Posted on 08/26/2005 6:07:43 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
Volga-Dnepr Airlines has signed an agreement with Aviastar SP to acquire five new AN-124-100M-150 freighter aircraft, as part of the AN-124-100 Production Recovery Project. Deliveries of the new 150 tonne capacity aircraft will begin in 2008. (8/25/2005)
"The AN-124-100 'Ruslan' is a unique aircraft," said Alexey Isaikin, Aviastar SP chairman & president of Volga-Dnepr Group. "It is in such high demand in the global air cargo market that we are doing our best to relaunch serial production of the aircraft at the Aviastar aviation plant in Ulyanovsk,"
The AN-124-100Ì-150 is an operationally improved version of the AN-124 outsize and heavyweight cargo aircraft, capable of transporting single or multiple pieces of cargo weighing up to 150 tonnes as well as general cargo. Modification of the aircraft extends the AN-124's freight capacity and involves the use of modernised on-board equipment. The new aircraft will also reduce the required number of crew members to four (currently six).
The ÀN-124-100 is currently the world's largest production freighter, unrivalled in the global aviation industry. To date, 56 AN-124s have been manufactured, about half of which are currently in commercial operation.
The parties engaged into the AN-124 Project believe that resumed production of this aircraft type will revive the Russian aviation industry and significantly reinforce the leading positions of Russia and Ukraine in the global air cargo market. It will also widen Russian-Ukrainian ties in terms of implementing large-scale industrial projects and create more opportunities for technological breakthroughs in civil aviation.
Resuming production of the AN-124-100 may, along with the government-supported Quiet IL-76 Modernisation Project currently being implemented, become one of the most ambitious and promising tasks for the Russian aviation industry.
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I always like seeing these things at IAH.
I wonder if they'll put some efficient western engines on the AN-124 airframe instead of the inefficient soviet era ones.
It's too bad Dick Cheney forced Lockheed to destroy all the dies for the C-5 back during the Bush (41) administration.
In a more humanitarian sense I am happy for the Ruskies as their economy really needs something like this.
What about the 6-engine one? I think it's number is the AN-240 or something like that. It is so big it has a bridge crane in to to move cargo.
I have a video of it flying around Anchorage, Alaska a few years ago.
It's the AN-224.
Thank you. I always wondered if they didn't hang six engines on that monster just to better their chances of having something still running when they came in for a landing! LOL
It's the AN-224 An-225 Mriya.
Considering the proposed civilian BC-17 was too expensive and had too short a range, and the C-5 tooling has been destroyed, Antonov should have the oversized cargo roll on -roll off market to itself.
Many folks wanted the C-17 but not at the reduced capability the Pentagon required to produce the civilian version. It was never cost that shot the deals down - it was always whether the Air Force would give up the technology the company's wanted to keep in the plane. Guess who won?
Considering the Air Force retired fourteen C-5A's, why couldn't private investors buy or lease them for use as outsized cargo planes? Those include the first eleven C-5's built and three that had troublesome maintenance histories. One of the retired planes has been completely torn down to and is still being studied get data about the condition of the planes in the fleet and their long term viability.
The remaining 112 planes (60 C-5A's, 50 C-5B's, and 2 C-5C's) are being refitted with new glass cockpits in the C-5 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP). After the AMP the C-5B's will go through the Reliability Enhancement and Re-Engining Program (RERP). They will get new GE CF6-80-C2 engines similar to the ones on the 747-400, new pylons, new auxiliary power units and upgrades to other systems in order to improve the reliability of the C-5. Depending on how well the RERP program works for the C-5B and how much airframe life is left in the C-5A's based on the tear down studies, the C-5A's may also be upgraded.
Considering there are thirteen C-5A's that were all rewinged in the 1980's sitting in the desert, I would think it would be possible to get private investors to pay for some of them to be updated with the AMP and RERP for use as commercial large cargo aircraft.
The whole purpose of the BC-17 program was to increase the number of C-17's available during a national emergency without having to paye the costs of operating and maintaining them during peace time. I read somewhere that the Air Force is considering allowing some of their high time C-17's to be leased or sold to private air freight companies and replaced with new build C-17's. That would increase the number of C-17's built while giving the Air Force the youngest ones. I doubt air freight companies would fly C-17's as rough as the USAF does. Few of them would ever need to land on dirt or gravel runways.
While the Soviet era engines are inefficient, I have heard that there was also a considerable overdesign - making them better suited for operations from "non-ideal" locations.
Was it this model bird that carried some diesel railway locomotives to Australia? Or was it the six-engined plane.
One of the major users of these planes in civilian service seems to be energy companies. One typical load might be a whole gas pipeline compressor skid. Bet the runway where it delivers it to is not paved.
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