| An-70 | |
|---|---|
| Role | Transport |
| Design group | Antonov |
| Built by | Aviant |
| First flight | 16 December 1994[1] |
| Status | Under development |
| Number built | 2 prototypes |
| Unit cost | US$ 50-55 million[2] 60-70 million (export)[3] |
The Antonov An-70 is a four-engine medium-range transport aircraft, and the first large aircraft to be powered by propfan engines. It is being developed by Ukraine's Antonov design bureau to replace the obsolete An-12 military transport aircraft. The maiden flight of the first prototype took place on 16 December 1994 in Kiev, Ukraine.
Contents |
Work on the An-70 began in Soviet Union in the early eighties. There were plans to establish serial production of the model in both Kiev and Samara, Russia, guaranteeing employment of about 80,000 people in the two countries. The Soviet government had shown interest in purchasing 160 planes for its military. But in the post-Soviet days of reduced military budgets in Russia, funding for the An-70 was cut. Antonov decided to proceed with self-funding.
The An-70 is a high-wing monoplane with four wing-mounted propfan engines, it has a full glass cockpit and fly-by-wire controls. The aircraft has a 19.1 metre (22.4 metre with the ramp) x 4 metre x 4.1 metre cargo space and can carry 47 ton of cargo. Powered by four Progress D-27 propfan engines, each turning a pair of contra-rotating scimitar propellers.
The first prototype was lost during its fourth flight on 10 Feb 1995 in a mid-air collision with an Antonov An-72 being used as a chase plane, the test crew of seven were killed. The aircraft proved so promising during its first three flights that Antonov decided to press on and converted the static-test prototype into a flying prototype. The second airframe took to the air only 21 months after the crash of the first one, on 8 December 1996. [4][5]
The An-70 was the first Eastern-bloc transport aircraft to be built according to the new IAC AP-25 norms that conformed with JAR-25. This would allow civilian certification in both Western Europe and North America. Another first was the use of a MIL-STD-1553B-compatible data bus, which allows NATO avionics and defensive suites to be installed.
In October 1997, the German defence minister Volker Rühe announced the intention to study whether the An-70 could be the basis for the FLA/Airbus A400M. Evaluation was in competition with the newly-designed, paper-only A400M proposed by Airbus Military Company. The An-70 participation in the 1998-2000 tender process for the FLA was very successful and was the best bid from a financial, technical and operational point of view. The plane was checked thoroughly by MBB Munich, and presented to Air Transport Command in Cologne after Le Bourget airshow in 1999. However, for political reasons and under pressure both from the newly founded EADS company and the French government, the A400M was selected for the FLA. The French claimed that their projected Airbus A400M, although more expensive, would have lower life cycle costs (LCCs) than the An-70. Antonov lost this opportunity to sell its An-70 to Western European nations and to make matters worse, shortly after, the second An-70 prototype made a crash landing on its belly in January 2001 after losing power in two engines on take-off during cold weather testing in Omsk, and was severely damaged. It looked as though the A400M was now going to have the market all to itself. But Antonov recovered the crashed aircraft and repaired it in record time, but the project still lacked funding. [6][7][8][9]
In 2002 Russia and Ukraine had agreed on a 50–50 risk-sharing deal on production[1] In May 2005 a senior Russian Air Force officials claimed that bilateral development and further testing of the An-70 would continue.
In April 2006 Russia announced its complete withdrawal from the project. The head of the Russian Air Force, Vladimir Mikhaylov, claimed that the An-70 has grown into a heavy, expensive cargo plane. The Russian military plans to use the Ilyushin Il-76MF, which reportedly costs half as much as the An-70. After the Orange Revolution in late 2004, and with Ukraine openly aiming for NATO membership, political will for the project evaporated. Russia has provided around 60 percent of the estimated $5 billion invested in the project to date.[2][10][11]
The project continued but Russia's $60 million debts on the plane were not being repaid in November 2009.[12]
In August 2010, it was reported that user testing was taking place, and that the Ukrainian Air Force expected to take deliver of the first An-70 in 2011. Volga-Dnepr Airlines signed an agreement for a possible purchase of up to five An-70T aircraft.[13]
General characteristics
Performance
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||