A Plane Guy

11/12/2025

Sky high serenity

10/12/2025

09/12/2021

What is so special about IL-62

While I was browsing through the internet on some aviation related forum I saw someone has asked a question about a tail prop which was mounted on a Ilyushin aircraft. I’m somewhat a fan of Ilyushin aircrafts, so I thought of doing some digging.

The subject aircraft was Ilyushin IL-62 which is a narrow body long range airliner that was designed in 1960s. This is aircraft is equipped with a very uncommon feature that can not be seen easily on other aircrafts. Most probably you all have seen the tail skids on commercial aircrafts. But this is somewhat different from all those.

Basically this thing avoids aircraft tilting while on ground. Why on taxing. This is interesting. This tail support wheel can be retracted same as the other wheels on this aircraft. So it can be extend while taxing, loading and unloading of the aircraft. It is deployed on taxing or while arriving on gate and retracted before the pushback. Anecdotally, the aircraft had a propensity to tilt backwards and strike the tail on the ground during loading and unloading operations as the CG moved aft of the aircraft. The tail support eliminates this possibility. While searching more about this I found an operational manual of an IL-62 from a former carrier “Interflug.” According to this operational manual it provides several functions as follows.

Supporting parked airplane while centre of gravity isn’t controlled: The manual requires to extend the tail prop when parking, before opening any door. Tail prop shall be retracted only after closing all doors and only when centre of gravity is within limits.
Taxi with extended tail prop is allowed, speed limit is 25 km/h.

When towing an empty plane the tail prop must be extended, speed limit is 15 km/h.
Moving the plane backward by utilising reverse thrust: Tail prop must be extended, speed limit is “walking pace”

U-turn on a narrow runway (min. 45 m) by utilising reverse thrust: Tail prop must be partly extended.

The tail prop features two self-steering wheels and a suspension system. No brakes, no active steering. It is extended and retracted by an electric motor, backed by a hand crank. Probably, the tail prop is also designed to provide some protection in case of a tail strike (since its wheels partly remain outside of fuselage), but this function isn’t mentioned in the manual.

By the way this plane features a 3700 ℓ water tank (just behind the front landing gear bay), for adjusting centre of gravity in some low-load situations.

Why this kind of a design. As you can see this aircraft consists of four pod mounted turbofan engines in the emphanage of the aircraft. So this cause the CG to move aft the aircraft. This is a very interesting take on CG vs Clift, in this case while the aircraft is not moving. The wheels are holding the aircraft up. It would take a relatively small amount of force to tip the plane onto its tail while loading or unloading. But it is very, very important to realise this is not done only “because engines are heavy” and the designed CG is somehow unsafely aft. Jet engines are actually (lb weight per lb thrust) much lighter than their piston counterparts. Aircraft with swept wings who must, by necessity, mount the landing gear closer to the fuselage (or in the fuselage) would have a greater tendency for “ground Clift” issues. While the empty IL62 is a bit tail heavy, once the airplane is loaded with passengers/bags and cargo the CG will be moved forward. Look at how much longer the fwd fuselage is compared to the aft section, its around 3 times longer.

04/12/2021

Training Support Activity Europe

Armament and avionics maintainers with Task Force Viper, 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, prepare an AH-64 Apache helicopter at the Airfield, Baumholder Military Training Area.

01/12/2021

Did you know that aircrafts are using 5 main types of engines for taking them to the air. Most commercial airliners are using Turbofan engines while fighter jets are using Turbojet engines. Turbo shaft engines can be seen on helicopters, Some helicopters use piston engines as well. Some other light weight aircrafts or the civilian aircrafts use Turbo Prop engines and Piston engines. So the discussion isn’t about the aircraft engines.

Did you know that the world’s largest turboprop aircraft is still in service? The Antonov AN 22 “Antei” is mainly used by Russian military. In 1950s, the Soviet military required a new aircraft to help transport infantry, humanitarian aid, and its new range of BMD tanks. So the engineers at the Antonov bureau designed the AN 22.

It could carry 28–29 passengers and 80,000 kg (176,370 lb) maximum payload to a range of 5,000 km (3,100 mi, 2,700 nautical miles). If only carrying 45,000 kg (99,208 lb) it can fly a range of 10,950 km (6,800 mi; 5,910 nautical miles). This is a pretty fantastic range considering the size and the scale of the aircraft.

What is unique about this aircraft is that they designed it to land on rugged unpaved airstrips (and short runways). And the other most important thing about this aircraft is that it is powered by Turbo Prop engines. The aircraft has counter-rotating propellers, thus dramatically improving the lifting capacity of the plane. However, these propellers significantly reduce the speed of the aircraft to only 740 km/h (460 mph, 400 knots) compared to jet engines.

It was able to adjust the tire pressure of each wheel depending on the surface (be it concrete, gravel, dirt, or even snow). While more modern aircraft have removed this feature, the early versions of the An-22 had this as a mandatory feature for its military use.

The aircraft is almost the same size of Lockheed Martin C-17 Globemaster which is powered by 4 Trubofan engines. The An-22 needs 1,300 m (4,265 ft) of runway to take off and only 800 m (2,625 ft) to land. The C-17 needs a runway 2,499 m (8,200 ft) to take off fully loaded, and at least 1,067 m (3,500 ft) with maximum payload.

The Russian government only has three An-22’s left in service (and there is one in Ukraine and one in Bulgaria) but isn’t planning on retiring them any time soon. They want to keep them operational to at least 2033.

01/12/2021

180th Fighter Wing trains daily, flying the Lockheed Martin F-16CM Fighting Falcon, The 180th FW has access to military operating airspace and air-to-ground gunnery ranges suited for the capabilities of the F-16. The Alpena Airspace Complex, Mich., and Buckeye Airspace, Ohio are supersonic, chaff/flare capable with full radar ground control intercept, or GCI and Link-16 capable.