Ilyushin Il-86 & Il-96

Last modified 14 September 2026

This Ilyushin aircraft family was the first wide-body jet airliner in the Soviet Union, and still remains as such until the CR929 sees the light (if ever).

The main external characteristics of the Il-86/Il-96

The Il-86 is a jetliner with engines on pylons under the low mounted wings. Hence, externally there is quite a similarity with the Airbus A340. The Il-86 and Il-96 even have quite similar cockpit windows, although the cutoff of the last window makes it nearly triangular. Also, the row of cabin windows appears to curve up at the end. The rear fuselage tapers rather late and the vertical stabiliser has a larger sweep angle. The Il-86/Il-96 has three main landing gears, each with four wheels.

To differentiate between the different Il-86/Il-96 subtypes you have to look at

• the length of the fuselage
• the height of the vertical stabiliser
• the shape of the engine nacelles
• the existence of a large cargo door
• the number of windows between cabin doors and emergency exits
• the presence and shape of bulges and antennas

There were no high bypass jet engines yet when the Ilyushin Il-86 was developed, so it has noisy turbofans in slim nacelles. They are recognisable by the rectangular shaped fan exhaust on the side of the nacelles, near the rear. Also unique to the Il-86 are the entry doors in the lower fuselage, one just behind the nose gear and the other before the tail.

This is the airborne command post version of the Il-86, having NATO reporting name 'Maxdome'. The aircraft is also known as Il‑86VKP, from vozdushniy komandnyi post. It can be distinguished from the regular Il-86 by the large canoe fairing on top of the forward fuselage, refuelling probe on the left side of the nose, lack of cabin windows and lots of antennas.

The Ilyushin Il-80, also known as Il-86VKP, is easily recognised from the standard Il-86 by the large canoe fairing on top of the fuselage. (photo: Dmitry Terekhov/WikiMediaDmitry Terekhov/WikiMedia)

In the 1990s finally more efficient Russian engines became available and these were used to modernise the Il-86. The first variant of the Il-96, as the aircraft is designated, is the Il-96-300, although it was known simply as Il-96 until new variants came along. It has a shorter fuselage than the Il-86, larger diameter engine nacelles with a single exhaust, and winglets. To compensate for loss in effectiveness of the vertical fin, it was made taller than on the Il-86.

Cubana aircraft are designated Il-96-300M, probably because these aircraft are slightly different from the ones operated by Aeroflot.

The VIP version used by the Russian govern­ment is called the Il-96-300PU, where PU means 'punkt upravleniya' or command post. It has a very long dorsal fin, probably holding special equipment, and more small antennas.

The Il-96-300PU can be distinguished from the standard Il-96-300 by the extended dorsal fin and other extra antennas. (photo: Dmitriy Pichugin/WikiMedia)

The second version of Il-96 was the stretched Il-96M, which is almost 10 metres longer than the Il-96-300, and even four metres longer than the Il-86. Therefore, it doesn't have the tall vertical stabiliser of the -300. The aircraft is equipped with four Pratt & Whitney PW2337 engines, with separate fan exhausts. This make is easy to distinguish from the other versions, but at the same time more difficult from the A340-500/600.

The Il-96T is the cargo version of the Il-96M, having no cabin windows and a large cargo door in the left front fuselage.

The Pratt & Whitney powered version never came in production and Ilyushin converted the Il‑96M/T to the Il-96-400 variants, featuring Russian avionics and engines. The latter are in the same shape nacelles as on the Il-96-300, so having a single exhaust. There are three subtypes:

• Il-96-400M, the passenger version with cabin windows
• Il-96-400T, the cargo version, having no cabin windows and a large cargo door in the left front fuselage
• Il-96-400VPU, an airborne command post like the Il-86VKP, with a long bulge on the rear top fuselage

The Ilyushin Il-96-400VPU command post has a single long fairing on top of the fuselage, in front of the tail. (photo: Dmitry Terekhov/WikiMedia)