AN-3 multipurpose airplane turned 45 years old

On May 13, the AN-3 multipurpose airplane turned 45 years old. On that day, the first prototype of the airplane took off at the airfield of the Kyiv Mechanical Plant (now Antonov JSC) flight test base in Hostomel near Kyiv.

General Designer Oleg Antonov always had a special attitude to the firstborn of his design bureau, the AN-2, and its improvement has never actually stopped. This legendary machine had a very wide range of applications, although it was created as a specialized agricultural aircraft. The need to replace this particular variant with a more modern one with a gas turbine engine became urgent in the mid-1960s. However, it took almost a decade and a half before the USSR had the engine needed for this purpose.

The AN-3 prototype was converted from a production AN-2 right in Gostomel. The airplane was equipped with a TVD-20 prototype turboprop engine developed by the Omsk-based Design Bureau 29. The nose of the aircraft was modified for it. In addition, an insert with an additional door on the port side was made in the fuselage. The pilot's working conditions were significantly improved. It was intended to use modern agricultural equipment.

Serial production of the TVD-20 was never launched until the end of the USSR's existence. This had extremely negative consequences for the AN-3. Its tests remained incomplete for a very long time, there was a question of replacing the powerplant, and in the early 90s the program was actually frozen.

A few years later, it was resuscitated. However, by that time, interest in a specialized agricultural airplane had disappeared, and there was still a need for a multipurpose machine. This variant was named the AN-3T, whose certification tests were completed in August 2000.

The serial conversion of the AN-2 into the AN-3 was launched at the Omsk PA “Flight”. The airplane was equipped with a TVD-20 engine with a capacity of 1350 hp, the small-scale production of which was also established in Omsk at the Baranov Aircraft Manufacturing Plant. The AN-3 had a length of 14 m, an upper wing span of 18.18 m, a maximum takeoff weight of 5800 kg, a maximum commercial load of 1800 kg, a maximum speed of 255 km/h, and a range of 1230 km.

However, the TVD-20 remained a rather problematic engine. In addition, the AN-3 proved to be a very expensive airplane for poor airlines operating on local airlines. As a result, the airplane did not become a mass-produced aircraft, with a total of 25 copies being converted.