Soviet aviation did not have a long-range wide-body aircraft. They wanted to correct the unfortunate misunderstanding in the Ilyushin Design Bureau in the mid-80s. Although, if you understand, the work began 10 years before. The project was implemented in the form of an experimental IL-96. It happened in 1988. The model quickly passed the tests and was recommended for mass production. It took several years and huge financial costs to start it. And now it is enough to remember that there was “perestroika” in the USSR, and then the Soviet Union collapsed. Because of this, the IL-96 did not become fully serial. It was released 1-2 copies a year. And then they completely abandoned the model. It happened in 2013.
A couple of years later, they returned to the project, apparently considering that foreign companies might refuse to supply Boeing. As events in February 2022 showed, the fears were not unfounded. That's just the revived IL-96-400M and is produced in one copy. Until 2022, Russian private companies did not care - they had enough used Boeing. And now there is simply nothing to update the fleets. Therefore, the IL-96 has a chance for a revival. And you can learn more about this thanks to the video on the Aviasmotr channel.
The issue of building a bridge to Sakhalin was returned at the highest level
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