The first flight of the new Il-112V military transport aircraft has been rescheduled for 2018, whereas its serial production will start in 2019, President of the United Aircraft Corporation Yury Slyusar said on Wednesday.

"Serial production hasn’t been rescheduled. Besides, we are launching this plane ahead of the plan, as these planes were set for 2021. Now we are ready to start in 2019, because we realize the need for such aircraft. The first flight has, actually, been rescheduled for 2018," he said at the MAKS-2017 International Aviation and Space Salon.

Slyusar explained that a delay of the Il-112V’s first flight was due to transitional period problems that appeared in the document flow of "two epochs": part of the documents were printed and part were digital.

The Il-112V lightweight military transport aircraft can carry up to 5 tonnes and was designed to transport crews, as well as military equipment, various types of armaments and other cargo. It was created to replace the An-26 and An-24 turboprop transport aircraft. The plane can operate on small scarcely equipped airfields with hard-and soft-surface runways. There are plans in store to produce two versions of this plane: the Il-112T for civil purposes and the Il-112V for military purposes. It was earlier reported that the military planned to order 62 aircraft.