Ilyushin Il-114

To replace the venerable An-24 en Yak-40 for domestic service Ilyushin developed the Il-114 turboprop commuter airplane. It appear very similar to the British Aerospace ATP, that was deloped in the same period. So the Il-114 has a round fuselage with many rectangular cabin windows, low, slender wings with significant anhedral, a tall vertical stabiliser and horizontal stabilisers attached to the tail cone. The engine nacelles are wrapped aroound the wings, with the space above the wings used for the engines and the space below to store the two wheel main gears. The nose gear also has two wheels. While this sound very traditional, there are some detailed characteristics to recognise the Il-114. First there is the relatively short pointed nose, with six cockpit windows. The last cockpit side window has nearly the shape of a tri­angle. Furthermore, the vertical fin is rather tall, only slightly swept and has a short triangular dorsal fin that curves towards the leading edge. (top photo: Anna Zvereva/Wikimedia, modified)

The Il-114's nose is short but pointed. Typical is the rear cockpit window, that is nearly triangular. (photo: Pavel Adzhigildaev/Wikimedia, modified)

The tall vertical stabiliser of the Il-114 is only slightly swept and has a rather short dorsal fin. (photo: Vitaly V. Kuzmin/Wikimedia, modified)

The different versions of the Il-114 can be distinguished by looking at

• the shape of the engine nacelles
• the shape of the propellers
• the presence of a large cargo door in the left rear fuselage
• the dihedral angle of the wings
• the number of cabin windows
• the presence of pylons under the centre fuselage, with or without pods

The first basic passenger version is just designated Il-114. They have many small cabin win­dows. The main recognition point are the nacelles and propellers. The Klimov engines have a ring-shaped air intake around the propeller spinner. There is a secondary air intake below the spinner. The prop blades themselves have a wide chord and rounded tips, and are more or less symmetrical.

From a distance and without a clear view on the propeller blades, the Il-114 is best distinguished by the relatively narrow engine nacelles. (photo: Sergey Riabsev/Wikimedia)

The original Il-114 has propellers with six wide-chord blades and rounded tips. (photo: Pavel Adzhigildaev/Wikimedia, modified)

To make the Il-114 more appealing for the Western market, one version is equipped with Pratt & Whitney engines, designated the Il-114-100. These engines have a large air intake below the propeller spinner. Also, the nacelles are a bit higher than those of the Klimov engines. The propeller blades are slightly curved, giving them a crescent shape, and narrower than on the Il-114.

From below the large wings of the Il-114, in this case an Il-114-100, can be appreciated. (photo: Andrew Dyubin/Wikimedia)

The engine nacelle and propellers are the way to recognise the Il-114-100. Note the higher nacelles, larger diameter props and curved blades. (photo: RuLavan/Wikimedia, modified)

The original Il-114 did not sell very well, possibly because of poor economics. But that was no problem with the availability of modern Western types like the ATR72. Sanction against Russia however made it more difficult to operate the ATRs. Hence the Il-114 was revived and the main shortcomings were solved in the Il-114-300. First, the wings received more dihedral, although the four extra degrees may in practice be invisible. Secondly, the engines and propellers were upgrades. The nacelles remained the same, but the six blade props have a larger diameter than the ones of the Il-114, and the shape of a sable. The latter means that the leading edge is curved and the trailing edge straight.

Il-114-300 is the designation of the upgraded Il-114, with increased wing dihedral, improved engines and new propellers. (photo: Anna Zvereva/Wikimedia)

On this detail photo you can better see the sable shaped propeller blades of the Il-114-300. Also note that the nacelle shape is not different from that of the original Il-114. (photo: Caughtin16k/Wikimedia, modified)

One Il-114 is used for testing equipment, in particular sensors. For that it has long pylons under the wing box and between the wings and the nose gear to attach pods and bulges. For the rest this Il-114LL is the same as the standard passenger Il-114.

On this photo of the Il-114T only the centre, most forward pylon is occupied. If you look well, the pylons under the wing-fuselage attachment are visible as well. (photo: parfaits/Wikimedia)

Fully loaded with three pods, including two long canoe shaped ones under the wing centre box, the Il-114LL taxies towards you. (photo: Oleg V. Belyakov - AirTeamImages/Wikimedia)

There is a cargo verion of the Il-114 as well, designated Il-114T. It has a large cargo door in the left rear fuselage. Moreover, there are only cabin windows in the front fuselage.

Thanks to being open on this photo you can see the cargo door of the Il-114T in the left rear fuselage. On the right side, the lack of cabin windows in the rear fuselage is remar­kable. (photo: Dmitry Avdeev/WikiMedia, modified)