Long-Range Jet

Catching Up

The Soviet Union had had the honor of starting the world’s first sustained jet airline service, with the Tupolev Tu-104 in 1956 (see pages 44-45) but this success had to be qualified with the reservation that such service was only short-haul. When the British Comet 4 and the American Boeing 707 launched the North Atlantic jet services in 1958, this marked the true begin­ning of the global jet age, and almost a decade was to pass before Aeroflot was able to start jet service across the ocean.

Casting its eyes around for inspiration, the Soviet industry undoubtedly reviewed it options, and selected the British Vickers VC10, possibly the best of all the narrow-bodied long – range jets of the west; although its specific operating costs — less important in the Soviet-style economic environment — were marginally worse than those of the Boeing 707s and DC-8s. Much has been said about the apparent Soviet custom of copying western designs; but there was no point in trying to re-invent the wheel. Critics on this design aspect often choose to forgdt the similarity to the Caravelle of the DC-9 and the ВАС One-Eleven, or between the Boeing 727 and the Trident. The Ilyushin 11-62, the so-called copy of the VC10, had its problems, but far more have been built, and it has lasted far longer in front-line service than has its British look-alike.

The Ilyushin 11-62

It first flew on 3 January 1963, yet the first recorded proving flight, from Moscow to Khabarovsk, was not made until 2 February 1966. This was apparently after problems with the

Kuznetsov turbofan engines and with the line of the leading edge of the swept-back-wing had been overcome. The rear – engined configuration was apparently satisfactory. But anoth­er year passed before a regular freight service began, on the same route, on 1 March 1967. Aeroflot put the Ilyushin 11-62 into full passenger service, from Moscow to Khabarovsk and to Novosibirsk, on 10 March, and a third non-stop direct route was added, to Tashkent, of 14 July.

Service to the United States

The Tupolev Tu-114 had already established trans-Atlantic service for Aeroflot, both to friendly Cuba and to fairly friend­ly Canada (see pages 52-53). With the 11-62, the time now seemed appropriate to start a commercial airline connection directly to the U. S.A., even though the Cold War still raged in a political atmosphere that was, if not actively hostile, cloud­ed with deep suspicion on both sides. Moving methodically towards its goal, Aeroflot first introduced the 11-62 on the Montreal route, on a proving flight on 11 July 1967, then in full scheduled service two months later, on 15 September. The journey time of the jet airliner, 9hr 50min, compared favorably with the superseded turboprop’s 12hr 5min.

Preparations were made for one of the most important inaugurals of Aeroflot’s history. On 15 July 1968, the Ilyushin 11-62 began scheduled service from Moscow to New York, via Shannon, Ireland, and Gander, Newfoundland. As yet, the aircraft could not make the journey in either direction with­out making these two intermediate stops.

A Taste of the Sixth Freedom

During the introductory period of 1967, the 11-62 had also entered service on some of the more prestigious routes into western Europe, notably to Rome, on 9 October, and to Paris five days later, as well as replacing the 11-18 and the Tu-104 on the route to Delhi. The time-saving on these routes was not significant, but on the longer ones, to the Far East, it was enough to give Aeroflot an unprecedented opportunity to exploit the geography of its sovereign airspace, by providing a swift connection from the European capitals to Japan. Accordingly, on 29 March 1970, the Soviet airline began a through service with Il-62s from Paris to Tokyo, via Moscow, and by flying a great circle route across Siberia. This saved time, by as much as six hours, over the so-called Polar route flown by Air France, northwestwards across Greenland, and stopping at Anchorage, Alaska.

This device of circumventing the familiar Fifth Freedom traffic rights (to serve two countries by an airline foreign to both) by a convenient technical stop at an intermediate domestic point had been tried before, but had been frowned upon by international agencies such as 1ATA and ICAO. Possibly because the nations of Europe and else­where cherished the prospect of over-flying the U. S.S. R. themselves, Aeroflot’s Sixth Freedom activity did not cause too much international concern. London received the Aeroflot privilege on 3 June 1970, Copenhagen on 31 March 1971, Rome on 11 June 1973, and Frankfurt on 31 July 1973.

Long-Range Jet

П-62М SSSR-86521 at Khabarovsk in 1991. (photo: Vladimir Kuznetzov)

 

Flight deck of an Ilyushin 11-62. This particular aircraft (SSSR-86670) is now preserved atMonino. (photo: Boris Vdovienko)

 

Long-Range Jet