A few weeks ago the Russian-Chinese agreement of aeronautical development, particularly in the aviation segment of large passenger jet was ratified. It is well known that Beijing has a major weakness in that area and needs to enhance its industry to be able, by itself, to develop a long-range four-engine wide-body commercial passenger jet airliner.
The development memorandum signed between Chinese and Russian included a large passenger aircraft, no doubt, will be used by the military as a platform for multi-purpose .
The Russian Ilyushin Group will collaborate with the Chinese counterpart in the development of the Russian cargo plane Ilyushin Il-96-400T.
The development memorandum signed between Chinese and Russian included a large passenger aircraft, no doubt, will be used by the military as a platform for multi-purpose .
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Ilyushin Il-96-400T |
The Russian Ilyushin Group will collaborate with the Chinese counterpart in the development of the Russian cargo plane Ilyushin Il-96-400T.
And the potentials are enormous based on this large platform. For example, the Chinese media is speculating on the possibility of modifying the Il-96-400T as the in-flight refuelling aircraft to replace the Ilyushin Il-78 fleet currently in service in PLAAF China.
A tanker version of Il-96-400T will match the capabilities of KC-46 that is based on the commercial Boeing 767 and that certainly would be of interest to the PLAAF and PLANAF.
