CAAC Airlines Ilyushin Il-62 With Beijing BJ130 Airplane-ladder Vehicles In The Beijing World Park

An Ilyushin Il-62 jet airliner, seen in November 2011 in the Beijing World Park in the Chinese capital Beijing. Next to the airplane stood two brilliantly cool Beijing BJ130 airplane-ladder vehicles.

The Il-62 has the registration number B-2028 and was operated by CAAC Airlines.  The company operated five of these airplanes: B-2020, B-2022, B-2024, B-2026, and B-2028. They were purchased in 1971 by China from the Soviet Union and entered service in 1972.

CAAC Airlines (中国民航) was a state-owned monopolist airline company. It was founded in 1953 and existed until 1988 when it was split up into six smaller regional airline companies.

The B-2028 has some historical value. It was used in April 1974 to fly ‘paramount leader’ Deng Xiaopeng to the United Nations General Assembly in New York where he held a speech that is famous in China until today.

The B-2028 is displayed at the Beijing World Park and the B-2024 is displayed at the China Aviation Museum in the far north of Beijing. I have seen that one too, I’ll write about it in an upcoming story. The B-2028 registration is still around, used today for a Boeing 777-F1B operated by China Southern Cargo.

The Beijing World Park (北京世界公园) is a theme park in the southwest of the capital. They have scaled-down replicas of famous landmarks from some 40 countries and regions around the world. Those include the Eiffel Tower, a Dutch windmill, the Taj Mahal, the Tower Bridge, and the Statue of Liberty. In 2011, the park was in a rather sorry state with very few visitors. Exactly how I like it best. I haven’t been back since, but I heard from friends the park has since had a makeover and looks new again.

Besides the landmarks, the park also had some other attractions, like a playground, a lake, and several shops and restaurants. The Ilyushin Il-62 was a somewhat odd attraction. It didn’t really fit in but it sure was cool.  Sometimes in the past, visitors could pay 10 yuan to get into the plane and have a look around. But when I was there the plane and ticket booth were closed shut. Too bad.

Note the CAAC Airlines logo on the side, behind the cabin.

The Ilyushin Il-62 was a Soviet long-range narrow-body airliner. A total of 94 examples were manufactured from 1967 until 1995. When new, it was the largest jet airliner in the world, with a capacity of 200 passengers and crew. It had a unique 3-isle-3 seating configuration.

But most interesting was the engine configuration. It had dual engines on each side of the rear fuselage. There were no engines under the wings or at the tail. The four Soloviev D-30KU turbofan engines had a combined thrust of 431.6 kN, good for a 900 km/h cruise speed and a service ceiling of 12,000 meters.

The Ilyushin Il-62 is a big plane: 53.12 meters long, 12.35 meters high, with a wingspan of 43.2 meters and an empty weight of 71,600 kilos. It is quite an impressive machine when you walk under the fuselage.

Besides the airplane stood two Beijing BJ130 airplane-ladder vehicles, used to get the passengers on- and off board. The vehicles were painted in CAAC Airlines colors, with a blue body, a blue-white cabin, and a white ladder. These were used at the Beijing Capital Airport from the 1970s until well into the late 1980s.

The BJ130 light truck was a light truck designed and manufactured by the Beijing Second Automobile Factory, which eventually became a part of Beijing Auto Works (BAW), which in turn became a part of the Beijing Auto Industry Corporation (BAIC). However, since 2020 BAW is on its own again.

The design of the Beijing BJ130 was heavily inspired by the third-generation Toyota Dyna (K170). Mass production started in 1973 and ended in 1986, after a production run of about 500.000 units.  The BJ130 was also made in other cities as well, under many different names, for example in Shanghai where it was called the Shanghai 130.

The cargo area is at least five meters long. This is the ladder vehicle standing near the rear entry door of the airplane. It has a large twin-prop air-conditioning unit installed below the ladder. This unit was likely used to cool down the plane when it was still accessible to visitors.

The BJ130 was made in many versions. There was a fire truck, a flatbed truck, a bus-like vehicle, various airport trucks, numerous army trucks, and a fire-trucks In truck form it could carry a maximum weight of two tons.

The BJ130 was powered by the famous 4-cylinder ‘North 492 gasoline engine’ that was used in many many trucks, cars, and other vehicles made in the ’70s and ’80s. The engine was mated with a four-speed manual gearbox.

The stairway to the heavens. Closed ticket booth on the right.

The really tried some design at the back, with impressive white light units.

Frozen in time.

The gate of the World Park, with folks taking photos in front of the gate, without actually buying a ticket and going inside. The ticket price was steep, like 60 yuan as far as I can remember, which is way more than most major attractions in the capital cost. Well, I think it was worth the money for the Ilyushin Il-62 and the Beijing BJ130 airplane-ladder vehicles alone.