The Russian presidential aircraft are aircraft of the Russian presidential fleet used by the

President of Russia The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the State Council (Russia), Federal State Council and the President of Russia#Commander-in-ch ...

and other government officials. The presidential fleet is operated by the Special Air Squadron, or Special Air Detachment, part of the Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation. The main presidential aircraft is the four-engined, long-range, widebody Ilyushin Il-96-300PU, a highly modified Il-96, with the two last letters standing for "Command Point" in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

. The presidential fleet of planes also includes

Ilyushin Il-62 The Ilyushin Il-62 (; NATO reporting name: Classic) is a Soviet Union, Soviet long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body jetliner conceived in 1960 by Ilyushin. As a successor to the popular turboprop Ilyushin Il-18, Il-18 and with capacit ...

Tupolev Tu-154 The Tupolev Tu-154 (; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian airlines for several decades, ...

, and

Sukhoi Superjet 100 The Yakovlev SJ-100 (until August 2023: Sukhoi Superjet 100 SJ100 ) is a regional jet originally designed by the now-merged Russian aircraft company Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, a division of the United Aircraft Corporation (now: "Regional Aircraft" ...

aircraft, among others.

History

Five modified Il-96s have been used as presidential aircraft, the first one was used by the first President of Russia,

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

. In 2005, the second PUM aircraft was used by President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

. In 2010, the third president,

Dmitry Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician and lawyer who has served as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. Medvedev was also President of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and Prime Mini ...

, announced that he wanted to expand the presidential fleet with two more PUM1 aircraft, manufactured by the Voronezh Aircraft Plant. The aircraft were delivered in 2012 and 2014. One more PUM1 (registration number RA-96022) was delivered in July 2016. In May 2010, it was reported that the first new Russian airliner, the

, could be used as the Russian presidential airplane in the future.

Description

The aircraft is a highly customized version of the standard Il-96, with extensive modifications for luxury and safety, including advanced communications systems and laser anti-missile protection. The presidential aircraft formerly used the same color scheme as standard Rossiya aircraft, until Rossiya changed its mainline colors in April 2016. The presidential aircraft use the

coat of arms of Russia The coat of arms of Russia derives from the earlier coat of arms of the Russian Empire. Though modified more than once since the reign of Ivan III (1462–1505), the current coat of arms is directly derived from its medieval original, with the d ...

or the

Presidential Standard The presidential standard or presidential flag is the flag that is used in many countries as a symbol of the head of state or president (government title), president. In some countries it may be for exclusive use of the president or only raised w ...

on the

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

instead of the standard

flag of Russia The national flag of the Russia, Russian Federation (, ) is a tricolour of three equal horizontal bands: white on the top, blue in the middle, and red on the bottom. The design was first introduced by Tsar Peter the Great in 1693, and in 1705 ...

. The interiors of the aircraft are inspired by Russian art. It was reported that Vladimir Putin had personally inspected the ongoing work at the Voronezh plant while he was the Prime Minister.

References

External links

Russian President’s Jet Goes Online, Kommersant, Jan'07Putin awaits his 'Air Force One', BBC, May'02Firm to refit Putin's plane, BBC, Sep'01Archived version of an official page from www.kremlin.ru explaining about Russian presidential aircraft.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russian Presidential Aircraft Presidential aircraft Soviet and Russian civil aircraft Russian civil aircraft

Aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

History

Description

See also

References

External links