Seven years before the A380 took flight, Russia was dreaming of a large flying people mover.
Called the KR-860, the aircraft would offer seats for up to 1,000 passengers,
with 12 abreast on the main deck and triple aisles. An upper deck would also offer nine
abreast seating. A scale model was presented at the Paris Air Show in 1999, but that was the
last time the world would see the Russian giant. Sukhoi’s proposed KR-860 was the gigantic Russian
answer to the A380. This jet was to be a four-engine double-decker widebody aircraft.
This design is, of course, similar to the Airbus A380, although its planned capacity was
significantly higher. The 860 in its name refers to how many passengers the colossal aircraft was
designed to carry. For the sake of comparison, British Airways’ four-class configuration on
the A380 has a capacity of 469 passengers. The KR in the aircraft name stands for “Kryl’ya
Rossii.” In English, this translates to ‘Wings of Russia.’ It was developed by Sukhoi,
a Russian aerospace firm that also builds a multitude of fighter jets for the military
as well as the narrowbody SSJ100 passenger jet. Design work for the KR860 began in 1997
but the aircraft was never actually built. However, a 1/24 scale model was
created to showcase the future concept. Three variants were initially proposed.
A passenger variant A cargo variant that
could hold railcars/cargo containers. And finally, a liquid-gas variant used
to transport products from oil fields. The liquid-gas could have been used to power
the plane instead of jet fuel, meaning the flight would have been free for the airline.
The aircraft was to have a length of 80 m (262 ft 6 in) and a wingspan of 88 m (288 ft 9
in) with the wings unfolded. With wings folded, they would span 64 m (210 ft).
The KR860’s maximum takeoff weight would be 650 metric tonnes which would be carried by
four General Electric CF6-80E1A4B turbofans. Alternately, it could be powered by four
Pratt & Whitney PW4168A turbofans. The aircraft would have a cruising speed of 1,000 km/h
(621 mph) and a range of 15,000 km (8,100 nmi)
The aircraft had a planned capacity of 860
passengers or as many as 1,000 in an all-economy configuration. The designers intended for the
lower deck to consist of 12-abreast seating with three aisles. This would have been a first
for commercial air travel. The upper deck was planned to have a more conventional configuration
of 9-abreast seating with two aisles. In order to help its masses of passengers
board and disembark punctually, the aircraft came with three escalators built into the hull. Under
the plane were escalators to ferry passengers from the ground quickly up to their respective deck.
The design had such a large wingspan that the wings themselves had to fold
up in order to safely park at airport gates designed for Boeing 747 aircraft.
The program originally predicted there would be a market for 300 aircraft with
potential buyers in Russia, China, India, Vietnam, and various parts of Africa.
The program itself was estimated to cost around $10 billion in 2000.
To help with this cost, Sukhoi turned to China and India to create a joint venture.
This made the Russian government uneasy about funding an aircraft that ultimately would see
little use in Russia. As a result, they diverted funds to other projects in 2001.
While we can agree that Russia (and the world) would never have seen a
worthwhile use for this aircraft, it would undoubtedly have been quite a sight to see.
What are your thoughts on this megaproject? Let us know in the comments.