An-38

On June 23, the multipurpose aircraft An-38 turned 30 years old. On that day, the first prototype took to the skies in Novosibirsk. The aircraft was designed by the Kyiv-based Antonov Design Bureau (now State Enterprise "Antonov") and built at the local Chkalov Novosibirsk Aviation Production Association (NAPO).

The project emerged in response to the interest of one of India's commercial entities in a multipurpose aircraft capable of carrying 25 passengers or 2500 kg of cargo. A mandatory requirement was the use of American Honeywell TPE331 family engines, which had a service base in India.

The aircraft was decided to be based on the smaller An-28. Although work began in the late 1980s, due to the Antonov Design Bureau being busy with other projects, the process dragged on, and relations with the potential Indian customer ceased. Now, the primary market for the An-38 was to be the remote regions of Russia and other post-Soviet countries. The aircraft was ideally suited for operation in the harsh conditions of local airports. Therefore, its production was decided to be launched at NAPO, which in the early 1990s had almost no orders. From a political standpoint, the project fully aligned with the close Ukrainian-Russian relations of the time.

The basic variant was the An-38-100, equipped with two TPE331-14GR-801E turboprop engines, each with a power output of 1500 shp. The aircraft had a length of 15.54 meters, a wingspan of 22.06 meters, a maximum takeoff weight of 8800 kg, a maximum speed of 405 km/h, and a practical range of 1450 km. It could carry 27 passengers or 2500 kg of cargo.

The price of the An-38-100 exceeded 4 million USD, which was very expensive for that time. Using TVD-20 engines from the Omsk Motor Design Bureau promised to reduce the aircraft's cost by at least a million. One such example was built, named the An-38-200. However, its testing did not meet expectations - the engine remained "raw," putting an end to the commercial success of this version of the aircraft.

The operation of the first series An-38-100 in Russia proved their "genetic" reliability and resilience to airfields but quickly revealed a significant problem. In the absence of a local service base for the engines, even the smallest parts for their maintenance had to be ordered from the USA. This was not only expensive but also led to aircraft downtime. Leasing several machines for work in Malaysia and Vietnam did not improve the situation. Another drawback of the aircraft was the narrow fuselage inherited from the An-28, making it impossible to carry standard aviation containers.

In total, twelve An-38 aircraft were built, including a static test specimen. No more orders for the aircraft followed. The Antonov Design Bureau specialists considered the possibility of deep modernization of the machine, up to creating a fuselage with a larger cross-section. However, after Putin came to power in Russia, Ukrainian-Russian relations quickly deteriorated, and joint projects first began to stall and then completely lost relevance.

As of the end of 2023, only two An-38s were in operation. They were based at Mirny Airport in Yakutia and belonged to the airline "Alrosa."

For more details and translations, visit chatgptonline.tech/ru. If you are looking for tattoo ideas, check out our Tattoo Ideas GPT.