an interesting talk about translations｜the russian presidential plane nicknamed “eggplant”
2024-09-27
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on september 2, the united states seized a falcon 900ex business jet owned by venezuelan president maduro in the dominican republic on the grounds that the purchase of the aircraft "violated u.s. export controls and sanctions." the venezuelan government called the us move "an act of banditry" and "another crime."
kim dotcom (born in 1974, whose original name was kim schmitz, changed his name to pay tribute to the internet) is the founder of mecca sharing website, the world's largest file upload and download sharing website, and a dual national of germany and finland. watching the excitement is not too big a deal. he suggested on the social platform , creating a news stunt among countries in the global south, which will only increase maduro’s support.”
this news made russian president vladimir putin’s special plane il-96 become popular again. in fact, the il-96 almost became venezuela’s “air force one”. in 2009, the venezuelan government signed a contract with russia to purchase two il-96-300 passenger aircraft, one for the leaders and one as a passenger aircraft. however, due to a series of reasons, the contract was not implemented.
hopes for soviet civil aviation
in the 1980s, the number of passengers on long-distance flights increased significantly. in order to relieve the pressure of overcrowded airports and save the huge cost of state-subsidized shipping, the famous ilyushin design bureau of the soviet union launched a large wide-body passenger aircraft with four engines and two aisles. il-96, and announced that it has cost advantages compared with the boeing 777 passenger aircraft in the same class.
the il-96 was the hope and pride of the soviet civil aviation industry. because of its smooth appearance and cuteness, the people nicknamed it "eggplant" (баклажан), and also liked to call it "long white bread" (батон). it. because it was the first and last long-range wide-body passenger aircraft in the soviet civil aviation industry to compete with boeing, it was also nicknamed хбб (хочу быть боингом, which means "hope to be boeing").
the first prototype of the il-96 made its first flight on september 28, 1988, but it was already put into mass production at the voronezh aircraft manufacturing plant and used as a commercial aircraft by airlines in 1993 after the disintegration of the soviet union. the flight was from moscow to new york.
currently, the il-96 is only used as a presidential plane in russia, and cubana airlines still uses it for commercial flights.
its most popular model is the il-96-300, which is the presidential plane. it carries 235-300 passengers and has a range of 9,000-11,000 kilometers. it uses ps-90a turbofan engines, has a wingspan of 57.66 meters and a length of 55.35 meters. meters, the aircraft height is 17.57 meters, and the cruising speed is 850-900 kilometers per hour. it was the first soviet passenger aircraft to use electronic flight control systems and lcd instruments.
because of the high hopes, the soviet union named each il-96 after an outstanding soviet pilot, cosmonaut, and aircraft designer. the il-96 was named after the test hero valery chkalov. after finishing its commercial flight, it was converted into a training aircraft. the other one was named after alexei majorov, the captain of the special plane of andropov, chernenko, and gorbachev, the three general secretaries of the communist party of the soviet union. flying laboratory at the training center of the lyushin design bureau.
the presidential plane is the ilyushin-96-300пу (пункт управления, command post). its flight performance is not much different from that of ordinary aircraft. it is just that after some improvements, the range has been increased, and it is equipped with internal equipment that can be used in the event of a nuclear conflict. special equipment for commanding armies.
destiny is ups and downs
the il-96 is known for its good safety performance. it has never had a major accident or caused any casualties. the first "larger" accident occurred in lisbon on september 29, 2004. it was hit by a flock of birds while taking off. it had to return to the tarmac and was inspected by russian mechanics who rushed from moscow. it was found that the cause was not birds. , but the condensed water from the air-conditioning system pipes dripped onto the instrument panel, causing the engine to be in take-off state, but the instrument showed that it had not taken off. this was not news at first, but it spread all over the world because it was photographed by portuguese journalist claudio. putin happened not to be on the plane that day, he was in china.
on august 2, 2005, when putin was visiting finland, the special plane parked at turku airport broke down and was unable to take off. putin immediately left on an il-62. the russian transport supervision service announced on the 20th of that month that all il-96s were grounded indefinitely. the investigation found that an important component of the tire braking system failed. this component was originally produced by the foundry machinery plant in balashikha, but was later replaced by another factory in moscow. the flight ban was lifted 42 days later, but airlines operating il-96s had already suffered heavy financial losses.
in 2014, the cockpit of a retired il-96 parked at sheremetyevo airport spontaneously ignited. the interior of the aircraft was severely damaged, but no casualties were caused. since maintenance was of little significance, it was scrapped.
like other aircraft (il-114, tu-204) that were designed not long before the collapse of the soviet union, the il-96 was recognized as elegant in appearance, comfortable to ride, and easy to drive, but it was born at the wrong time and faced foreign challenges. due to the competition of aircraft (low leasing prices and fuel economy), it produced less than 30 aircraft in total and failed to become a large-scale model. today, it can no longer be seen in russian airlines.
some people in the industry say that the il-96 is a safe aircraft, but it is not reliable enough. to keep it trouble-free, it needs regular planned maintenance, which accounts for 30% of its flight life, while boeing only requires 7%. and it has 4 engines, which consumes quite a lot of fuel.
however, after russia's civil aviation industry was sanctioned by the west, putin ordered the revitalization of the country's civil aviation manufacturing industry. after all, this is a major matter related to the country's technological sovereignty. in november 2023, the il-96-400m, which was modified and upgraded based on the il-96-300, successfully made a test flight, and its passenger capacity was increased to 370 people.
other leaders of the former soviet union countries basically no longer use russian-soviet passenger planes as their special flights, either replacing them with boeing or airbus. ukrainian president zelenskiy uses an airbus a319, and his special plane just underwent an interior renovation and upgrade in lithuania in 2023. as can be seen from the photos of the tarmac when the cis summit was held in kyrgyzstan in 2023, azerbaijani president aliyev took a boeing 777-200, belarusian president lukashenko took a boeing 737-800, and kazakhstan stan president tokayev is an airbus 330-233, uzbekistan president mirziyoyev is an airbus a320, turkmenistan president gurbanguly berdimuhamedov is a boeing 737-700, and tajikistan president emomali rahmon is boeing 787-8. (children’s teacher group)
