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Great treat today, not an illusion...it's a IIyushin!!


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Got treated to a rarity this morning ...heard the whine of different engines taxi by and went out to look and lo and behold a PAF IL-78M!!! I was super stoked!! She flew in this morning at BWI-TM, pictures aren't the best, used my phone but what a treat to see this bird in person!! 

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10 hours ago, vonjhn68 said:

Very cool Midas. Always thought it odd that the Russians would put a bombardier station on many of their cargo aircraft.

 

Regards,

John

   
I’ve wonderd the same... Just found this on globalsecurity.org...

 

The IL-76 is equipped with bombing equipment and, if necessary, can take up to 20 tons of various bombs on board. The aircraft can hang various free-fall bombs, caliber up to 500 kilograms or radio beacons for four beams UBD-3DA. Bombing can be carried out both in automatic mode from the Dome system and from NKBP-7.

Soviet-Russian transport planes have a long tradition of performing as a guest bomber. In line with the guiding ideology of front-line operations, the Soviet Air Force requires military transport aircraft to be designed with a bomb pylon installed under the fuselage or wing, and capable of dropping small bombs.

 

I don’t know if this applies to the IL-78 as well, but at the very least its a holdover from the -76 it was derived from.  

Edited by bluedot25
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