The Ilyushin Il-18 (Russian: Илью́шин Ил-18; NATO reporting name: Coot) is a large turboprop airliner that first flew in 1957 and became one of the best known Soviet aircraft of its era.

Due to the aircraft's durability, many examples achieved over 45,000 flight hours[citation needed] and the type remains operational in both military and (to a lesser extent) civilian capacities.

[2] A new feature at the time was the fitting of a weather radar in the nose and it was the first Soviet airliner to have an automatic approach system.

[2] The prototype SSSR-L5811 was rolled out in June 1957 and after ground-testing it began taxi test and high-speed runs on 1 July 1957.

30 located at Khodynka, near where the Ilyushin design office and the prototype had been built, was chosen to manufacture the aircraft.

[3] Only 20 IL-18As were built before production changed to the improved Il-18B, this new variant had a higher gross weight and the nose was re-designed with a larger radome which increased the length by 20 cm.

[3] From April 1961 a TG-18 Auxiliary Power Unit was fitted for ground starting rather than the bank of lead-acid batteries.

in Siberia, North Korea and the Middle East, whilst a number of examples manufactured in the mid-1960s were still in civilian use in Africa and south Asia as of 2014.

The type operates in various military capacities, including the Il-22PP electronic warfare and reconnaissance aircraft[4] which entered service in October 2016.

[5] A modernized Il-20M with improved radar, radio and optical-electronic reconnaissance equipment entered service in July 2020 to provide secure targeting to Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile system.

[6] An Il-18 (registration DDR-STD) belonging to Interflug and used as a transport by East German leaders, including Erich Honecker, has been converted into a static hotel suite at Teuge Airfield in The Netherlands.