 Antonov's Heavy Transports
The An-22, An-124/225, and An-70
Red Star Volume 18
By Yefim Gordon and Dmitriy and Sergey Komissarov
Midland Publishing, ©2004
ISBN 1-85780-182-2
Softbound, 128 Pages
Available from Specialty Press for $34.95
The latest title in the Red Star series tackles a big subject, that
of Antonov's large transports. Antonov has a long history with producing
cargo aircraft, with an earlier Red Star title covering the small Antonov
turboprop twins, the An-24/26/30/32 series. Moving up a bit in size,
the An-12 was the Soviet equivalent to the US C-130 and this plane still
soldiers on in both military and civilian guises. Antonov did not stop
there, though, and the real biggies are what this book covers: the An-22
Antheus, An-124 Ruslan, and the An-225 Mriya. It also covers the new
An-70, the propfan hopeful of Antonov.
As the book takes a chronological approach, the first plane covered
is the impressively huge An-22. The An-22 came from a need to transport
ICBMs. The plan was to have an integrated system that would use the An-22
to carry the missiles as close as possible to the launch site, and have
helicopters carry them the rest of the way. As these missiles were quite
large, the resultant An-22 design likewise had to be very large, which
brought with it a whole new range of engineering difficulties. The Antonov
design bureau stepped up to the task, though, and in February 1965, the
An-22 spun up its turboprop engines and took to the air.
The text does a great job of presenting the development and construction
of the An-22, with plenty of photos to go along with it. The photos of
the wind tunnel model are particularly impressive, as it was the size
of a fighter aircraft. The operational record of the An-22 is also covered,
putting this large plane in perspective. One of the most impressive photos
of this plane is a shot of an Su-27 fuselage being rolled up the back
ramp. This is one big airplane!
The launching of the Lockheed C-5, however, made the An-22 obsolete,
and the designers at Antonov returned to the drawing board to develop
a jet transport. The result from this was the An-124, an innovative design
that incorporated many new concepts, the biggest being a supercritical
wing. Similarities to the C-5 included a high wing with four engines,
a rear ramp, and a nose that swung upward, allowing for drive-on, drive-off
capabilities. The first An-124 took to the air on December 24, 1982,
and it soon found its way into military service. After the fall of the
Soviet Union in 1991, the An-124 became the premier civilian heavy lift
aircraft, with several Russian and Ukrainian companies operating them.
A new aspect of the Cold War led to the ultimate in Soviet large transports.
The development of the Space Shuttle in the US pushed the Soviet space
program into developing their own reusable space transport. An ineffective
transport system to the Baikonur Space Center, though, resulted in Antonov
designing a new transport capable of airlifting the Buran space shuttle
to the launch site. This behemoth was not a modification of the An-124,
as that plane did not exist yet when the An-225 design began. Much of
the information from that program was useful for the An-225, though,
and by 1988, the An-225 was ready for its first flight, which it did
on December 21.
Both the An-124 and An-225 are very well covered in photos, most likely
due to the fact that both of these aircraft make repeated visits to Western
Europe and the United States. The book presents both color and black
and white photos, including a few shots of a group of men pulling the
An-225 by hand. Needless to say, these were not small men. The final
section covers the An-70, the promising propfan cargo aircraft that is
slated to replace the ageing An-12 transports. Like the other aircraft,
this one is well covered and is probably the best collection of information
and photos of this new cargo aircraft.
This is a great addition to the Red Star series and an essential reference
for those attempting to build the Amodel 1/72 An-22. With Revell-Germany
coming out with a 1/144 An-124, this book becomes even more useful. My
thanks to Specialty Press for the review sample.
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