Antonov An-70

Skyblazer said:
True, although I think they narrowed down their production to civilian transports over the past two decades, didn't they? I believe the Il-76 is no longer produced and the few specialized variants are undertaken by Beriev and others. There may be military variants of the Il-86/-96 still in production but I must admit I'm not that familiar with that company (which I have always considered pretty boring!).

Ahem, Il-76MD-90.
 
fightingirish said:
Ukraine has approved Anotnov’s An-70 into serial production and will induct it into service with its armed forces. IMHO low rate serial production due to the crises in Eastern Ukraine and its economy.


Source:
http://www.antonov.com/news/359


Sadly, I don't see this happening, for a variety of reasons.


Isn't there a substantial proportion of Russian components in the aircraft?
Even if there wasn't Ukraine simply can't afford it.


I wonder if this is simply the prototype inducted into the airforce as a public relations exercise?


I hope I'm wrong, but don't think so, unfortunately....
 
According to Air International, March 2015, the An-70 has been certified by
the Ukraine MoD. Only one prototype is flying in the moment. Two more
are under construction, but if they will ever be finished is unclear still yet,
at least it may take quite a while due to lack of funding.
 
Due to A400M crash, Antonov is proposing a western version of the An-70, named this time 'An-188'.


In addition, Dmitry Kiva announced early in October 2014 the development of an An-70 derivative - the An-188 upgraded medium short takeoff and landing airlifter with a lifting capacity of 40 t feauturing Ukrainian and Western avionics and aircraft systems. According to the Antonov president, the An-188 is expected to fill in the niche between the US-made C-130J-30 medium airlifter and C-17A heavylifter and will feature a number of important advantages over its rival, the European Airbus Military A400M. For instance, hauling 20-tonne cargo and operating from 915-m-long airfields, the An-188 will surpass the A400M in range by 40% and be able to carry the A400M's maximum payload (37 t) at a distance measuring 11% more than that the A400M is capable of.



Sources:
http://en.take-off.ru/news/108-nov2012/921-antonov-kicks-off-first-an-178-assembly
http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article142543099/Warum-die-Bundeswehr-auch-Antonov-fliegen-koennte.html
 
Key Points
  • Antonov have revealed plans to create the An-188, a four turbofan engine powered variant of the An-70
  • The company is also planning an alternative variant of its An-178, the An-178-111, featuring western avionics and engines for export


Source: http://www.janes.com/article/52287/paris-air-show-2015-antonov-reveals-an-188-strategic-transport-aircraft
 

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Hi,


here is the Antonov An-70 variants,please note the twin engined version;


http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,4870.msg38558.html#msg38558


Kryl'ya Rodine 9-10/2014
 

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Mere curiosity, but has an ASCC (NATO) reporting name been assigned to the An-70 and if not, why not?

Chris
 
No, it seems no ASCC codename has ever been assigned to the An-70.

As to why, perhaps it was because it was only a prototype when the USSR fell and with the dragged out development and unlikely chance of it entering Russian service it was never thought worthwhile to assign one? I guess now its a Ukrainian programme it wouldn't qualify now anyway?
 
An-188 model at FIA18.
Tim Robinson said:
An-188 military transport from Antonov, with An-70s propfans swapped for turbofans. #fia18 #Avgeek
Twitter: https://t.co/rYAE2clUZr
 
Wow, so it took them the best part of 25 years anda couple of serious crashes to find that the turboprops and propellers are NOT working well ? :eek:
 
Only one An-70 incident had something to do with the propfan.
 
A model of the An-188 project at the Antonov stand (see reply #49 in this thread).

The An-188 was announced at Paris Air Show in 2015, a turbofan-powered version of the An-70. The An-188 proposal replaces the propfan approach with 4 x Progress D436FM turbofan engines .

The Turkish Under-secretary for Defense Industries and Ukrainian Antonov company entered a co-operative agreement to jointly produce the An-188 aircraft, during the Eurasia Airshow held in Turkey in April 2018.

The model I photographed at Farnborough may be the same one exhibited at the Eurasia Airshow.

The An-188 has a wingspan of around 44 m, length of 41 m and height of 16 m.

Source: Antonov News July 2018 (5 [117])

More details can be found at https://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/antonov-188-military-transport-aircraft/
 

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Wow,amazing Model,thank you my dear Cy-27.
 

Even though there is much that Turkey and Ukraine could accomplish if they combine forces, the AN-70 project is dead along with any potential variants. Now that the Chinese Y-20 has been re-engined with the definitive powerplants, the proposed AN-188 would not fare well on the export market. The big reason why Antonov transports operated all over the world after the fall of the USSR is because they were all second hand models sold cheaply as surplus. Not to mention there was an abundance of inexpensive spare parts and trained personnel to help companies with little experience operating Soviet aircraft. Most operators today can't afford new build Russian or Ukrainian transports. Look at how poorly the Ilyushin IL-76MD-90A has fared on the export market. I think Antonov has to realize that their future lies in their commercial freight operations as well as supporting the existing fleet of ex Soviet aircraft still in service worldwide, not in building new transports.

 
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I dunno... the Il-76MD-90A fared poorly because it is basically an obsolete design that yet incurs most of the cost of a clean-sheet effort, making for a poor price/performance ratio. I think Ilyushin tried to take a leaf out of the C-130J book, but ignored the elementary flaw that unlike the Hercules' monopoly until very recently (KC-390), the Il-76 faced stiff competition from the get-go. Its market niche was squeezed from above and below by the C-17 as well as C-2A and A400M, while also directly contested by the Y-20 and potentially An-70. As an engine and avionics upgrade for used airframes it might have been attractive, but burdened with the expense of establishing a new assembly line and structural upgrades of dubious customer value, it became a dud.

At least the An-188 would take advantage of recent advances in aerodynamics and offer a competitive hold cross section, giving the end user quite a bit more bang for his buck. So it would face the same competition and be late to the party, but it is fundamentally better equipped to take on the challenge. There's also the question of whether China is prepared to divert production capacity for exports from satisfying pent up domestic demand, although by the time the An-188 takes off that might have changed.
 

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