Ebook: Ilyushin/Beriyev A-50: the Soviet Sentry

Brought out in the late 1970s as a successor to the obsolete Tu-126 airborne early warning aircraft, the A-50 co-developed by the Il'yushin and Beriyev bureaux is one of the most interesting military variants in the field of IL-76 military transport. Differing outwardly from the latter mainly in having a conventional ""saucer"" rotodome, the A-50 entered flight testing in 1980; the new Soviet AWACS entered service four years later. The improved A-50M was developed several years after that. The type continues in service with the Russian Air Force today, and the fleet is being upgraded to A-50U.;Cover; Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: Enter the Bumblebee:A-50 -- the 'Domestic' Versions; Chapter 3: Export Aspirations; Chapter 4: 'Friends and Relatives'; Chapter 5: The Shape of Things to Come; Chapter 6: The A-50 In Service; Chapter 7: The A-50 in Detail; Chapter 8: The Modeller's Corner.