Space zero-g for earthlings and how to make it possible

Remembering sunny summer days and summing up. We are glad that this summer we helped a team of sky conquerors to make their dream of space weightlessness come true.

Late August our beautiful Ilyusha spread his wings and performed two zero-gravity flights granting the terrestrials a unique opportunity to experience real space weightlessness within the Earth atmosphere.

We’d like to tell you a bit more about our flying hero whose famous “smile” won a lot of aviation fans hearts over.

Il-76 MDK is a real flying laboratory designated to train cosmonauts for conditions of zero-gravity and low gravity conditions (for instance Moon gravity). “Ilyusha” is a big buddy indeed with the length about 50 meters it weights approximately 200 tons.
Il 76 MDK was developed on the basis of Il-76 MD production aircraft by altering its design and layout.

What alterations made zero-g flights possible? Let’s puzzle it out!

The aircraft body is reinforced to stand g-loads more than 2 g.

Aircraft’s engine system is equipped with additional fuel and oil pumps that develop pressure in fuel and oil supply system during weightlessness regime. It is necessary since we know that under conditions of zero-gravity the liquids form large drops floating and both liquid fuel components and oil act the same way.

Laboratory compartment (there exactly stay participants during the flight) is equipped with soft mats so that flight participants were safe and felt comfortable.

We can go on praising the beautiful aircraft’s technical perfection but it’d be much better for you to rate it yourself experiencing real weightlessness aboard!

Check our photo report and join our next zero-g flight!