The Kiev Aviant plant in Ukraine has started to raise funds to finance a commercial version of the Antonov An-70 four-propfan military transport, the An-70T, according to plant manager Alexander Kharlov. Aviant is collaborating with the Aviakor plant in Samara, Russia, in preparing the An-70 for series production.
In a separate development, Antonov is also investigating a twin-engined variant, the An-70T-100, powered with the same Progress D-27 propfans, which would not have the standard An-70's short take-off capability, but would be lighter and subsequently cheaper. Operating from a paved 2,500m (8,200ft)-long runway, the twin-engined variant could carry 30t of cargo over a distance of 1,000km (540nm), or 20t over 4,300km.
The An-70 had its public debut at the show, with the aircraft flying from Ukrainian capital Kiev to Zhukovski - the first time that it has left the Antonov flight-test area at Gostomel. The second An-70 prototype was flown for the first time on 24 April and has since logged 38 flights. The first prototype was lost in a mid-air collision with a chase aircraft in early 1995.
The aircraft was shown to high-ranking Russian officials, including president Boris Yeltsin, defence minister Gen Igor Sergeyev and Russian air force commander-in-chief Gen Piotr Deinekin.
The air force confirms its continuing interest in the military transport, with Lt Gen Yuri Klishin, Russian air force deputy commander-in-chief saying: "We are oriented to acquiring this aircraft. The fact that the test flights are being flown by a joint crew gives some evidence of that." Since resuming flight tests, the crew consists of Antonov test pilot Alexander Galunenko and Russian air force Col Anatoly Andronov.
The An-70 is a joint project between the Russian, Ukrainian and Uzbekistani aviation industries, with the Russians taking the lion's share.
Antonov general designer Piotr Balabuyev has again called for co-operation with Future Large Aircraft (FLA) participating nations in Western Europe. "The FLA programme has almost identical requirements, and it has one foot in the grave. The civilised approach to spending taxpayers' money would be to unite our efforts in developing a new medium military transport," he says.
Source: Flight International
