Moscow – The Kyiv-based Antonov State Enterprise is designing a new aircraft on the basis of the An-158 passenger jet, President and Chief Designer of Antonov State Enterprise Dmytro Kiva has told Interfax-AVN.
“Our new program in the development of the An-148 family of aircraft is the creation of the An-178 cargo aircraft on the basis of elements of An-158. The plane’s carrying capacity is 18 tonnes. We’ve started designing it,” Kiva said.
He said that the company has analyzed the transport aircraft market.
“We see that there is a vacant segment of aircraft with a larger carrying capacity than our An-74 and Italy’s C-27 have, and less than the U.S. C-130 aircraft has. The segment is vacant. We want to occupy it with the An-178. We see that the aircraft of this class are in great demand,” the designer said.
He said that apart from carrying 18 tonnes of cargo, the military version of the An-178 will be able to carry 99 fully equipped soldiers.
“It could be used, for example, to carry injured persons or parachutists. It’s very important that the An-178 will be able to carry sea containers and certain types of machinery,” Kiva said.
He said that comparing the An-178 and An-12, we could see that the cargo compartment of the new aircraft is larger.
“However, it is airtight, unlike the compartment of the An-12. The fuel efficiency of the An-178 jet is better than the fuel efficiency of the An-12 with a turbo-prop engine. The An-178 will be integrated as much as possible. We’ll take the wing from the An-158, as well as the tail assembly. We have the engine and its thrust will be increased only for emergency situations. Only the fuselage behind the control cabin will be expanded and the centre-section will be increased. The aircraft looks good. We want to fly it in 2014,” Kiva said.
