Post by volkerboehme on Aug 12, 2008 0:19:12 GMT -5
Hi all,
This is a continuation of a thread in the old forum:
www.calclassic.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=General;action=display;num=1217967487
Here is a reply from FSAviator:
In 1957 the Soviet Union demonstrated its world lead in aerospace technology by launching the first man made satellite (Sputnik-1). In 1961 they re-affirmed their aerospace lead by launching Vostok-1 carrying the first astronaut. The 'West' was astonished, embarrassed and very frightened. Western governments and media had been painting the same picture of the Soviet Union as the one which begins this thread. It took the United States most of the sixties just to catch up.
The Soviet union was winning the 'space race' hands down. At that time everyone was many years behind the Soviet union in turboprop development, (Tu-114), and it was also Aeroflot who introduced turbofan engines to airline service in the Tupolev Tu-124 in 1962. The sixties was exactly when the Soviet Union was ahead of everybody else in commercial aviation, not lagging behind.
Of course the whole of the Soviet Union was dogged by a corrupt and dysfunctional political system, but it had very extensive air transport links and capability. In the remote parts of the nation air transport was the primary means of transport and naturally resembled 'bush' operations in Canada or Alaska. Elsewhere air services were provided by superior aircraft to those available in the U.S. or the U.K. until the late 1960s. The transition from dinosaur piston propliners to turbine equipment proceeded much faster in the U.S.S.R than in the U.S.A.
During the 1950s, other than the 'air corridor' to Moscow used by foreign airlines, the Soviet navigation and ATC infrastructure was still that of the vintage phase of aviation history as described at length in part 2 of the 2008 Propliner Tutorial. Long range navigation was still mostly by RDF=GPS and most approaches were RDF or NDB as described in Part 4 of the 2008 Propliner Tutorial. However from the late 1950s onwards airways were established along the turbine routes described below as they evolved. ILS was introduced during the fifties and sixties, at airfields used by jetliners, as their networks also spread in the manner described below.
Here are some extracts from the text I sent to Tom Gibson to aid development of the original Calclassic Aeroflot AI files for the late 1950s and mid 1960s. Remember an airport is an airfield with both customs and immigration facilities for foreign nationals.
>>>>>>>>
Modelling Aeroflot presents a challenge. Aeroflot carried about 26 million passengers in 1958 and about 36 million in 1964. It was both modernising and expanding faster than any other airline you intend to model. The following numbers are necessarily approximate and estimated.
1958 = 100 x TU04 + 10 x AN8 + 400 x IL14 + 500 x IL12 + 600 x LI2
In 1958 only a few percent of all passengers flew in the turbine fleet. The IL14 had been introduced in 1954 and was in production in the USSR until 1958. It served the most prestigious locations and operated any international routes not flown by TU04 and described below. Bar the TU04 the entire fleet operated mostly from airfields with no runways. The hub might have had a hard runway, but few other airfields did. IL12s were being converted to IL14. A runway building program takes place in your timeframe allowing these soft field airliners to be replaced by turbine equipment most of which required hard runways fro some part of the year. Short routes to places with no hard runways are also transferred to large helicopters to a much greater extent than in the west. During your timeframe the piston fleet migrates east and north within Russia, and into the 'lesser' Soviet republics. It diminishes from around fifteen hundred to around a thousand.
By 1964 there is a huge contrast. 76% of all passengers travel in the thousand strong turbine fleet and all internationals are turbine. There may be no piston twins still serving Moscow or Kiev at all. By 12/64 the most numerous turbine aircraft is the AN24.
1964 = 20 x TU14 + <250 x TU04 + <50 x TU24 + 10 x AN12 + 200 x AN10 + <250 x IL18 + c250 x AN24 + 10 x AN8 + 800 x IL14 + 50 x IL12 + 150 x LI2
Moscow Vnukovo was the largest Aeroflot hub in your timeframe. BEA served only Vnukovo. In 1958 it is probably the only airport in the USSR. The USSR was not a signatory to the Treaty of Chicago and its aircraft were not ordinarily ICAO compliant. They could not fly IFR outside the Soviet block. Aircraft with ICAO compliant panels were a separate fleet with separate crews who could be trusted not to defect. They needed an interpreter in the cockpit with an extra seat whether the destination was Paris or Pyongyang. Almost all of the international fleet was based in Moscow in your timeframe which was crawling with ICAO compliant aircraft by 12/64.
There may have been 20+ ICAO compliant airliners based in Taskent by 12/64. There were probably a dozen optimised for use in North Korea and China with specialist crews to match based in Khabarovsk. By 12/64 Vnukovo, Tashkent and Khabarovsk may still be the only airports in the USSR. By then the three airports house over 250 turbine airliners optimised for external use and those fast ICAO compliant aircraft are flying more than 20% of the Aeroflot route mileage, almost all of it outside the USSR. There are also 'sub airports' that can handle paperwork for travel within the Comecon client nations. They are west of Moscow on the bus stop routes to Eastern Europe.
Each Soviet republic had a significant hub at its capital. Aeroflot (Ukraine) did not have services to every other republic. It had a major hub in the capital at Kiev from which it served every major town in Ukraine and also served neighbouring capitals of neighbouring republics. It did not serve distant republics, not even the Baltic states which lay on the opposite side of Belorussia. When a new aircraft became available it was used to re-equip one hub (Republic) then another. It was locally dominant in one place and invisible in another quite nearby at the same date.
The politically critical trunk route was Moscow to Vladivostok paralleling the Trans Siberian Railway. Until 1956 this was a two day LI2/IL12/IL14 service Moscow - Sverdlovsk - Omsk - (Novosibirsk) - Irkutsk - Khabarovsk - Vladivostok. Irkutsk was a half way night stop. The Soviet union was huge. These were all major hubs. The long range TU04 began to fly Moscow - (Omsk) - Irkutsk from 9/56 with the IL12/14 operating only to the East of Irkutsk along the trunk route. From 8/58 it was TU04 all the way with the same stop east of Irkutsk and no night stop. However the Moscow aircraft still only goes to Irkutsk. You change TU04 in Irkutsk and again in Khabarovsk. They are both TU04 hubs. The others were bus stops but Sverdlovsk became a TU04 hub in 1960 with services to Leningrad and Tashkent.
Few Aeroflot services flew outside the Comecon zone until the USSR wanted to show off the TU04 and demonstrate that the USSR could get right what Britain had screwed up and the US had failed to achieve. The TU04 entered service within two years of the IL14 debut. From the autumn of 1956 to the autumn of 1958 the TU04 and TU04A were the only jetliners anywhere.
The TU04 was flown externally anywhere that Aeroflot might be welcome to showcase Soviet aerospace achievements. It flew Moscow - Tashkent from 10/56 and on to New Delhi from 8/58, but also on most routes that foreigners might fly internally. I believe Tashkent became a hub for ICAO compliant TU04s and crews from 8/58 and also operated to Sverdlovsk.
There were ten TU04B peak time services per day Moscow - Leningrad and five off peak by IL14 in 1960. Leningrad was a hub but not an airport. It had no flights outside the USSR. It became a TU04 hub with jet flights to Moscow, Kiev and Sverdlovsk no later than 1960.
The TU04 was the aircraft that opened up air routes to Western Europe and South East Asia, flying only from Moscow to Copenhagen, London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Prague, Budapest and Tirana by 8/60. The last three had Aeroflot IL12/14 services earlier. By 1964 also Vienna, Helsinki and Stockholm. First international schedule was Prague from 10/56 though Heathrow had been visited by VIP flight in 3/56.
The medium range TU04A had entered service in 1957 and the short range TU04B in 4/59 (Moscow - Leningrad). Production ended 1960 and number delivered is disputed but between 200 and 250. By 8/60 Khabarovsk was a TU04 hub with services to Vladivostok, Pyongyang or Peking. By 8/60 Moscow based TU04s were also flying the triangle Moscow - Simferopol - Tiflis - Moscow.
The New Delhi TU04 route extended - Rangoon - Pnom Penh - Djakarta from 1/62.
It follows that other cities were not Aeroflot TU04 in your timeframe. They progressed IL12 - IL14 - IL18/AN10, but Alma Ata ex Tashkent was odd and progressed IL12 - IL14 - IL18 - TU04.
Apart from the TU14 strategic bomber spin off the USSR was developing two other four turboprop airliners from scratch. The short range AN10 Ukraina in the Ukraine for internal high demand use and the longer range IL18 Moskva in Russia for thin demand external use. The AN12 freighter was later developed from the former. Because the Moskva was used for international services we have the impression that it was much more important than the Ukraina but in your timeframe delivery difference may have been only about 280-200 IL18 v AN10 and 30 to 50 of those extra IL18s did not go to Aeroflot.
The early IL18B had 84 seats and were considered suitable for use by foreigners. The first IL18B hubs were Moscow and Tashkent from 4/59. Moscow - Rostov - Baku and Baku - Tashkent - Alma Ata then Moscow - Sochi - Adler, Moscow - Ashkhabad and Moscow - Frunze. After bug fixing on these internal routes the IL18 was used to develop long international bus stop routes to spread Soviet influence. I doubt there were more than these two Aeroflot IL18 hubs in your timeframe. Visually identical IL18V with 100 seats entered service during 1961 and may have been the first export version. 122 seat IL18D not until 1965.
During your AI timeframe, via Sofia or Prague the IL18 opens up Nicosia, Cairo, Tunis, Algiers, Rabat, Bamako, Khartoum, Conakry and Accra extending Soviet influence right across North and West Africa and penetrating Central Africa at Brazzaville. Also operating Tashkent - Kabul - Karachi or Teheran or Baghdad in your timeframe. I expect that TU04s were substituted for propaganda reasons from time to time, at least as far as Nicosia - Cairo and Kabul - Karachi / Teheran / Baghdad but these were all IL18 by default.
After use on the bug fixing routes most IL18s are ICAO compliant and a larger proportion of the IL18 fleet was compliant than the TU04 fleet. By 1964 maybe 100+ TU04 flying internationals versus maybe 150+ IL18 and all other internationals by a few dozen TU14/24 combined. The vast majority of internationals must have been turbine from summer 1960 onwards.
The competing AN10 Ukraina 100 seat high density pax aircraft had its first hub at Kiev specialising to Moscow and Simferopol from 7/59. The stretched 130 seat AN10A became very important at Moscow from 1960 taking over the routes to/through Dneproptrovsk, Donetzk, Kishinev, Kharkov, Krasnodar, Kuibyshev, Lvov, Mineral'nyye Vody, Norilsk, Odessa, Rostov, Syktyvkar and Zaparozhe by the end of the year. This list gives you a reasonable idea where some of the larger piston engine hubs are in your timeframe.
Minsk became an AN10A hub 6/60 specialising to Leningrad, Lvov and Kiev. Novosibirsk became an AN10/A hub 12/60. Irkutsk and Khabarovsk in the east became AN10/A hubs early in 1961. By the end of 1964 production had wholly switched to the AN12. In your timeframe the AN10 was much more visible than the IL18 within the USSR because it did not need hard runways. The AN10 was a four engined development of the twin engined AN8 up to a dozen of which served with Aeroflot flying outsize cargo into Siberia and most AN8s may have been based in Khabarovsk. The AN8 was not visible west of the Urals.
AN10s did not fly international schedules since they were high density cattle trucks. The AN10 did not require hard runways and operated on skis when required. From 12/61 Aeroflot also had a few AN12 freighters for use into the Arctic but Aeroflot AN12 international cargo schedules to e.g. Paris did not begin until 2/66 and AN12s were rare in civil markings until 1966. Most of the 200 x AN12 that served with Aeroflot were delivered in the late sixties.
IL18s seem to have served very few places within the USSR in your timeframe. It was in production until 1970, by when Aeroflot had taken delivery of maybe 650, but had passed most of the early deliveries to the Air Force. Aeroflot usage probably peaked at 450+ in the late sixties. The Il18 only became widely visible within the USSR after the IL62 had taken over its international services. By then most significant airfields in the USSR had hard runways and the piston twins could be retired from the lesser hubs. A few LI2 and IL14 survived into the early seventies but no IL12s.
The TU14 Rossiya bomber spin off flew Moscow - Khabarovsk direct (8.25 hours) at low frequency from 4/61 but there was a need to stop elsewhere to allow access to both ends from everywhere in the middle and so the trans Sibera trunk route remained almost entirely a TU04 route in your timeframe. TU14 cargo only ad hoc appearances Moscow direct Irkutsk had occurred as early as 4/58. Moscow was the only TU14 hub until 1966 and they seem to have struggled to operate them at all until 1963.
The original AN24 began to fly cargo services from Kiev in 7/62. This enters service from Moscow early 1963 and after bug fixing on cargo runs they become 44 seaters flying pax services from 12/63. The stretched 50 seat AN24V entered service at the same time probably only from Moscow in your timeframe. By 12/64 the total of AN24/Vs was around 250. All twin pistons may have gone from both Kiev and Moscow by 12/64. Aeroflot did not fly the AN24 outside the USSR in your timeframe (if ever). After your timeframe most AN24 production was exported and it seems that Aeroflot usage never exceeded 350.
In your timeframe Kiev and Moscow may have been the only AN24 hubs. The 250 x AN24/V had probably replaced a similar number of twin pistons that had been present in 1958. By 12/64 I think biplane AN2s were operating to only five locations ex Moscow with only six AN2 flights ex Moscow per day and they may have been the last piston schedules from Moscow.
Then the turbo fan powered TU24 arrives and is based only in Moscow during your timeframe. Moscow - Tallin from 10/62 then to Gorki, Ulyanovsk, Vilnius, Kazan, Mineralnyye' Vody, Murmansk and Volgograd. 'Dozens' in service by the end of your timeframe and by 12/64 it had taken over at least 24 routes ex Moscow and production for Aeroflot had ended but number in service widely disputed. I believe they took delivery of about 50. Logically this introduction of the world's first modern turbofan airliner was the end of the classic airliner era. At least it was the beginning of the end. The West's first attempts at modern turbofan airliners, the Trident and the B727, were two years behind in development.
From 1962 the TU14 was substituted from time to time to all the 'Western' destinations above for propaganda reasons and may have visited any of the above on an ad hoc basis to demonstrate the Soviet lead in Aerospace technology in the era after Sputnik and Vostok which is your chosen AI timeframe. From late 1962 TU14s flew an infrequent Moscow - (Murmansk) - Havana polar schedule. The TU14 did not operate to New Delhi until 3/63, went no further, and the TU14 service was direct from Moscow, not via Tashkent. Further expansion of the Tu14 network was after your timeframe. From 1966 a monthly Moscow - Conakry - Accra service. Later still Paris was inserted into this route. During 1966 Leningrad became a 1 x TU14 hub. Their TU14 managed to fly to Volgograd twice per week and Moscow once per week. Later still there was an infrequent Moscow - Khabarovsk - Tokyo service. I believe they also flew an infrequent polar Moscow - Montreal for a while, but all after your timeframe. There had been a single propaganda visit to NY in 1959.
The AN14 and TU34 arrive in 1965 and then the IL62 in 1966.
In your timeframe there seem to be only nine turbine hubs named above within the USSR, with a heavy bias to Moscow then Kiev. These nine turbine hubs house a thousand turbine airliners by late 1964 and also still house some piston twins, maybe 150 in late 1964 down from 500 in 1958. In 1958 that puts 1000 twins on the other hubs. It seems plausible that the 30+ other locations in the USSR I have named each had 10 to 20 of them accounting for half of the 1000 with the other 500 shared between 50 to 100 hubs not mentioned by name above.
FSAviator
This is a continuation of a thread in the old forum:
www.calclassic.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=General;action=display;num=1217967487
Here is a reply from FSAviator:
In 1957 the Soviet Union demonstrated its world lead in aerospace technology by launching the first man made satellite (Sputnik-1). In 1961 they re-affirmed their aerospace lead by launching Vostok-1 carrying the first astronaut. The 'West' was astonished, embarrassed and very frightened. Western governments and media had been painting the same picture of the Soviet Union as the one which begins this thread. It took the United States most of the sixties just to catch up.
The Soviet union was winning the 'space race' hands down. At that time everyone was many years behind the Soviet union in turboprop development, (Tu-114), and it was also Aeroflot who introduced turbofan engines to airline service in the Tupolev Tu-124 in 1962. The sixties was exactly when the Soviet Union was ahead of everybody else in commercial aviation, not lagging behind.
Of course the whole of the Soviet Union was dogged by a corrupt and dysfunctional political system, but it had very extensive air transport links and capability. In the remote parts of the nation air transport was the primary means of transport and naturally resembled 'bush' operations in Canada or Alaska. Elsewhere air services were provided by superior aircraft to those available in the U.S. or the U.K. until the late 1960s. The transition from dinosaur piston propliners to turbine equipment proceeded much faster in the U.S.S.R than in the U.S.A.
During the 1950s, other than the 'air corridor' to Moscow used by foreign airlines, the Soviet navigation and ATC infrastructure was still that of the vintage phase of aviation history as described at length in part 2 of the 2008 Propliner Tutorial. Long range navigation was still mostly by RDF=GPS and most approaches were RDF or NDB as described in Part 4 of the 2008 Propliner Tutorial. However from the late 1950s onwards airways were established along the turbine routes described below as they evolved. ILS was introduced during the fifties and sixties, at airfields used by jetliners, as their networks also spread in the manner described below.
Here are some extracts from the text I sent to Tom Gibson to aid development of the original Calclassic Aeroflot AI files for the late 1950s and mid 1960s. Remember an airport is an airfield with both customs and immigration facilities for foreign nationals.
>>>>>>>>
Modelling Aeroflot presents a challenge. Aeroflot carried about 26 million passengers in 1958 and about 36 million in 1964. It was both modernising and expanding faster than any other airline you intend to model. The following numbers are necessarily approximate and estimated.
1958 = 100 x TU04 + 10 x AN8 + 400 x IL14 + 500 x IL12 + 600 x LI2
In 1958 only a few percent of all passengers flew in the turbine fleet. The IL14 had been introduced in 1954 and was in production in the USSR until 1958. It served the most prestigious locations and operated any international routes not flown by TU04 and described below. Bar the TU04 the entire fleet operated mostly from airfields with no runways. The hub might have had a hard runway, but few other airfields did. IL12s were being converted to IL14. A runway building program takes place in your timeframe allowing these soft field airliners to be replaced by turbine equipment most of which required hard runways fro some part of the year. Short routes to places with no hard runways are also transferred to large helicopters to a much greater extent than in the west. During your timeframe the piston fleet migrates east and north within Russia, and into the 'lesser' Soviet republics. It diminishes from around fifteen hundred to around a thousand.
By 1964 there is a huge contrast. 76% of all passengers travel in the thousand strong turbine fleet and all internationals are turbine. There may be no piston twins still serving Moscow or Kiev at all. By 12/64 the most numerous turbine aircraft is the AN24.
1964 = 20 x TU14 + <250 x TU04 + <50 x TU24 + 10 x AN12 + 200 x AN10 + <250 x IL18 + c250 x AN24 + 10 x AN8 + 800 x IL14 + 50 x IL12 + 150 x LI2
Moscow Vnukovo was the largest Aeroflot hub in your timeframe. BEA served only Vnukovo. In 1958 it is probably the only airport in the USSR. The USSR was not a signatory to the Treaty of Chicago and its aircraft were not ordinarily ICAO compliant. They could not fly IFR outside the Soviet block. Aircraft with ICAO compliant panels were a separate fleet with separate crews who could be trusted not to defect. They needed an interpreter in the cockpit with an extra seat whether the destination was Paris or Pyongyang. Almost all of the international fleet was based in Moscow in your timeframe which was crawling with ICAO compliant aircraft by 12/64.
There may have been 20+ ICAO compliant airliners based in Taskent by 12/64. There were probably a dozen optimised for use in North Korea and China with specialist crews to match based in Khabarovsk. By 12/64 Vnukovo, Tashkent and Khabarovsk may still be the only airports in the USSR. By then the three airports house over 250 turbine airliners optimised for external use and those fast ICAO compliant aircraft are flying more than 20% of the Aeroflot route mileage, almost all of it outside the USSR. There are also 'sub airports' that can handle paperwork for travel within the Comecon client nations. They are west of Moscow on the bus stop routes to Eastern Europe.
Each Soviet republic had a significant hub at its capital. Aeroflot (Ukraine) did not have services to every other republic. It had a major hub in the capital at Kiev from which it served every major town in Ukraine and also served neighbouring capitals of neighbouring republics. It did not serve distant republics, not even the Baltic states which lay on the opposite side of Belorussia. When a new aircraft became available it was used to re-equip one hub (Republic) then another. It was locally dominant in one place and invisible in another quite nearby at the same date.
The politically critical trunk route was Moscow to Vladivostok paralleling the Trans Siberian Railway. Until 1956 this was a two day LI2/IL12/IL14 service Moscow - Sverdlovsk - Omsk - (Novosibirsk) - Irkutsk - Khabarovsk - Vladivostok. Irkutsk was a half way night stop. The Soviet union was huge. These were all major hubs. The long range TU04 began to fly Moscow - (Omsk) - Irkutsk from 9/56 with the IL12/14 operating only to the East of Irkutsk along the trunk route. From 8/58 it was TU04 all the way with the same stop east of Irkutsk and no night stop. However the Moscow aircraft still only goes to Irkutsk. You change TU04 in Irkutsk and again in Khabarovsk. They are both TU04 hubs. The others were bus stops but Sverdlovsk became a TU04 hub in 1960 with services to Leningrad and Tashkent.
Few Aeroflot services flew outside the Comecon zone until the USSR wanted to show off the TU04 and demonstrate that the USSR could get right what Britain had screwed up and the US had failed to achieve. The TU04 entered service within two years of the IL14 debut. From the autumn of 1956 to the autumn of 1958 the TU04 and TU04A were the only jetliners anywhere.
The TU04 was flown externally anywhere that Aeroflot might be welcome to showcase Soviet aerospace achievements. It flew Moscow - Tashkent from 10/56 and on to New Delhi from 8/58, but also on most routes that foreigners might fly internally. I believe Tashkent became a hub for ICAO compliant TU04s and crews from 8/58 and also operated to Sverdlovsk.
There were ten TU04B peak time services per day Moscow - Leningrad and five off peak by IL14 in 1960. Leningrad was a hub but not an airport. It had no flights outside the USSR. It became a TU04 hub with jet flights to Moscow, Kiev and Sverdlovsk no later than 1960.
The TU04 was the aircraft that opened up air routes to Western Europe and South East Asia, flying only from Moscow to Copenhagen, London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Prague, Budapest and Tirana by 8/60. The last three had Aeroflot IL12/14 services earlier. By 1964 also Vienna, Helsinki and Stockholm. First international schedule was Prague from 10/56 though Heathrow had been visited by VIP flight in 3/56.
The medium range TU04A had entered service in 1957 and the short range TU04B in 4/59 (Moscow - Leningrad). Production ended 1960 and number delivered is disputed but between 200 and 250. By 8/60 Khabarovsk was a TU04 hub with services to Vladivostok, Pyongyang or Peking. By 8/60 Moscow based TU04s were also flying the triangle Moscow - Simferopol - Tiflis - Moscow.
The New Delhi TU04 route extended - Rangoon - Pnom Penh - Djakarta from 1/62.
It follows that other cities were not Aeroflot TU04 in your timeframe. They progressed IL12 - IL14 - IL18/AN10, but Alma Ata ex Tashkent was odd and progressed IL12 - IL14 - IL18 - TU04.
Apart from the TU14 strategic bomber spin off the USSR was developing two other four turboprop airliners from scratch. The short range AN10 Ukraina in the Ukraine for internal high demand use and the longer range IL18 Moskva in Russia for thin demand external use. The AN12 freighter was later developed from the former. Because the Moskva was used for international services we have the impression that it was much more important than the Ukraina but in your timeframe delivery difference may have been only about 280-200 IL18 v AN10 and 30 to 50 of those extra IL18s did not go to Aeroflot.
The early IL18B had 84 seats and were considered suitable for use by foreigners. The first IL18B hubs were Moscow and Tashkent from 4/59. Moscow - Rostov - Baku and Baku - Tashkent - Alma Ata then Moscow - Sochi - Adler, Moscow - Ashkhabad and Moscow - Frunze. After bug fixing on these internal routes the IL18 was used to develop long international bus stop routes to spread Soviet influence. I doubt there were more than these two Aeroflot IL18 hubs in your timeframe. Visually identical IL18V with 100 seats entered service during 1961 and may have been the first export version. 122 seat IL18D not until 1965.
During your AI timeframe, via Sofia or Prague the IL18 opens up Nicosia, Cairo, Tunis, Algiers, Rabat, Bamako, Khartoum, Conakry and Accra extending Soviet influence right across North and West Africa and penetrating Central Africa at Brazzaville. Also operating Tashkent - Kabul - Karachi or Teheran or Baghdad in your timeframe. I expect that TU04s were substituted for propaganda reasons from time to time, at least as far as Nicosia - Cairo and Kabul - Karachi / Teheran / Baghdad but these were all IL18 by default.
After use on the bug fixing routes most IL18s are ICAO compliant and a larger proportion of the IL18 fleet was compliant than the TU04 fleet. By 1964 maybe 100+ TU04 flying internationals versus maybe 150+ IL18 and all other internationals by a few dozen TU14/24 combined. The vast majority of internationals must have been turbine from summer 1960 onwards.
The competing AN10 Ukraina 100 seat high density pax aircraft had its first hub at Kiev specialising to Moscow and Simferopol from 7/59. The stretched 130 seat AN10A became very important at Moscow from 1960 taking over the routes to/through Dneproptrovsk, Donetzk, Kishinev, Kharkov, Krasnodar, Kuibyshev, Lvov, Mineral'nyye Vody, Norilsk, Odessa, Rostov, Syktyvkar and Zaparozhe by the end of the year. This list gives you a reasonable idea where some of the larger piston engine hubs are in your timeframe.
Minsk became an AN10A hub 6/60 specialising to Leningrad, Lvov and Kiev. Novosibirsk became an AN10/A hub 12/60. Irkutsk and Khabarovsk in the east became AN10/A hubs early in 1961. By the end of 1964 production had wholly switched to the AN12. In your timeframe the AN10 was much more visible than the IL18 within the USSR because it did not need hard runways. The AN10 was a four engined development of the twin engined AN8 up to a dozen of which served with Aeroflot flying outsize cargo into Siberia and most AN8s may have been based in Khabarovsk. The AN8 was not visible west of the Urals.
AN10s did not fly international schedules since they were high density cattle trucks. The AN10 did not require hard runways and operated on skis when required. From 12/61 Aeroflot also had a few AN12 freighters for use into the Arctic but Aeroflot AN12 international cargo schedules to e.g. Paris did not begin until 2/66 and AN12s were rare in civil markings until 1966. Most of the 200 x AN12 that served with Aeroflot were delivered in the late sixties.
IL18s seem to have served very few places within the USSR in your timeframe. It was in production until 1970, by when Aeroflot had taken delivery of maybe 650, but had passed most of the early deliveries to the Air Force. Aeroflot usage probably peaked at 450+ in the late sixties. The Il18 only became widely visible within the USSR after the IL62 had taken over its international services. By then most significant airfields in the USSR had hard runways and the piston twins could be retired from the lesser hubs. A few LI2 and IL14 survived into the early seventies but no IL12s.
The TU14 Rossiya bomber spin off flew Moscow - Khabarovsk direct (8.25 hours) at low frequency from 4/61 but there was a need to stop elsewhere to allow access to both ends from everywhere in the middle and so the trans Sibera trunk route remained almost entirely a TU04 route in your timeframe. TU14 cargo only ad hoc appearances Moscow direct Irkutsk had occurred as early as 4/58. Moscow was the only TU14 hub until 1966 and they seem to have struggled to operate them at all until 1963.
The original AN24 began to fly cargo services from Kiev in 7/62. This enters service from Moscow early 1963 and after bug fixing on cargo runs they become 44 seaters flying pax services from 12/63. The stretched 50 seat AN24V entered service at the same time probably only from Moscow in your timeframe. By 12/64 the total of AN24/Vs was around 250. All twin pistons may have gone from both Kiev and Moscow by 12/64. Aeroflot did not fly the AN24 outside the USSR in your timeframe (if ever). After your timeframe most AN24 production was exported and it seems that Aeroflot usage never exceeded 350.
In your timeframe Kiev and Moscow may have been the only AN24 hubs. The 250 x AN24/V had probably replaced a similar number of twin pistons that had been present in 1958. By 12/64 I think biplane AN2s were operating to only five locations ex Moscow with only six AN2 flights ex Moscow per day and they may have been the last piston schedules from Moscow.
Then the turbo fan powered TU24 arrives and is based only in Moscow during your timeframe. Moscow - Tallin from 10/62 then to Gorki, Ulyanovsk, Vilnius, Kazan, Mineralnyye' Vody, Murmansk and Volgograd. 'Dozens' in service by the end of your timeframe and by 12/64 it had taken over at least 24 routes ex Moscow and production for Aeroflot had ended but number in service widely disputed. I believe they took delivery of about 50. Logically this introduction of the world's first modern turbofan airliner was the end of the classic airliner era. At least it was the beginning of the end. The West's first attempts at modern turbofan airliners, the Trident and the B727, were two years behind in development.
From 1962 the TU14 was substituted from time to time to all the 'Western' destinations above for propaganda reasons and may have visited any of the above on an ad hoc basis to demonstrate the Soviet lead in Aerospace technology in the era after Sputnik and Vostok which is your chosen AI timeframe. From late 1962 TU14s flew an infrequent Moscow - (Murmansk) - Havana polar schedule. The TU14 did not operate to New Delhi until 3/63, went no further, and the TU14 service was direct from Moscow, not via Tashkent. Further expansion of the Tu14 network was after your timeframe. From 1966 a monthly Moscow - Conakry - Accra service. Later still Paris was inserted into this route. During 1966 Leningrad became a 1 x TU14 hub. Their TU14 managed to fly to Volgograd twice per week and Moscow once per week. Later still there was an infrequent Moscow - Khabarovsk - Tokyo service. I believe they also flew an infrequent polar Moscow - Montreal for a while, but all after your timeframe. There had been a single propaganda visit to NY in 1959.
The AN14 and TU34 arrive in 1965 and then the IL62 in 1966.
In your timeframe there seem to be only nine turbine hubs named above within the USSR, with a heavy bias to Moscow then Kiev. These nine turbine hubs house a thousand turbine airliners by late 1964 and also still house some piston twins, maybe 150 in late 1964 down from 500 in 1958. In 1958 that puts 1000 twins on the other hubs. It seems plausible that the 30+ other locations in the USSR I have named each had 10 to 20 of them accounting for half of the 1000 with the other 500 shared between 50 to 100 hubs not mentioned by name above.
FSAviator