10 years of the AN-178 transport airplane

On May 7, the AN-178 transport airplane turned 10 years old. On that day in 2015, the first production model took off from Kyiv's Sviatoshyn airfield.

The corporate publication An-Novosti, which was published shortly before the event, reported: "The decision to launch the AN-178 program was made on the basis of the global market needs assessment. The development of the AN-178 took into account both the requirements of commercial airlines and the needs of military aircraft operators, including the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. As a result, the priority task in its development was to replace the AN-12 medium four-engine turboprop transport aircraft at a higher technical level...". In addition, the AN-178 was positioned as an alternative to the outdated European C-160 “transporter”. Also, An-Novosti noted that the aircraft, created in accordance with the latest technologies, was a development of the An-148 and An-158 family of regional airliners.

The AN-178 is equipped with two D-436-148FM turbofan engines with a thrust of 7880 kgf each. They were developed by the team of the Zaporizhzhia Ivchenko-Progress Design Bureau, and the serial production was also launched in Zaporizhzhia at Motor Sich JSC. The aircraft has a length of 32.23 m, a wingspan of 30.6 m, a maximum takeoff weight of 51 tons, a cruising speed of 825 km/h, and can cover 4000 km with a 5 ton load and 1000 km with a maximum load of 18 tons.

In addition to foreign customers, the Ministry of Defense and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine have expressed interest in purchasing the AN-178. Preparations for serial production began. However, in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the issue of replacing components of Russian origin became acute. Thus, in 2016, Roman Romanov, Director General of Ukroboronprom, reported that 78% of the AN-178 components have already been ordered in Ukraine, and 22% - abroad, except for Russia.

The tests of the first AN-178 were interrupted and its modernization was started in accordance with the requirements of the time. More than 30 domestic companies took part in the program, producing 177 components. In particular, Antonov, Kyiv-based NTK Ekran, Kharkiv Aggregate Design Bureau, and FED JSC developed and implemented a modern electronic control system for the aircraft.

The updated machine is called the AN-178-100P. It was rolled out of the assembly shop on December 28, 2021. Given the high affinity with the An-148/-158, it was expected that certification tests would not be delayed. However, two months later, Russia's large-scale aggression against Ukraine began, and all plans went awry. Although the only AN-178 was delivered to Poland, its tests remain incomplete.