„AEROPLANE LEGEND AN-2“ (Vol. 1) by Konstantin Udalov

[athpilot]

New Book „AEROPLANE LEGEND AN-2“ (Vol. 1) by Konstantin Udalov

[УДАЛОВ, КОНСТАНТИН Г.: САМОЛЕТ ЛЕГЕНДА АН-2; Авико Пресс, Moscow 2023, УДК. 629. 735. 33 (47+57); 228 pp.]

Well known russian aviation historian and author Konstantin Udalov continues the series of "legendary aircrafts" with the truly legendary Antonov An-2. The author states in his foreword: "The idea for the book "Aircraft Legend of the AN2" was nurtured for a very long time, just as the history of the unique AN2 aircraft itself lasts for a long time. Since the distant 1950s up to now the plane has been stirring the minds of designers, specialists and historians, dividing them into two irreconcilable camps." (p. 3)

The first volume includes chapters on the creation of the aircraft, its basic variants, international flights, gatherings of private An-2 owners in Europe, a large section for collectors and a brief technical description; diagrams from original documents and drawings are given for each variant.

The idea to create such machine as AN-2, i.e. multi-purpose plane of short take-off and landing with the carrying capacity of 1000-1500 kg for serving the hard-to-reach areas of the former soviet union and meeting the needs of agriculture was first put forward by 0. K. Antonov as early as October 1940 in Leningrad. There, the design team of plant No 23 under his supervision developed a conceptual design under the name "aircraft No 4". A study of the Fieseler Fi156 "Storch", the experience gained with two aircraft of this type powered by MB6 engines in 1940, and the appearance in 1940-1942 of a number of aircraft with improved take-off and landing characteristics showed that it was entirely possible to build an aircraft with a very short take-off and steep take-off trajectory, even with a good payload of about 1000 kg of payload.

The book offers a lot of in-depth information and first-hand facts. Not much more needs to be said about the famous An-2 as an aircraft. For me the many versions and small series of the An-2 were of particular interest. After the description of the difficulties in starting serial production, the focus is on the variants the An2-NAK (pp.62-70), An-2A (An-3) (pp. 70-75), An-2 on a multi-wheeled chassis (pp. 76-81), An-2W (An-4) (pp. 82-101), An-2P (pp. 102-107), An-2LP (pp. 108-115); An-23A (An-6) (116-133), An-2M (134-147), the An-2 as a flying laboratory called LALA-1 (pp. 148-155), An-2-100 (pp. 156-161) and finally the An-3T (pp. 162-169). One (of so many) interesting things on the An-2W - the hydroplane version - was, that its floats were inspired as well by the german Heinkel He-59 as by the american Catalyna (p. 81). The last chapters are devoted to the international users of the An-2, record flights and the famous "skyballett" and its artists. I hghly recommend this book to all who are interested in soviet/russian aviation. The book is well and deep written, with hundreds of photographs, drawings and 3d-art by A. Arkhipov. I´m looking forward to the next volume.

 

[philipp7]

Hello all,

I also had the opportunity again like athpilot to look into Konstantin Udalov's new book.

In this very detailed book with 228 pages Konstantin describes everything about the Antonov An-2.
He wrote about the history and how the Antonov An-2 was created, there are also information on all the different variants and modifications.

It is not a book with projects only, but everyone should have a look in it.
A special interest for me are all the different variants and modifications of this aircraft type.
Also today, research institutes in Russia think about further development of this type.
If you consider that the first flight of the An-2 was already in 1947 and people today still deal with variants and modifications is very interesting.
So for me the An-2 is a real legend!


Konstantin has once again pulled out everything there is on the An-2 from his archives. And we can look forward, this is the first part of the An-2 series. There will be 1 or 2 books more about the An-2. An important aspect in my opinion is that again a lot of original documents and drawings were used for the book.

I can highly recommend the book to aviation enthusiasts, as it gives a very good insight into the history and development of the Anotonv An-2.

I will wish all an intersting reading!

 

[gabrielorosco]

Hello to all!

Today I had the chance to get a copy of the newest book written by our friend Konstantin Udalov, known as Ucon here in the forum. This time his book is not about unbuilt projects, rather this, it is the first volume of two that describes in detail an aircraft that deserves a collection of its own: the Legendary Aircraft Antonov 2.

The book has 228 pages and is highly illustrated, an enormous collection of never seen before photos, drawings and documents that compose the incredible history of such an aircraft.

The book starts with the historical context of the aircraft development, the need to create a cheap, very versatile aircraft to help the integration of the large soviet territories. After the historical aspects, the book continues until its end with detailed descriptions of each variant of the Antonov 2, and it is here that resides the big surprise.

From glass fuselages to heavily armed versions, the book clearly prove that the brainchild of Mr. Oleg Antonov is an aircraft with 1.000 lives, capable of being adapted according to the needs of each mission. When reading the book I had the feeling that the secret behind the An-2 and many other of successful aircraft is simplicity, being possible to describe it using a maxim of the architecture: the form follows function.

The last part of the book focus in the modern adaptation and improvements currently under development by important aviation institutes, mainly SibNIA and TsAGI, meaning that this aircraft still has a lot of use in modern and future times. I highly recommend this book to aviation experts and enthusiasts, as it is unbelievable how much history is behind a very simple but effective aircraft.

I wish everyone one a nice reading!