Ilyushin Il-14
The Ilyushin Il-14 is a Soviet twin-engine piston airliner and transport, developed from the Il-12 as a replacement for the DC-3 and its Soviet-built version, the Lisunov Li-2. First flown in 1950, it entered Aeroflot service in 1954 and was produced in three countries: 1,065 in the Soviet Union, 80 under licence by VEB Flugzeugwerke in East Germany and 203 by Avia in Czechoslovakia, whose Av-14s flew airline, military and survey work into the 1990s. The type served across the Soviet bloc and was widely exported before the Antonov An-24 and Yakovlev Yak-40 replaced it; a few examples were reported still airworthy in Russia in the 2010s.
Why It Mattered
Ilyushin designed the Il-14 to take over from the DC-3 generation of airliners, above all from the Lisunov Li-2, the DC-3 built under licence in the Soviet Union. Where the Il-12 before it had fallen short, the Il-14 proved rugged and reliable, and it was used widely in rural areas with poor airfields. Production ran across three countries: 1,065 aircraft in the Soviet Union, 80 built under licence in East Germany and 203 in Czechoslovakia. At home the type remained in Soviet use into the early 1990s, and it was in time replaced by the Antonov An-24 and the Yakovlev Yak-40.
Design Notes
The Il-14 was a development of the Il-12, which had first flown in 1945. The redesign gave it a strengthened fuselage, an entirely new wing and a broader tailfin. Power came from two Shvetsov ASh-82T radial engines of 1,900 horsepower each. The changes attacked the Il-12's worst fault, its poor handling with one engine out, and greatly improved the aircraft's engine-out performance. The stretched Il-14M seated as many as 36 passengers, and the family grew to include freight, VIP, aerial-photography and ice-reconnaissance variants. A military transport version, the Av-14 T built in Czechoslovakia, added large cargo doors on the left side of the fuselage.
Operational History
The type first flew in 1950, when Vladimir Kokkinaki took the prototype up. It entered service with Aeroflot in 1954, and Soviet production at plants in Moscow and Tashkent ran to 1958. Licence lines followed: VEB Flugzeugwerke at Dresden built 80 aircraft between 1956 and 1959, and Avia at Prague built 203 between 1956 and 1960. In Czechoslovakia the type served the state airline ČSA, the air force and the Interior Ministry's aviation unit. Its Czechoslovak career ran long: nine aircraft were converted at Aero Vodochody in 1967 and 1968 into Av-14FG photogrammetric machines for survey work. Exports spread the type widely: the Egyptian Air Force alone operated 70 aircraft from 1955, and lost a number of them in fighting with Israel. A projected Chinese production version, the Y-6, never materialised. In Soviet service the Il-14 was in time replaced by the Antonov An-24 and Yakovlev Yak-40.
Afterlife
The last military retirements came in 1998, in Vietnam and Syria, and Russian civil operations ended in 2005. Hungary's aircraft ended their days in Soviet Arctic service, the last withdrawn in December 1990. The Czechoslovak story closed on 30 April 1994, when the last Av-14 still flying was ferried from Pardubice to the Kbely Aviation Museum. Kbely's care continues: its 1958-built Avia Av-14, in the collection since 1975, was fully renovated in 2020, and the photogrammetric Av-14FG was renovated in 2021. A handful were reported still flying in the 2010s: three restored aircraft in Russia, and one Air Koryo aircraft reported in 2012 as possibly airworthy.