#1705· ICAO IL18
Ilyushin Il-18
🇷🇺 Soviet Union ·first flew 1957· turboprop airliner and reconnaissance aircraft
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10 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. 223rd Flight Unit Ilyushin Il-18: Dmitriy Pichugin· GFDL 1.2
- 2. Ilyushin Il-38: Unknown author Unknown author· Public domain
- 3. Ilyushin Il-20: Kirill Naumenko· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 4. Il-22: Alex Beltyukov· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 5. Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-18 McKnight: Alan McKnight· GFDL
- 6. IL-18 Pyongyang to Samjiyon: Mark Fahey from Sydney, Australia· CC BY 2.0
- 7. Ilyushin IL-18 Interflug, Harbke, Germany PP1148367645: Peter Bakema· GFDL 1.2
- 8. Ilyushin Il-18D: Ronidong· CC BY-SA 4.0
- 9. Ilyushin Il-18D YR-IML Tarom RWY 25.06.88 edited-2: RuthAS· CC BY 3.0
- 10. LOT Ilyushin Il-18 Osta-1: Charles Osta· GFDL
what is it?
The Ilyushin Il-18 (Russian: Илью́шин Ил-18; NATO reporting name: Coot) is a large turboprop airliner that first flew in 1957 and became one of the best known Soviet aircraft of its era. The Il-18 was one of the Soviet Union's principal airliners for several decades and was widely exported. Due to the aircraft's durability, many examples remain operational with the Russian Air Force and Russian Navy.
How to recognise it: 4 turboprops · retractable tricycle gear · 37.4 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 69 years ago, in 1957.
- Top speed is 5.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Wingspan of 37.4 m: about 8 cars parked nose to tail.
- Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 11 African elephants (~6 t each).
- Range of 6,500 km: Amsterdam to New York (≈5,850 km) without stopping.
- Can fly 1.3× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).
turboprop: A jet-style turbine turning a propeller: efficient on short hops.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1957-07-04
- introduced
- 1959
- status
- still flying
- number built
- 678
- role
- turboprop airliner and reconnaissance aircraft
- origin
- 🇷🇺 Soviet Union
- makers
- Ilyushin
- engines
- 4× Ivchenko AI-20M / AI-20
- crew
- 9
- passengers
- 120
- length
- 35.9 m
- wingspan
- 37.4 m
- height
- 10.2 m
- max take-off weight
- 64 t
- top speed
- 675 km/h
- cruise speed
- 625 km/h
- range
- 6,500 km
- ceiling
- 11,800 m
- landing gear
- retractable tricycle gear
- ICAO code
- IL18
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
family
Sources: Wikidata Q160266, Wikipedia: Ilyushin Il-18 (CC BY-SA 4.0), ICAO code from list of aircraft type designators.Updated 2026-10-24.