Russian/Soviet Aircraft

[swiftus27]

At this point, why would anyone use any Russian or Soviet built planes? 

They are simply awful in every way. 

Example One:
The Ilushin IL-62 carries 168 people but burns through 30,071 lbs/hr of fuel!
The Boeing 747-400 carries 416 people and uses 20,007 lbs/hr!

Example Two:
The Yakovlev Yak-42 carries 104 people but burns through 9393 lbs/hr of fuel
The Boeing 737-300 carries 128 people and only uses 5445 lbs/hr of fuel

Since none of our airlines will be subsidized by socialist or communist governments, is there even a point to even include these planes right now?  You simply can't compete with these gas hogs.

[powi]

Il-62 is quite competitive when it enters market. Of course it cannot compete against several decades newer B744.

Otherwise you are right. IR Soviet aircraft where bought for political reasons that are not modeled in the game so there is no real reason to buy them in-game.

Planes are included for curiosity and because if they were not included someome would be whineing about it. Hopefully some game features will be added to make them real option in the game.

[tofen]

Yeah, you can't really compair a Il-62 with a B744. there's 20 years in between those planes!
Also, a bigger plane always have better CASM than a smaller one if they are of comparable age.

If you want to compare the Il-62 to anything, it should be to later versions of the B707s, DC-8s and the VC-10s. Or maybe even the DC-10 and L1011 that was released a few years later.

Also, the game lacks some of the things that makes Russian types valid to operate over there. For example, they are way better on handling the rough airfields they had over there back in the days, etc. Also, there's still a pretty hefty import tax on foreign aircrafts to Russia.

[swiftus27]

Don't forget the fuel incentives and other preferential treatment, too.

[sergio]

Il-62 is quite competitive when it enters market. Of course it cannot compete against several decades newer B744.

Otherwise you are right. IR Soviet aircraft where bought for political reasons that are not modeled in the game so there is no real reason to buy them in-game.

Planes are included for curiosity and because if they were not included someome would be whineing about it. Hopefully some game features will be added to make them real option in the game.

fuelling in USSR, with cheaper fuel, especially around Tatarstan, Azerbajdzan and Yamal.

[thedr2]

I ran a russian airline with soviet aircraft purely for fun in Beta 2. The airline was profitable (until the 1974 fuel crisis!), but the main problem was the lack of variety in aircraft types, and consequently rarely were the models "new". The Tu154 was fantastic but limited range (especially on early variants) meant it couldn't fly further than west germany. The IL-62 was better for routes to places like the UK and Spain for range, but was dreaduful on efficiency and maintenance. The regional aircraft (Tu-134 and Yak-40) suffered from an unbelievable lack of range considering the size of the Soviet Union, and I decided not to waste my fleet commonality on them (they would only have been able to fly about 3 routes profitably from Moscow). Long Haul was useless, although this may have had to do more with the lack of demand from Moscow than the capablities of the aircraft. DME-ATL carried a small profit for a while before the eventual demise of the airline due to a mistake in maintenance causing both the bank balance and airline image to plunge at the same time (very baaaaad).

[swiftus27]

I love the Il62 for being the gas pig that it is.

33000 lb/hr.  5 pilots!!!

Compare that to the 707 320 B which comes out 6 years earlier.....

same range, more capacity, and only 24427 lb/hr

[Talentz]

In beta2, I had one of biggest, early Russian fleet types in the game. In fact, it was the back bone of my airline. The Il-18 family provided 2 seating types and was the fastest (tied) T-prop in the game. It had solid range and I loved them.

I eventually phased them out with 731s 732As and Se 210 Rs.


Once Sami enters in the Tu-114 data. Russian players will be happy to have the worlds fastest T-prop by far, along with range that equals 703B. 


Talentz

[Sami]

Tu-114 was added a few hours ago. Though couldn't find a proper performance equivalent for it so for now it uses slower scheduling speeds ...

[freshmore]

Tu 154 is about the best Soviet Aircraft you can use, the most produced Soviet aircraft 1000+ for that matter. Used not entirely for the political reasons, although I must admit, that accounts for a lot. Very good for cheap aircraft, very good for large continents/contries like US, Canada, Europe and Russia (mainly for regional), although you have to be on your toes, can be very good for a start up to get an empty order book which you casn "hog" and cheap aircraft. Then you can start upgrading to A320 family or the 737 family of aircraft. Would not use the long range though, it is much better to use the better Western aircraft though.

[swiftus27]

Sadly, the TU 154 < 722 adv which comes out sooner.   7400 kg/hr vs 438/hr,  and the max range of the TU is 1590 vs the 722adv 2610. There is no true advantage to getting the Tupolev.  Additionally, there have been no new games that have come out that are earlier than the 722 adv and 732 adv.

[Kazari]

I am currently using the Tu 114 for a long-haul flight and was just comparing it to the DC-10-40, which I see is available.

It is a definite gas hog, and I'll be getting rid of it eventually for that reason, but it has a 55-minute turnaround time (compared to three hours for the DC-10. And it is only 100-nm/h slower. On a longer run, the three hour-turnaround all but negates any gain from that.

But it was really cheap, so I bought two.

[tofen]

Another backside of the TU-154 compared to the B722 in the game is that the TU is considered a "large aircraft" for some reason while the Boeing is a "medium", which means that the TU uses a lot more time in the hangar for C and D checks.

[Dasha]

The Tu154 and the TU 114 are gashogs... and they might be slow, expensive in maintainance and all that... but be honest.. Have you ever seen a plane more beautifull than a Tu-154M? Or a plane more impressive than the Tu-114?

They are simply brilliant and make me proud to be from the same country as they are.

Admitting, if you want a profitable airline, you probably shouldn't buy any of those things But if you want a good looking airline, fly Yak's and Tu-154's and replace them with the Sukhoi Superjet and the Tu-214.

[bryanUC]

I've used Yak-42's in World #3 with (limited) success, until the fuel prices skyrocketed.  They were cheap to acquire, no wait time from the manufacturer, so I could build out routes very quickly at a low cost of entry.  Unfortunately, the C checks are quite pricey, although I lived through that.  It's the D checks and huge fuel cost in the late-game that makes them lousy, which I've found out the hard way.  I've lost ~300M in cash in the last RL week or so, simply because of being unable to handle the high fuel costs.  While, for a time, they were a good way to get stable & grow, I should have budgeted better to replace them before the 2001-2002 timeframe.