You have to credit the Russian aircraft designers, this eleptical fuselage transport aircraft, dubbed ‘EkoJet’, appears to be an interesting way of looking at how to get a large number of people on and off an aircraft.

But man, it is one fugly bird.

The designers claim that the aircraft can carry as many passengers as the Il-86 (around 350 in an all coach configuration), but that it would weigh 80 tons less, or about 40% less than the IL-86’s 217t MTOW, which I simply don’t find credible.

The problems with the Il-86 were always its propulsion, not its structure, and a 40% weight savings seems to violate the laws of physics.