Russian United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) plans to make the first flight of the new  Il-112V military transport aircraft in 2017, the Voronezh Region administration said.

The Voronezh Aircraft Plant (VASO) is the main producer of the Il-112V military transport plane, the administration added.

“VASO has already started building the first prototype. The prototype is expected to perform the first flight in mid-2017,” the administration said.

In June, the Central AeroHydrodynamic Institute named after professor N.E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI) completed tests on flutter characteristics of the dynamically scaled model of the new light transport aircraft IL-112 developed for Russian air force.

The Il-112V is a light military transport aircraft, designed for transporting and parachuting of light weaponry and equipment, cargoes and military personnel, as well as for transporting a wide variety of cargoes when operated in commercial service.

It is capable of auto landing approaches to categorized aerodromes (minimum requirement being ICAO category II) and manual landing approaches to aerodromes poorly equipped with, or having no radio technical equipment.

The Russian air force plans to purchase Il-112 light military transport aircraft in order to renew its fleet.