The story of the largest civil aircraft in the world that has never taken off from Russia

In the 1990s, Russia came close to owning the world's largest passenger plane, dubbed the KR-860 "Wings of Russia", or 'The Wings of Russia'.

This giant machine is the idea of ​​​​Sukhoi Design Office. At that time, Sukhoi wanted to produce an aircraft that would be economically profitable for the civil aviation industry. According to the calculation of the above company, passenger traffic will increase by 9-12% per year in the 21st century. Therefore, the market will need a type of double-decker aircraft to carry large number of passengers at once.

Aircraft model KR-860. Photo: Sukhoi Design Office.

'Corporations around the world are eyeing such a biplane. The Americans created the Boeing-747 and the Europeans developed the giant Airbus A380. In the late 1990s, Sukhoi followed the general trend and did not want to miss the new segment of double-decker aircraft for transporting passengers," said Alexei Vlasov, flight safety expert.

Russia presented a 1/24 scale model of the aircraft at the 1999 Paris Air Show. If built, the KR-860 would be the largest, widest and largest passenger airliner in existence. heaviest in the world.

Impressive specs

In the 1990s, the Russian aviation industry was going through difficult times and companies needed a successful project to take the aviation industry to the next level. Double-decker planes were a major global trend at the time.

It is estimated that the world's largest civil aircraft project KR-860 has a cost of up to 10 billion USD and is targeted to produce the first aircraft before 2000. Each plane is valued at 160-200 million. USD.

The design engineers wanted to make a row of seats including 12 in the lower compartment and 9 in the upper compartment. Each KR-860 is said to be able to carry up to 860 people or a total weight of up to 650 tons. The wingspan of this "iron bird" is up to 88 meters, so a larger runway and hangar is required. So the designers decided to make the wing foldable and reduce the length to 64 meters.

This 80 meter long plane can reach a speed of about 1,000 km / h and a flight distance of up to 15,000 km. It also has a version KR-860T proposed for use as an airborne liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier for the Arctic regions.

Every detail is perfect on the drawing board, but in the end, why did Sukhoi give up on this project?

Forgotten project

The reason the KR-860 fell into oblivion turned out to be simple: the economic crisis. 

To create such an aircraft, the company had to set up a whole new huge production chain that built the engine, airframe, own factory as well as a range of other equipment. And this possibility did not exist in Russia in those years. According to expert Vlasov, such a project required investment of billions of dollars and at that time Sukhoi could not afford to pay.

According to him, Sukhoi could not start production of this aircraft because they did not initially receive government subsidies for comprehensive development. This is the reason why they abandoned the world's largest civil aircraft project.

Aircraft model KR-860. (Photo: TASS)

Although Sukhoi does not build its own version of the biplane, foreign competitors have brought a number of such models to market, among them the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 747.

According to him, the maintenance cost of Airbus A380 and Boeing 747 is very expensive. They also need a lot of time to prepare technically before each flight.

'It took two and a half hours to prepare for each takeoff. You need to disembark old passengers and baggage, refuel, check liquids, load new baggage and board new passengers. It all takes a lot of time. By comparison, the same procedure for a 200-passenger plane is about 40 minutes. Simply put, it is economically beneficial to produce smaller planes, 'said this expert.

Currently, airlines are abandoning similar products of the KR-860 such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747) The first Airbus planes made in Europe 20 years ago have been cut to scrap. While Boeing 747s are being converted into military transport aircraft.

Alexei Vlasov believes that Russia has not missed any opportunities and even benefited from the decision not to produce the double-decker KR-860. No investment costs, while the know-how is retained.

The expert concludes: 'We have produced technical documentation for the new-age aircraft engines that were later used in the construction of military Sukhoi and civilian SSJ-100 aircraft'.