Antonov | |||
AN-22 Antei / Cock |
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Photo: Robert
Deering 4/9/2019 Technik Museum Speyer, Germany |
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The Antonov An-22
is a heavy military
transport aircraft designed by the Antonov
Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Powered
by four turboprop engines each driving a
pair of contra-rotating propellers, the
design was the first wide-body transport
aircraft and remains the world's largest
turboprop-powered aircraft to date. The
An-22 first appeared publicly outside the
Soviet Union at the 1965 Paris Air Show.
Since then, the model has seen extensive use
in major military and
humanitarian airlifts for the Soviet Union.
In the late 1950s,
the Soviet Union required a large military
transport aircraft to supplement the Antonov
An-8 and An-12s then entering service.
Originally known as the An-20, the model is
a conventional multi-engined high-wing
design. In the early 1960s, the Antonov
bureau produced a wooden mock up at its
Kiev, Ukraine, workshops of what was
designated the Model 100.
The
prototype, now designated the An-22, was
rolled out on 18 August 1964 and first flew
on 27 February 1965. The prototype was given
the name Antheus and,
after four-months of test flying, was
displayed at the 1965 Paris Air Show.
All aircraft were built at
the Tashkent State Aircraft Factory and the
first military delivery was made to the Air
Transport Wing at Ivanovo Airbase in 1969.
The aircraft was
designed as a strategic airlifter, designed
specifically to expand the Soviet Airborne
Troops' capability to land with their
then-new BMD-1 armoured vehicles. The An-22
cargo hold can accommodate four BMD-1
compared to only one in the An-12. It also has the
capability to takeoff from austere, unpaved,
and short airstrips, allowing airborne
troops to perform air-landing operations.
This is achieved by four pairs
of contra-rotating propellers, similar to
those on the Tupolev Tu-114. The propellers
and the exhaust from the engines produce a
slipstream over the wings and large
double-slotted flaps. The landing gear is
ruggedized for rough airstrips, and, in
early versions, tire pressures could be
adjusted in flight for optimum landing
performance, although that feature was
removed in later models. |
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