What Is This in The Top of IL-86VKP?
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asked Mar 31, 2020 at 17:02
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$\begingroup$ It's an oxygen chamber to keep the exalted leader looking artificially young... $\endgroup$– GdDCommented Mar 31, 2020 at 21:09
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1 Answer
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The "canoe" is thought to house "advanced" satellite communications equipment. This is a classified aircraft though, so there isn't a lot of publicly available information on exactly what other equipment might be contained in that hump.
answered Mar 31, 2020 at 18:55
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$\begingroup$ This angle makes that a shockingly unaerodynamic looking hump! It looks like the front is very vertical and not at all smoothly blended into the roof line. Of course, that's topic for a different question, and considering the classified nature of the aircraft, probably an unanswerable one, so I won't bother asking $\endgroup$– FreeManCommented Apr 1, 2020 at 13:58
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$\begingroup$ @FreeMan Side-on angles may be deceiving. It looks like the front is tapered to cause less drag so it probably isn't a huge impact. It doesn't seem to matter though, the aircraft can stay airborne indefinitely because there seems to be a refueling probe on the nose. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 1, 2020 at 14:15
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$\begingroup$ Good thing about refuling, too, @RonBeyer - those look like very inefficient low-bypass engines!
</OT ramblings>$\endgroup$– FreeManCommented Apr 1, 2020 at 14:23