An-178. Models of aircraft "An". Civil Aviation

Today, in its structure, the state enterprise "Antonov" is a large aviation concern, where, under the general guidance, a complete cycle of aircraft construction is carried out: from design and testing to mass production and after-sales support. One of the promising projects of the concern is the multi-purpose cargo plane An-178, designed to replace the outdated An-12 model.

State enterprise "Antonov"

It is the pride of Ukraine, one of the "think tanks" of advanced design thought, a fusion of science and production. Here, models of airplanes that have no analogues in the world were created more than once. For example, the super-hoisting An-225 Mriya.

State Enterprise "Antonov" was originally created and still specializes in the development and production of civil and military transport aircraft. The enterprise also produces passenger models, but it is the transport planes "An" that earned the reputation of reliable, sometimes irreplaceable workers. Developed in the 60's four-engine turboprop An-12 and is now actively used in the expanses of the former USSR.

The aviation concern includes:

• Development bureau;
• pilot plant;
• Flight test center;
• Serial aircraft factory;
• 10 research complexes of the national wealth level, employing more than 6,500 highly qualified scientific and engineering workers.

Perspective developments

Civil aviation badly needs promising models that meet high environmental standards, low-cost in operation, with an optimal ratio of price and quality, convenience and safety. And if foreign partners have already switched to a new model range, Russian and Ukrainian airlines are forced to catch up quickly.

In the 2000s, the state enterprise "Antonov" actively began to develop new and modernize old models of An aircraft:

• Narrow-bodied short-haul passenger An-148 and its improved version of An-158.
• The medium-haul military transport and cargo An-70, which has high hopes.
• Upgraded An-124 Ruslan.
• A brand-new two-engine transport An-178, which, according to the designers' plan, should replace the old morally worn and physically worn An-12 aircraft.

A new generation of transporters

According to the concept of designers, the 178th model in the next year or two will replenish the family of transport aircraft An. The cargo aircraft of the new generation is already with interest expected by potential customers. The first flight is scheduled for 2015.

Experience in the operation of cargo and passenger transport aircraft shows that multi-purpose models come to the fore. This is what the newest development of Ukrainian designers - the An-178 aircraft - is designed to be. The characteristics meet the most modern standards.

The development of this aircraft in the transport line "Anov" today is one of the main programs of the enterprise. The team faces the task of creating a worthy replacement for the veteran An-12, who for many years was one of the best transport aircraft of the planet. The tendencies of the development of the world market give hope that the An-178 will be in demand both in the military and in the civil sectors.

Benefits

The model is planned to be equipped with two turboprop engines, which will provide high speed, flight performance and reduce the noise level. The peculiarity of the aircraft is the increased dimensions of the cargo cabin, which allows transportation of almost all types of packed cargoes in the world. In particular, in sea containers and pallets.

Like all Antonov aircraft, the AN-178 will inherit such qualities necessary for the transporter as all-aerodrome, autonomy, high reliability, unpretentiousness, fault-tolerance.

Minimizing the cost price

To reduce the cost, new transport planes "An" are unified with already developed and produced models. Whatever outstanding characteristics the aircraft possessed, the most important indicator for civil aviation is the "price of the issue". With similar indicators, the customer will prefer a cheaper model at the time of purchase and more economical in the process of operation.

According to the composition of the airframe and airborne equipment, the An-178 is 50-60% uniform with the regional passenger aircraft of the new generation An-148 and An-158, which have already confirmed in practice all the claimed characteristics. In addition to reducing technical risks, unification will reduce the time required to create an aircraft up to 2-2.5 years. Today, the design of the An-178 is very intensive. In the near future, it is planned to complete the construction of the first flight specimen. In 2014, the fuselage was built, left to mount the wings and install equipment.

Two motors instead of four

The creators are proud of the new concept of the An-178. The photo of the aircraft demonstrates its main difference from the An-12 - only two screws instead of four. The transition of developers from the four-engine layout to the twin-engine is not accidental. The design is based on an assessment of the needs of the world market. A modern trend in the development of ramp transport aircraft is clearly traced, when in the design and manufacture of medium-class transporters, aircraft manufacturers replace four-engine turboprops with twin-engine turbojet engines.

Calculations show that at approximately the same hourly fuel consumption, turbojet twin-engine models have higher performance due to a much higher cruising speed.

Scope of use

Any aircraft is developed for specific tasks. The 178th was conceived as a multi-purpose transport, which can easily be converted for civil as well as for military transport purposes, as well as for special structures (MES, medical services, etc.).

Initially, the order for the An-178 was submitted by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. However, in the state enterprise "Antonov" expect significant orders from civil aviation, companies involved in cargo transportation.

A unique feature of the model is the ability to deliver all types of packaged cargoes in the world (in containers and pallets), including 1C heavy containers (sea container) with transverse dimensions of 2.44 x 2.44 m. This makes the An-178 an indispensable vehicle for Logistic support in commercial exploitation, in the armed forces, for use in emergency situations.

Decent replacement for An-12 and C-160

The 178th was conceived as a high-tech replacement for medium-sized turbo-screw four-engine transport aircraft of the An-12 model, which produced over 1400 copies over the past decades. "Starichkov" is still actively exploited in the CIS countries, Asia, Africa. The An-12, developed in the 60s, actually does not have a worthy replacement for the combination of technical characteristics and commercial benefits.

Although the AN-178 is structurally different from the AN-12 and its performance is not 100% of the capabilities of the twelfth model, the 178th is the best option for replacing the old fleet of domestic companies.

For customers oriented to Western technology, the An-178 is offered as an alternative to the obsolete Franco-German model of the Transal C-160, a twin-engine turboprop transport aircraft, of which 214 were produced in the 1970s and 1980s.

Military transport modification

The military department of Ukraine is the initiator of the creation and the main customer of the An-178. The decision that the army needed a new medium-class military transport aircraft dictated the time. Resource An-12 and C-160 is almost exhausted. Meanwhile, in many countries around the world a whole range of tasks has been formed, ideally adapted to vehicles of this dimension.

The average carrying capacity of such aircraft is 11-13 tons (more than 70% of transport tasks), and the range of flight is 2000-3000 km. The experience of using the AN-12 and C-160 aircraft shows that the transportation of wheeled self-propelled and non-self-propelled and also armored vehicles is rarely performed on them, and heavier aircraft, IL-76 and S-17A, are usually used to solve such tasks. The main task of the medium military-technical cooperation is material and technical support of troops, parachute landing of small units or cargoes on platforms, transportation of wounded and transport of light equipment, delivery of engines, equipment, etc.

Also, such aircraft are most often used for delivery (including in hard-to-reach regions of the world) of goods on standard pallets and in containers. The breadth of the tasks to be solved is determined by the optimal transverse dimensions and dimensions of such a vehicle.

Competitors

In fact, in the European market, the developed An-178 has only two potential competitors. The Ukrainian aircraft is close in class and capacity to the new jet medium-haul transport aircraft Embraer KC-390, which is being created to replace the S-130. Also similar characteristics are the Russian-Indian project MTA.

However, Embraer and MTA have a different philosophy of development and application. First of all, the An-178 aircraft has smaller dimensions and take-off mass, and is also created on the basis of an already existing platform - the regional aircraft of the AN-148 family that have been tested in business. This makes it much cheaper than competitors and with significantly lower fuel consumption, which affects the cost of the aircraft's life cycle.

An-178: specifications

• The length is 31.6 m.
• Carrying capacity - 15 tons.
• Speed (cruising) - 800 km / hour.
• The wingspan is 28.91 m.
• The practical range of flights at maximum load is 3200 km.
• The estimated cost of one aircraft is $ 20-25 million.

Conclusion

An-178 is a transport aircraft, which will replace the AN-12. It can carry many kinds of cargo. It is especially important that the model is able to transport even sea containers. The result was a unique and versatile cargo aircraft.