An-2 | The history of the eternal biplane

hello theater sky here and today we will get to know the most important creation of antonov of course the first thing that comes to mind when you hear this phrase is the unto 225 maria a giant in every way or the n124 yes ruslan is an eye-catcher but no the most important airplane of this design bureau is its first brainchild antonov created this plane and this plane created on donov let's fly the antonov on2 also known as cult annie or simply crop duster is a lightweight multi-role piston aircraft developed by the antone of design bureau in the late 1940s those times are long gone yet the anto is still being manufactured that makes up about 70 years in production more than any other plane in the world the first ideas for the creation of such an airplane came about as early as the 1930s already then there were airplanes with short takeoff and landing capabilities but they were too light and could not take part in serious transport missions the main mastermind behind the idea of a universal aircraft with short takeoff and landing was alek antonov he wanted to create a single engine biplane however the world war ii was in full swing and the light civilian aircraft was not in the list of priorities for the aviators but the idea was not forgotten by the end of the war when the focus shifted towards the economic rebirth the plane was back in the game however there was no triumphant comeback the can do it all plane or vis dilot as it was called back then did not find a great deal of popularity within the aviation community you'd think that diane 2 seems outdated in the 21st century everything belongs in a museum we all do it seemed outdated already back then the industry was leaping into the jet era the world was ruled by the fast planes and here we had some folks suggesting to build a machine of practically the world war 1 era the plane was openly called archaic besides the aircraft did not feature any technical innovations it was not big nor fast nor high flying it had nothing interesting to offer neither from the political nor technical standpoint but the plane was needed with all due respect fighters and bombers were not efficient in civil economics the yakovlov design bureau where antonov was working didn't want to create this plane as it was not their specialty but the director of the yakovlev bureau still gave him a chance to proceed with the work independently on may 31 1946 came the order to start the development of a light aircraft and another order required the formation of the construction bureau number 153 in navosibirsk in fact this day is considered to be the birthday of the antonov bureau and is being celebrated to this day back then there were barely 20 staff members some jacobif engineers that were transferred here some local factory workers and several university graduates the development work started and it was quite complicated there was a constant lack of equipment parts and other resources while the requirements for configuration were changing all the time by 1947 the full-scale model was built and antonov started presenting the airplane as a flying version of the paluterka truck a very simple robust and popular transport of the time in summer 1947 a full-grown prototype called eskha1 was ready it made its first test flight on august 31st at that time the aviators did not make up their minds in regards to the engine so during the test of the aircraft they were swapping the asha 21 and asha 62 ir engines only after the whole test cycle was completed they opted for the 62. the strong points of the airplane were becoming obvious right from the first flights it was not big or speedy but it was very easy to pilot and could easily carry out the maneuvers that were considered extremely dangerous for most planes at first it even seemed that the escha-1 did not fear the spin stall flight speed was also an area of strength the prototype could be controlled even at speeds as low as 27 knots or 50 kilometers per hour it had a cruise speed of 100 knots and a maximum speed of 160 knots or 260 kilometers per hour despite the success of test flights there were serious problems with manufacturing at first it was not even clear where this plane would be produced the novosibirsk plant was overloaded with orders and it did not have time for agricultural biplanes this is when the support of nikita khrushchev came in handy in 1948 the airplane was brought to the airfield in the outskirts of kiev soviet ukraine the demonstration of the aircraft made a big impression on that times leader of the republic thanks to his intense lobbying it was decided to establish the production in ukraine this is when the airplane received for the first time its official name antonov 2 or unto during the first few years it was necessary to establish a proper relationship between the design bureau and the plant the solution was obvious to transfer the entire anton of design bureau to kiev it was beneficial for the designers since the plant could provide them with all the necessary resources it was beneficial for the plant since the presence of the designers would speed up the solution of any issue besides it was also very beneficial for the authorities of ukraine which really wanted to have an aviation design bureau of their own it was a big deal in terms of prestige saying that the key of aviation plant was a factory is a bit of an overstatement for what in reality was a small installation whose main purpose would be maintenance and repairs therefore the modernization of the plant and production preparations were long and complicated the manufacturing started in 1950 but was frozen for several years due to the need of delivering a batch of military aircraft finally 1953 saw the beginning of mass production of beyond 2. over the 10 years that followed the kia aviation plant delivered 3164 planes almost instantly this plane became a hit and its production was started on several additional plants as well in 1956 china started licensed production of the antu there it was manufactured in the nan chang city under the name feng shu 2 and in the 1970 it was joined by the yun 5 produced in the city of xinjiang where it is still manufactured in small series since 1959 the untwo was also assembled by the pzl aviation plant in the polish city of mellits interestingly this plant had the longest production run in 2002 it delivered its last on two making up a total of 11 915 units which constitute the majority of the entire onto fleet in 1966 the production of antu also started at a plant in the outskirts of moscow let's take a closer look at annie the antonov on2 is a single engine biplane on paper it is considered to be a small plane belonging to the light aviation but when you see it in real life you realize that it is actually quite big its maximum takeoff weight reaches five and a half tons or almost 12 000 pounds you can take on board up to 12 passengers or one and a half tons of cargo this is why the m2 ended up somewhere in the middle compared to the heavy aircraft it is obviously a small biplane but in the light general aviation it is a buff contestant in the late 1940s after the world war the general aviation could not expect more than a network of shabby unpaved airfields an uncertain number of maintenance personnel and pilots with uncertain level of skills precisely these conditions were in the minds of a ton of designers when creating the young 2. it had to be an airplane capable of operating anywhere being maintained and piloted by anyone and this is what it became unto is a classical biplane with a full metal fuselage and structural elements most of its surfaces are made of fabric especially the wings and empinace why the operational conditions are harsh and there is barely anyone to maintain the plane fabric structures make technical inspection and almost any kind of repairs easier most of the wing damages scuffs or chairs can be repaired on the spot with some garage tools and skills for that matter often times there was not much more than that besides this design is lighter than metal maintenance simplicity of the untwo is very important all of the elements and systems are as accessible as possible they can be found behind tons of service hatches that can be opened by a simple screwdriver in a minute the airplane is simplified to the limit the less mechanisms there are the less things can break and if something does go wrong the repairs are quite easy without the need for special equipment or skills if the kalashnikov rifle was an airplane it would be the on2 next we have the wing or better set wings the untwo is a short takeoff and landing plane which was yet another important demand of the time just remember how beat up with the airfields and if that was not enough they were short as well in order to make it possible for quite a sizable aircraft to operate from those airfields a biplane configuration was used after all two wings mean more lift force and lower speed which makes it easier to take off and land to pump up the performance even more both wings were fitted with quite a hefty mechanization flaps put as many flaps as we can all over the place but you still need to control the aircraft in the air so you also get ailerons here which can also function as flaps such design was quite logical and apart from the light planes it can also be seen in naval aviation they have a similar problem on the aircraft carriers with the only difference being that the un2 has an extremely simple and cheap airfield while an fa18 operates on an extremely complex and expensive airfield if all those high lift devices were not enough the antu also features some slats on the upper wing interestingly they are not controlled they move by themselves under the pressure of the incoming air on certain angles of attack all these elements allow the pilot to do almost anything precisely this is the reason why the antw is still being used to teach new pilots crashing it would take quite an effort and for takeoff and landing it only needs a couple of hundred meters or even less let's take a look at the main element that connects the plane to the airfield the runway is short unpaved and bumpy to make it work in such conditions the airplane was fitted with a tricycle landing gear two wheels at the front and the turning wheel at the back just like in the olden times the main gear is incredibly powerful and is meant precisely for such inelegant strips the rather large wheels have reinforced brakes and in order to absorb the impact the landing gear features quite massive shock struts now let's take a look at the most loved and at the same time the most hated part of the airplane which is the most important one for any aircraft the burning heart of the un2 is the 30 liters 9 cylinder radial asha 62 ir engine that makes 1000 horsepower just like the plane itself this engine is extremely simple easy to repair and maintain and its operational conditions are quite varied from extreme heat to such cold weather that almost any other plane will just stare on the ground waiting for the summer to come one funny bonus of such a big engine it has so much oil inside that in order to avoid malfunctions it is better to rotate the mechanism before starting it the power plant is fitted with a 4 blade variable pitch propeller that allows to regulate the thrust and maintain the flight speed without changing the engine throttle the engineers boren might the risk of an almost complete absence of airfield equipment hence the antu either does not require such equipment or carries it around for instance the plane has its own fuel pump thanks to this pump all it requires from the ground crew is to bring a barrel of fuel and a hose the antu can refuel itself one of the downsides of such an undemanding yet quite primitive design is the great appetite of the power plant which apart from the fuel consumes a lot of oil and spare parts this can be frustrating at times flying down 2 is the perfect example of a love-hate relationship a vast number of awesome advantages and infuriating flaws are puzzling is annie a bright love without which there is no happiness or a vicious life-sucking monster from which there's no escape the cockpit is meant for two pilots and has some interesting features nowadays it is quite a patchy control panel where analog instruments sit side by side with the modern navigation displays the cockpit is somewhat elevated in comparison to the cabin which is quite an obvious technical solution since we have the engine taking up the entire front part but you still need to see where you're flying visual control is of utmost importance for such an airplane so the cockpit also received an intricate glazing with a transparent roof and dome-shaped sides which allow to see what's below and behind most of the communication and control equipment is of course found in the cockpit but in the aft section behind the cabin there is another small compartment with the remaining part of the onboard equipment yet again you can reach all the instruments by simply opening the door when it came out the untwo became a huge success as a matter of fact it holds the guinness record for being the plane with the longest production run more than 70 years with over 18 000 planes of different modifications manufactured overall there are about two dozen of its versions including passenger and paramedic planes firefighters cargo and different research planes and even ground effect vehicles obviously the chinese and polish models also had versions of their own the aircraft is quite popular in the former soviet republics and in some countries of asia it also flies in private fleets all over the world being the largest biplane with excellent performance it is not surprising that it can even be found in the us canada and europe in spite of its popularity this airplane was created in 1947 so well it got obsolete however it got obsolete not conceptually but technically many of its systems especially the engine are not in line with the modern economic and noise requirements this is why the aviators from different countries keep trying to improve it there were lots of modernizations with varying success among the most promising attempts was the creation of the on-3 plane the main upgrade of the new aircraft was the replacement of the prop engine with a 1 375 horsepower tvd-20 turbo prop these were built based on the already existing airplanes that were halfway through their life cycle however their pretty high cost did not allow the local operators to order a massive modernization only a total of 25 aircraft were delivered but the idea of fitting it with a turboprop engine was not forgotten with this project the antonov aircraft company developed a new version the un2-100 powered to the motor siege ms-14 turboprop engine which gives out 1500 horsepower but yet again the current status of the project is unclear and its future is clouded meanwhile the aviators at the novosibirsk plant precisely the one that stood at the origins of the project in the 1940s created the an2ms or the tvs2ms the designers suggested to update the aircraft with the honeywell tpe 331-12 engine that reaches 1100 horsepower thanks to the new engine and the replacement of some elements with their composite counterparts the plane got lighter and its flight performance improved the next step for the aviators was to create a technology demonstrator based on the on2 the tvs2dts airplane it made its maintenance flight in summer 2017 and was first presented to the public at the max 2017 airshow the plane is fitted with the same honeywell engine but its design has been considerably revised the plane got a composite airframe and a new onboard equipment essentially it is a completely new aircraft the only thing that's left here from the original on2 is the overall configuration this new airplane is quite interesting but its prospects are also unclear for now the unto is without a doubt a legendary aircraft which is beloved by aviators all over the world its time is coming to an end but let's be honest its creators would not even imagine that their brainchild would remain popular even in the 21st century this is it for today make sure to like the video and subscribe to the channel fast flights and soft landings to you you

Channel: Skyships Eng

Views: 330,899

Keywords: an-2, an-2 takeoff, an-2 cockpit, an-2 biplane, soviet plane, soviet an-2, antonov design bureau, antonov biplane, an-2 usa, an-2 russia, biplane

Id: yvL-QWBlIoY

Length: 18min 0sec (1080 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 17 2020