely exported, due to the aircrafts airframe durability, many examples achieved over 45,000 flight hours and the type remains operational in both military and civilian capacities. The Il-18s successor was the long range Il-62 jet airliner, Two Soviet aircraft shared the designation Ilyushin Il-18. The first Il-18 was an airliner of 1946 but after a year of test flights that programme was abandoned. The two aircraft designs were developed as the Ilyushin Il-18 and the Antonov An-10 and the chosen was the Kuznetsov NK-4 rather than the Ivchenko AI-20. The Il-18 design had started in 1954 before the directive was issued, the design was for a four-engined low-wing monoplane with a circular pressurised fuselage and a conventional tail. The forward retracting tricycle landing gear had four wheels fitted on the main leg bogies, a new feature at the time was the fitting of a weather radar in the nose and it was the first soviet airliner to have an automatic approach system. The aircraft has two doors on the port-side before and after the wing and two overwing emergency exits on each side. The prototype SSSR-L5811 was rolled out in June 1957 and after ground-testing it began taxi test, on 4 July 1957 the prototype first flew from Khodynka. On 10 July 1957 the aircraft was flown to Moscow-Vnukovo Airport to be presented to a Soviet government commission, also present was the prototype Antonov An-10 and the Tupolev Tu-114. The Il-18 type was formally named Moskva and this was painted on the fuselage, the Moscow Machinery Plant No.30 located at Khodynka, near where the Ilyushin design office and the prototype had been built, was chosen to manufacture the aircraft. During 1957 the plant began to reduce its production of the Ilyushin Il-14, the Il-18A was only different from the prototype in minor details, mainly internal configuration to increase the seating from 75 to 89. The first Il-18B flew on 30 September 1958 powered by the AI-20, from April 1961 a TG-18 Auxiliary Power Unit was fitted for ground starting rather than the bank of lead-acid batteries. Some aircraft were modified to allow the APU to be run in flight, with experience of the earlier aircraft a further improvement was the Il-18V variant. The Il-18V was structurally the same but the interior was re-designed including moving the galley, the first Il-18V appeared in December 1959 and was to continue into production until 1965 after 334 had been built. Specialised variants of the aircraft appeared, including aircraft modified for flight calibration. Military variants also appeared including the anti-submarine Ilyushin Il-38, the first Il-18, initially equipped with Kuznetsov NK-4 engines, flew on 4 July 1957. On 17 September 1958 the aircraft first flew with the new Ivchenko AI-20 engines, vladimir Kokkinaki was the test pilot
