Posted on 03/17/2018 3:03:20 AM PDT by BBell
The Norks know that any use of the an 2 will be a one way most likely suicide mission but has that ever stopped them before? They are counting that a few will get through to deliver special forces units. Swarm tactics.
BTW, the CIA shot a North Vietnamese AN 2 down in 68. They shot it down with a guy hanging out the door of a UH 1 huey. He used an AK 47.
Here is some North Korean propaganda using the AN 2. Shot in 2017. Fat boy is watching.
Decades-old AN-2 described by U.S. media as N. Korea's most dangerous weapons
I was surprised when I looked - there are a wealth of Utoob vids on the aircraft. The ones that strike me are where the A/C is dirty, with a streak of soot down the side landing on the dirt (ono or or airstrip) and dropping cargo.
During 2013, Antonov announced that it had successfully flown for the first time a new version of the An-2, dubbed the An-2-100, which was fitted with a 3-blade reversible propeller and a 1500 shp Motor Sich MS-14 turboprop running on kerosene rather than Avgas, which is no longer produced in CIS countries.
That same year, the company stated that it had received orders for upgrading “hundreds” of the An-2 planes still in operation in Azerbaijan, Cuba and Russia to the An-2-100 upgrade version.
The Siberian Research Institute of Aviation (SIBNIA) has test flown a highly modified Antonov An-2 with carbonfibre winglet-like braces and carbonfibre wing structures. It was equipped with a five-bladed turboprop engine, most probably the Honeywell TPE331 already installed on a modernized version of the An-2 that entered service in 2014.
According to Russian aviation company Sukhoi, this aircraft was built to demonstrate the aerodynamic and structural changes that were planned for an eventual An-2 replacement announced on 10 June 2015. The autoclave-cured carbonfibre composite materials – including wing panels, spars and ribs – were produced by the Novosibirsk Aviation Plant.
Sukhoi says the design change improved the speed of the An-2 by 50%, and testing also has shown the minimum flying speed of the aircraft is “close to zero”.
There is an AN-2 based at the airport here in Anchorage, you can see it in the summer hauling ash and trash to remote fishing camps. I spend some time living and working in the old SOVIET - in the Komi Republic near the Arctic Circle.
From that experience I came to appreciate the absolute conditions these aircraft - and other old Soviet designed machines were made to work in. Other touches - like the self-deploying forward flaps show the engineers working to reduce the pilot load for takeoff and landing.
You are correct - it is a cool airplane
Have you ever watched "Ice Pilots"? I watched all the episodes available on netflix. I loved the show mainly because of all the WWII planes. In one of the episodes they have to hoard stores of av gas because it is getting low. They worry about how they will have to retire their av gas planes when they can no longer get it. Nothing like changing a rear tire on a plane when it's -30 and "extremely" breezy.
BTW, the Soviets had another winner with the MI 17 helicopter. Awesome helo and used everywhere in the world.
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