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Further Reading

Antonov An-70

The An-70 was developed by Antonov as a replacement for its An-12, which is currently in widespread military and civilian use with operators throughout the CIS. It was originally designed to be in production in 1988. The An-70 belongs to a new class of short takeoff and landing tactical military transports. The AN-70 military transport STOL aircraft has no equal in the world in a number of its characteristics. This aircraft is very capable of accopplishing qualitatively new tasks beyond possibilities of previous military transports. The AN-70 is unique owing to its ability to take off from short unpaved runways of only 700 m length with heavy cargo.

AN-70 cargo cabin dimensions allow the aircraft to accomodate almost all types of military equipment and armament of CIS and NATO countries. The An-70 is capable of carrying practically any item from military armament and equipment nomenclature with a total weight of up to 47 tons. The aircraft is capable of delivering 20-35 tons of cargo over the range of 5,000-6,600 km at cruising speed of 750 km/h, air dropping of personnel and vehicles including single cargoes of up to 20 tons from both high and low altitudes, delivery of 300 soldiers and evacuation of 206 wounded and sick.

The most prominent feature of the An-70 is its four Russian designed propfans. Four D-27 engines with counter-rotating SV-27 propfans ensure high cruising speed and 20-30% fuel saving in comparison with modern airplanes with turbojet engines. The propfans consist of 14 blade Stupino counter rotating scimitar propellers and the Progress turboprops. Combined these are designed to offer very high speed combined with low fuel consumption. The Russian developed SV-27 all composite propellers are highly swept and are claimed to have a 90% efficiency in cruise, at near jet speeds.

Takeoff and landing speeds are lower thanks to the propfans, while the An-70's ability to fly from relatively short fields means it can operate from 80% of all ClS airstrips, allowing shorter journeys and greater point to point flights. Depending upon the type of operation and takeoff weight, the An-70 can be operated on both average-strength hard-surface runways and unpaved 700-900 m strips with low surface strength. In case of short takeoff and landing on 700 m unpaved runways, the An-70 is capable of carrying 20-30 t of cargo over the range of 1,200-3,000 km.

The An-70 is one of the most recent aircraft to be developed in the Commonwealth of Independent States and incorporates a range of modern technology design concepts. Composite materials are used throughout the airframe, including the horizontal and vertical tails which are all composite. The integrated digital complex of onboard equipment provides operation of the aircraft in all latitudes, all and around-the-clock, in VFR and adverse weather conditions, flights over unmarked terrain, protection against antiaircraft means, formation flying, takeoff and landing on unequipped unpaved airfields.

The An-70 also incorporates fly-by-wire and an advanced flightdeck with six full color digital displays and a head up display used for landings on short strips. The digital avionics are also linked via a databus equivalent to US 1553B standard, believed to be another first for a ClS aircraft, and allowing far easier integration of western avionics in the future. Use of equipment with multiplex channels of data exchange makes it possible to easily modify and adapt the onboard avionics structure to suit any version.

Onboard aerial delivery system ensures autonomous loading/unloading of a wide variety of cargoes and their air dropping. The onboard loading equipment comprises four overhead rail electric motor hoists with total cargo lifting capacity of 12 t, two onboard electric winches each with a 1.5-ton tractive force. At customer option, the aircraft may be equipped with an easily removable upper deck or roller conveyer for container handling automation. Onboard monitoring and diagnostic means make possible the autonomous operation of the An-70 aircraft on poorly equipped airfields without use of any special ground facilities. The aircraft maintenance is based on the "on-condition" strategy.

An-70 models include the basic An-70 military freighter, two crew An-70-100, export An-77 and commercial An-70T. The proposed An-70TK would be a twin propfan convertible passenger/freight aircraft. The high technical and operational potential of the An-70 aircraft allows to create on its basis an entire range of versions and modifications for military and civil use: AEW aircraft, flying command post, patrol aircraft, tanker and a family of the civil-aviation An-70T transports.