Russian Federation - Air Force 224th Flying Unit

IATA CODE
ICAO CODE
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TTF CARGO UNIT

The 224th Flying Unit was established in 1971 and reorganized under its present form in 2009, as a state owned autonomous company under authority of the Russian Air Force, operating a large fleet of Ilyushin Il-76s and Antonov An-124s on charter cargo missions worldwide.

 

The Unit is famous for carrying the Russian President's cars and equipment during state visits abroad, but has also won numerous tenders providing oversize cargo haulage on behalf of NATO, United States, Germany France and UK armed forces in assisting their deployment in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other theatres of operation.

 

The fleet is based at Tver's Migalovo air base, but was recently relocated at Chkalovksky air base near Moscow

Recent flightplans available from RATS

Antonov An-124

Antonov An-124 RA-82013
Antonov An-124 RA-82013

This package includes 5 Antonov An-124s 'Ruslan' currently operated by the 224th Flying Unit.

 

The lightmap included should be copied to each of the 5 texture folders.

 

To be used with the Global AI Antonov An-124 base model

Antonov An-124 RA-82024
Antonov An-124 RA-82024

Bonus pack!

This package includes three Antonov An-124s belonging to the Russian Air Force currently 'mothballed' at Ulyanovsk, but could be brought back to operational status within the 224th Flying Unit if needed.

 

To be used with the Global AI Antonov An-124 base model

Ilyushin Il-76TD/MD

Ilyushin Il-76  RA-76638
Ilyushin Il-76 RA-76638
Ilyushin Il-76 RA-78794
Ilyushin Il-76 RA-78794
Ilyushin Il-76 RA-78844
Ilyushin Il-76 RA-78844
Ilyushin Il-76 RA-78845
Ilyushin Il-76 RA-78845

The 224th Flying Unit currently operates 25 Ilyushin Il-76 transports, all of which are included in these packages.

 

This archive has been divided into 5 sub-packages to avoid large file downloads

 

The lightmap included should be copied in each of the packages texture folders

 

To be used with the RATS Ilyushin Il-76 (MD/MD2 and TD models) base model


Donate!

Each repaint means long hours of research and hard work to make it look as close as possible to the real world original.

 

Although it is all available here for free, I will appreciate any contribution to keep me going maintaining this website and bringing you more flightsimming goodies!

 

You can use Paypal from wherever you are to send me any amount you feel like giving -hint: the more the merrier! ;-)

 


About my repaints

These textures are intended for use as AI traffic in Microsoft's Flight Simulator versions 9 and 10.

 

They have been thoroughly researched and painted based on actual pictures of the real aircraft, so that each individual aircraft is an exact replica of the real thing at the time of painting, down to the precise windows configuration and the stencils colours and locations.

 

To view them in your simulator, you need first to download and install the base aircraft models/packages available  separately . Most of these models are available from the usual avsim and/or flightsim libraries, but I have provided a link to these base packages on this site for your easy reference. Check the links section.

 

You will also need adequate flightplans to take these birds into your virtual skies. Running a search on avsim and flightsim libraries will get you up to date flightplans for most of the world's airlines

About bitmap formats

Most of my repaints are provided in three textures formats: 32bits, dxt3 and dxt3 with mipmaps.


AI traffic can draw heavily on your computer resources and significantly reduce your sim's framerate. Using the right set of textures can improve your framerate and ensure  smooth  and lifelike movements.

Basically, 32bits texture are larger and therefore having more pixels, will have sharper details and will look better in your sim, particularly at close range. Downside is they take up more HD space and use more resources.

Mipped textures are supposed to be what fs is really looking for, and will ensure the best framerate and movement smoothness. However, if your graphic processor is an older or a lower end one, with less than 1GB dedicated memory, mipped textures will look awfully blurred.

To keep things simple, if you run your sim on a new, powerful, high end computer, go for the 32bits or mipped textures, or use the 32bits only for intricate liveries where the quality of finer details will make a difference.

On the other hand, if you are using an older less powerful machine, or if you are not sure or don't know what all this means, go for the non-mipped dxt3 format.