One of the best-known Russian aircraft, it is one of the most popular and long-lasting ones.
First developed as a piston engine powered aircraft, which was based on a Russian copy of the B-29, it later became one of the profilic turboprop aircraft in the world.
After the piston powered version was cancelled because the competing design used more common parts of the bomber version, it was resurrected in 1965 in it's current form.
Seating 100-120 passengers, it's operating economics are such that a lot are stilll in service in Cuba, Siberia and by some operators in the Middle East.
Military versions have also been developed, such as ASW[?] and ELINT[?] versions.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump