Modern Russian Jetliners
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Modern Russian Jetliners
I can't be the first one to notice that many modern Russian transport category glass cockpit aircraft still carry a flight engineer. Any opinions on this? Do you think it's a help or hindrance? Is it just a hangover from Soviet times where a job was a job for life or is it a smart allocation of resources and manpower to facilitate task management? The Antonov cargo giants from the 1980's, many of which are still running carry a crew of at least 6, but they're built that way.
The Soviets/Russia/CIS have always got the butt end of a lot of jokes for being technologically, well not so much undeveloped as - unstylishly functional but sometimes I think they're smarter than they get credit for it that sense. At the end of the day, no industry will pay people to do a job if they don't feel it needs to be done.
The Soviets/Russia/CIS have always got the butt end of a lot of jokes for being technologically, well not so much undeveloped as - unstylishly functional but sometimes I think they're smarter than they get credit for it that sense. At the end of the day, no industry will pay people to do a job if they don't feel it needs to be done.
I guess one good reason might be they don't sell to airlines dominated by accountants.
Lets face it the only reason the western world has two crew on the flight deck is because it's legislated for. If a western aircraft manufacturer thought they could certify a jetliner with one pilot they would as they know all the accountant dominated airlines would buy them in a instant.
Lets face it the only reason the western world has two crew on the flight deck is because it's legislated for. If a western aircraft manufacturer thought they could certify a jetliner with one pilot they would as they know all the accountant dominated airlines would buy them in a instant.
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I guess one good reason might be they don't sell to airlines dominated by accountants.
Any opinions on this? Do you think it's a help or hindrance?
Last edited by olasek; 2nd Feb 2015 at 06:51.
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virtually all russian/soviet cargo planes were initially designed for military use and were built according to the air force specs. It is well known that the military goes rather for well proven and reliable solutions where the cost factor is rather unimportant. If it works, it works. And it's improves redunancy, too. At least according to the army point of view.
Last edited by Charliedontsurf_83; 14th Feb 2015 at 18:43.
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The Tupolev Tu-204 has a two person flight deck.
The Antonov An-148 and An-158 which are technically Ukranian designs but whose production factory is in Russia, also have two person flight decks.
I suspect the IL-96 stuck with its multi crew flight decks because of the way the earlier models were certified, themselves an evolution and upgrade of the even older Il-86, which were certified with multi-crew.
A bit the same reason why current production B-737NG have no EICAS or ECAM....
Boeing 747-300 with F/Es were being delivered at the same time as early B-767s that had two man crews. The first two man crew 747-400 was delivered 6 years after the introduction of the two man crew 767.....
The Antonov An-148 and An-158 which are technically Ukranian designs but whose production factory is in Russia, also have two person flight decks.
I suspect the IL-96 stuck with its multi crew flight decks because of the way the earlier models were certified, themselves an evolution and upgrade of the even older Il-86, which were certified with multi-crew.
A bit the same reason why current production B-737NG have no EICAS or ECAM....
Boeing 747-300 with F/Es were being delivered at the same time as early B-767s that had two man crews. The first two man crew 747-400 was delivered 6 years after the introduction of the two man crew 767.....
