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Midland Publishing |
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Ilyushin IL-12 and IL-14: Successors to the Li-2 |
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By Yefim Gordon and Dimitry Komissarov |
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Reviewed By Phil Pignataro, 17254 |
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MSRP: $36.95 USD I confess I don’t know very much about Russian commercial aircraft, especially the older prop driven ones. If that’s the case for you too, then here’s a book to increase your knowledge about the Russian successor to their version of the DC-3, the Li-2. This is “Volume 25” in the publisher’s Red Star series of books and follows the format of other volumes I have seen. There are 128 pages and about 150 black/white and color photos. Contents by chapter are: Introduction 1. Ilyushin’s First Airliner 2. IL-12 in Service 3. The IL-12 in Detail 4. Evolution 5. IL-14 in Service 6. The IL-14 in Detail 7. The Twins Worldwide The Introduction gives a brief history of the aircraft used in early Soviet commercial aviation up to WWII. It mentions that during the war, Sergey V. Il’yshin began design work on a passenger aircraft he envisioned would fill the needs of post war civil flying in the Soviet Union. Then, the first chapter discusses the development of that initial aircraft and how the design evolved into the IL-12. The next chapter explains the early service of the IL-12 and some of the problems experienced with the aircraft’s engine. An engine failure late in the take off run proved disastrous on several occasions. A solution to this problem had to be found if the plane was to be a successful airliner. As a transport, its military value was soon exploited and this development is also covered in this chapter. There is an interesting section about the use of these aircraft for the exploration of the earth’s Arctic and Antarctic regions. Following this, the authors go into the various systems of the aircraft in quite a bit of detail. They start with the IL-12’s structure and cover all the parts of the plane through the hydraulic, pneumatic, electric, fuel, and avionics systems. As this machine continued in service, improvements were made and got to the point of being a new aircraft, the IL-14. This evolution is covered in Chapter 4. Again, there is a lot of detail on the various models and improvements to the original airframe. All of the numerous military applications are also covered in this chapter. As with the IL-12, the authors devote an entire chapter to the structure and systems of the IL-14. Chapter 7, the final chapter, looks at the many countries that used the “Twins” in airline and military service. As in all previous chapters, the authors supplement their information with many black/white photographs. A typical feature in these volumes is a series of drawings of all the different versions of each aircraft. Here there are twelve pages worth. As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, I wish they were in a known scale so as to be more useful for modelers. Next, there are sixteen pages of color pictures of various versions in service of different countries. This book offers a very thorough look at the aircraft that started the modern era in Russian commercial service. It is a very readable and informative volume about an historical, but somewhat obscure to many Western modelers, aircraft. If you have an interest in commercial aviation, particularly Soviet commercial aviation, this book is well worth looking for. If you hobby shop doesn’t have one, you can purchase it directly from Specialty Press at www.specialtypress.com or calling them at 800-895-4585, ext.105. My thanks go to Karin Hill of Specialty Press and John Noack for the chance to review this book. On a final note, when I was recently in Northern California, I saw an IL-14 parked at the Charles Schultz Sonoma County Airport. It’s part of the collection at their local air museum. |
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