Ilyushin Il-54

The Il-54 was a transonic bomber developed in the USSR in the 1950s. Only two examples were built before the project was abandoned.

The Council of Ministers issued a directive to OKB-115, for a transonic bomber prototype to be submitted for State Acceptance Trials in July 1954. The design of this bomber went through several stages before settling on the final configuration.

The Il-54, as built, had a very thin 45 degree swept wing with anhedral, which was shoulder mounted on the fuselage. The Lyulka AL-7 engines were housed in slim, pylon mounted, pods at approximately 1/3 span. Because the wings and engine nacelles were too small to house a conventional undercarriage, the Il-54 used a bicycle undercarriage arrangement, with nose and main gear units on the centreline of the aircraft, at each end of the bomb bay. This arrangement meant a conventional rotating take-off would be impossible. To enable the Il-54 to take-off, in a reasonable runway length, the main gear knelt and the nose gear extended to give the ideal angle of incidence for take-off (10 degrees).

Flight trials of the Il-54 commenced in April 1955 with test pilot Vladimir Kokkinaki at the helm. Difficult handling during the landing run was rectified by modifying the undercarriage.

Production of the Il-54 was not proceeded with, due to competition from Yak-25 derivatives, and the belief that manned aircraft would soon be replaced by missiles.

Booked to fly in the flypast at Tushino in 1956, the Il-54 was dropped from the flying programme. The aircraft was then shown to a US Military Delegation at Kubinka. The Delegation were told that the Il-54 was the Il-149 as part of a deception programme. As a result the Il-54 was given far more importance than it actually warranted, and was assigned the NATO reporting name ("Blowlamp") after it had ceased flying.

Variants

• Il-54T - Torpedo Bomber (project)
• Il-54U - Trainer (project)
• Il-54R - Photo-Reconnaissance (project)

Specifications (Il-54)

Data from Gordon, OKB Ilyushin: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft

General characteristics

• Crew: 3
• Length: 28.963 m (95 ft 1/4 in)
• Wingspan: 17.65 m (57 ft 11 in)
• Wing area: 84.6 m² (910.7 ft²)
• Empty weight: 26,505 kg (58.443 lb)
• Gross weight: 41,600 kg (91,728 lb)
• Powerplant: 2 × Lyulka AL-7 with water injection, 84.34 kN (18,960 lbf) thrust each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 1,100-1,150 km/h (683-715 mph)
• Maximum speed: Mach 1.15
• Range: 2,057 km (1,278 miles)
• Service ceiling: 13,630 m (44,720 ft)
• Rate of climb: 25.25 m/s (4,924 ft/min)

• 1 × 23 mm Nudelman-Rikhter AM-23 cannon in the port forward fuselage.
• 2 × 23 mm Nudelman-Rikhter AM-23 cannon in the remotely controlled tail barbette
• 6,000 kg (13,200 lb; maximum load) or 3,000 kg (6,600 lb; normal load) of bombs

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

• Sud Aviation Vautour
• Yakovlev Yak-26
• Yakovlev Yak-28

References

• Gordon, Yefim; Komissarov, Dmitriy and Sergey (2004). OKB Ilyushin: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 1-85780-187-3.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ilyushin Il-54.

• "Il-54, Il-149, S.V.Ilyushin 'Blowlamp'". Russian Aviation Museum. Retrieved 2008-10-26.