Originally, Lozko and the Ilyushin team led by him did not come to "participate" in this air show, but to guarantee this air show.

They did not bring any models planned for the exhibition, only an Il-76 transport aircraft with aviation materials and personnel, and an Il-78M tanker to fuel the exhibited aircraft.

But this does not mean that Ilyushin does not want to do something at the air show.

In the early 90s, Huaxia purchased 14 Il-76 transport aircraft from Russia in two installments to form a strategic transport fleet of the Air Force.

But this deal has nothing to do with Ilyushin, and all 14 planes were delivered directly from the active equipment of the Russian army.

The plane was sold, but no money was made.

In fact, at this time, the Russian Federation still has some concerns about exporting such a large transport aircraft with a take-off weight of 200 tons.

But Ilyushin had no concerns, or no time to worry about them.

Seeing that Sukhoi and Miri (who designed and produced the Mi-8/17/171 helicopters) were resurrected on the spot with the large orders signed with Huaxia, not only restarting the development of new models, but even opening a new production line at the aircraft factory in Novosibirsk, Ilyushin also highlighted a sense of envy and hatred.

The main thing is that the problems they face are more troublesome than all the other peers -

As its absolute staple, the final assembly plant of the Il-76 is not located in Russia, but in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

In the past, everyone was in the same country, the design bureau was in Moscow, and the manufacturing plant was in Tashkent, so there was naturally no problem, and the right was to upgrade the industry in remote and backward areas.

But now it's different.

First of all, after the collapse of the Union, the situation in several stans was much worse than in Russia, and if the final assembly plant was allowed to continue to be abandoned, then in another two years, the Tashkent plant would probably not be able to produce the new Il-76.

Second, just earlier this year, Uzbekistan and NATO entered into a "separate partnership program", showing a tendency that worries Moscow.

To be on the safe side, the Ilyushin company plans to build a new Il-76 final assembly line at the Hangxing SP plant in Ulyanovsk to absorb workers from Tashkent.

And it takes time, and money.

The best way is to find a customer, a big customer, and sell a dozen or twenty brand-new Il-76s.

This would allow the workers on the Tashkent side to buy time and get enough money to build a new production line.

But there is a huge obstacle to this approach.

The Il-76 was too successful.

As a strategic transport aircraft, the Il-76 has almost as low take-off and landing requirements as tactical transport aircraft, and can even use unpaved runways.

To put it simply, it has the load of C141 at the same time, as well as the use conditions and cost of C130.

As a result, more than 850 were built.

All other strategic transport aircraft models in the world combined, do not reach this figure.

But now, after the disintegration, the Russian Air Force does not need so many strategic transport aircraft.

So now the biggest opponent of the Ilyushin Design Bureau is himself before 1991.

The only way to do this is to market the new model.

Now, Ilyushin finally sees an opportunity.

The Il-78M is a large air tanker designed on the basis of the Il-76 platform.

Compared with the old Il-78, its biggest feature is that it redesigns almost the entire wing box structure and cancels the tail cargo door, which greatly improves the fuel load and loses the ability of the passenger transport aircraft to carry cargo after removing the oil storage tank.

What's more, it could not be converted from the Il-76 and was produced in very little quantities before the collapse of the USSR.

In the flight show video just played, Rodsko specially observed that the nose part of the J-8C was equipped with a non-retractable fuel receiving tube.

Obviously, this shows that the Huaxia Air Force has the need to expand the combat radius of fighters.

During the Soviet era, it was also equipped with the Tu-16 modified air tanker Tu-16N, so Lozko is well aware that the limit of this model is less than 20 tons, and if the refueling area is a little farther away, the fuel delivery can easily fall below 10 tons, and there is basically only a symbolic air refueling capacity.

The Il-78M has a limit of 106 tons......

Even at a distance of 1,000 kilometers there are 85 tons.

Who can say no to an air nurse of this capacity?

In fact, what Lozko wanted to sell to China was a deeply improved version of the Il-76, the Il-76MF.

It was replaced with four PS90A engines of the same model as the Tu-214, lengthened the fuselage by 6.6 meters, increased the maximum payload from 48 tons to 60 tons, and still had an astonishing range of up to 5,200 km at maximum load.

What's more, its prototype made its first flight last year, and it is by no means a pie model.

It's a pity that I didn't bring it with me this time.

"Tell me what you think?"

Pogosyan turned to look at Lozko behind him.

"We can divide the air show into two parts, the front and the back." Lozko organized his words a little and then spoke:

"First of all, the Su-27 alone carried the minimum amount of fuel and carried out the first part of the flight show."

"Then let our Il-78M tanker take off, refuel the Su-27 in the air at the air show site, and after the refueling is over, the second part of the performance will be performed."

Originally, whether it was a single-seat Su-27S or a two-seater Su-27UB, there was no design tubing.

Including the previous few planes called Su-30, but the essence is just that the Su-27UB has been relived, and the same is true.

But this time at the Xiangzhou Air Show, Sukhoi brought two planes belonging to the Gromov Test Flight Institute, not the Russian Air Force -

They all happen to have the ability to receive oil in the air.

"Refueling in the air?"

The representative of the Tupolev Design Bureau next to him scratched his head: "What is there to perform, although it is very difficult, I think most people may not feel it." ”

Lozko, of course, could not explicitly say that he was there to demonstrate the performance of his own aircraft:

"As far as I know, the Huaxia Air Force has only entered service with the first modified air tanker from the Tu-16 since last year, and the number is very small and the performance is not enough."

"Therefore, whether it is for the ordinary people of China, or for the Chinese army, and even for aviation technicians, air refueling is a very new thing, and many people should have never seen such a scene in the past."

"Air show, pay attention to no one I have, people have my superiority, so my method must work very well."

The explanation was seamless, and everyone couldn't think of a better way for a while, so they agreed.

"Very good, then I'll contact the airshow organizers early tomorrow morning and change the schedule for the afternoon show."

As he spoke, Pogosyan took out a notebook from his pocket, jotted down what Lozko had proposed, and then looked up again:

"Also, before the meeting adjourns, I have one more informal thing that I would like to hear from you."

(End of chapter)