Hello, dear viewers, and maybe listeners! On air, "The Age of Motors"! After numerous discussions, I would like to tell you about the famous aircraft with four engines in the tail section. This aircraft can be considered one of the best civil aircraft of its time and, perhaps, the best Soviet passenger airliner. In the 1960s, Aeroflot was in dire need of a new long-range jet passenger aircraft. This aircraft had to match modern foreign analogues of its class, such as the DC-8 or Boeing 707, in terms of technical and economic indicators: speed, flight range, transport efficiency, reliability and comfort. In addition, it was necessary to ensure safety in the event of an engine failure in flight and especially in the event of a sudden entry into a zone of strong atmospheric turbulence, which repeatedly led to tragic consequences for passenger aircraft. Such an aircraft was the Il-62 - the first jet civil aircraft in the Ilyushin Design Bureau. Although the experience of creating the heavy jet combat aircraft Il-22 dates back to 1947, the Il-62, built in 1963, was the last aircraft developed under the leadership of Sergei Vladimirovich. In the late 1960s, S. V. Ilyushin, due to his health, handed over the design work and testing of the Il-62 to his successor and first deputy general designer Genrikh Vasilyevich Novozhilov. Since 1970, after Ilyushin retired, Novozhilov headed the company and was appointed general designer. It must be said that the machines of the first generation of Tupolev jet passenger aircraft from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, although not to a full degree, but still satisfied Aeroflot, providing it with high-speed jet airliners Tu-104, Tu-124 and Tu-134. But during this same period, the need for air transportation increased tenfold! The performance characteristics of these, at one time remarkable machines, as well as the few long-range Tu-114s (only 32 were built), could no longer qualify as extra-class aircraft. Their time was running out... In order to create a high-speed long-range jet airliner, favorable results of developments in aviation science appeared in the early 1960s. New advances were made in a more rational aerodynamic configuration of the aircraft, ensuring flights at high cruising speeds. A particularly strong box wing with fuel tank compartments was designed. Engines were built that were reliable in operation and provided a significant increase in thrust. Unique advances were made in the development of flight and navigation and radio communication equipment, allowing reliable aircraft navigation day and night at various geographic latitudes. And so in 1960, the Ilyushin Design Bureau received flight and technical requirements from Aeroflot management for the long-range passenger Il-62. Calculations and aerodynamic studies on models of the future aircraft made it possible to find a rational wing shape in the plan, possessing an optimal combination of aerodynamic, strength and weight parameters. Particular attention was paid to the characteristics of the aircraft in the area of ​​large (critical and supercritical) angles of attack, affecting flight safety in turbulent atmosphere conditions. The layout of the wing and the entire aircraft successfully combined high flight and technical characteristics that determine the level of safety. This was achieved by a special aerodynamic layout of the wing and a carefully developed system of its interaction with the empennage and engine nacelles, as well as a number of design solutions that made it possible to use direct manual control on the aircraft. It is very important that the control is not booster, but manual: it is reliable, structurally simple, increases the crew's confidence, requires minimal maintenance and significantly reduces the cost of the aircraft.