Antonov An-124 Ruslan
The Antonov An-124 Ruslan ( NATO reporting name: Condor ) was conceived in the late 1970s by the Antonov works as a large transport aircraft for the Soviet Army in the USSR. The aim of the development was a plane with a very high payload. Today it is used among other things for charter cargo air traffic and is very successful in this segment due to its monopoly position.
History
In the development phase of the type was first called An- 40 and An -400. In its first flight on December 26, 1982, she was with a maximum takeoff weight of over 400 tons, the largest aircraft in the world, triggering its western counterpart - the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy - from. The An-124 was presented on 28 May 1985 at the Paris Aérosalon for the first time in the West. Compared with the similar military Lockheed C-5 has a shorter fuselage, a lower empty weight, but a higher payload. After the collapse of the USSR and the associated reduction of the army some An-124 Ruslan were sold to the private sector. Most machines are now used for global cargo transportation on charter flights. The largest civilian operators are: Volga -Dnepr Airlines ( Russia), Antonov Airlines ( Ukraine) and Polet (Russia). Overall, mid-2004 of 56 copies built yet 49 of the Antonov An-124 in operation. To date, four machines were lost in crashes.
Series production ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. From 2000, the five specimens had been their production begun yet in Soviet times, but not completed, finished. These machines were delivered as on - 124-100 between 2001 and 2004 (2001 and 2002: one copy, 2004: three copies).
Several times since then has been discussed a resumption of production. Subject of the plans is a new version called An-124 -100M -150, which can carry a higher by 30 t payload to a greater range and a more modern equipment ( engines, avionics, etc.) should receive. With this modernization, the crew needed to be reduced from five to three people. Some of the upgrades should be able to be retrofitted to existing An-124. Production is scheduled to take place in Ulyanovsk, Russia. Originally to be built as early as 2007 or 2008, another An-124, however there were disputes between Russia and Ukraine on the production site. Although Antonov is a Ukrainian company, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia is the legal successor of the Soviet Union that the re- production of the An-124 was originally developed with Soviet agents would have to take place in Russia.
At the Moscow air show MAKS 2009, the Russian Defense Ministry announced a resumption of the production of large-capacity transporter Antonov 124 Ruslan to try. In particular, the largest civilian -124 operators Volga -Dnepr Airlines is committed to the production recovery and expressed an interest in the delivery of 20 new An-124 in the years 2011 to 2020. Having these plans but did not come forward, gave Volga -Dnepr Airlines known that you would be interested in a picture of the an-124 production in the factory maintenance facility in Leipzig, since the resumption of production at Ulyanovsk seems unlikely.
Description
Behind the cockpit is a large living and sleeping area for the exchange of occupation. Furthermore, a range for the cargo space crew or for up to 88 people is set up behind the wings on the upper deck yet. The cargo hold is not performed as a pressurized cabin and can therefore not be entered during the flight. The loading can be carried out both on the swing- nose section, as well as on the rear ramp in the full load space cross-section. The An-124 can operate on the basis of their interpretation as a shoulder wing and because of the robust chassis also unprepared slopes and hard- frozen snow. The aircraft does not have a device for in-flight refueling. A particular advantage of the An-124 as a civilian freighter is the possibility of very simple loading and unloading even at airports with poor infrastructure on the ground. This is possible because the bug open hydraulically and can be lowered by retracting the nose gear, so it can be loaded on a flat ramp directly without any infrastructure from the ground. To accommodate this additional load, it has a double nose wheel. Vehicles such as car or truck can drive directly from the floor in the cargo area. A comparable on the maximum payload and size to Boeing 747- 400ERFs however, can be loaded and unloaded only by special lifts, since the load space floor is several feet above the ground.
A further development of the An-124 is the even larger six-rayed An-225 Mrija, which has a much longer cargo space with identical cargo space cross section. You can piggyback transport as an external load, the space shuttle Buran.
Solid customer
Since 23 March 2006, the NATO and the EU are in SALIS program (Strategic Airlift Interim Solution) An-124 available to close six of the company Ruslan SALIS GmbH leased among others, the gap until the late delivery of the Airbus A400M. Meanwhile, all six transport planes at Leipzig / Halle Airport are stationed where there is also the maintenance base of Ruslan SALIS. The largest user is Germany; further even Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden are involved.
Boeing also uses after the introduction of 747LCF partially -124 Volga -Dnepr Airlines to transport the GE90 engines for the Boeing 777
EADS uses machines of Polet Airlines conveying components of the Space Division. We also sell ready components for the Airbus A380, in particular the engine variant, the Engine Alliance GP7200 -124 were transported.
By 2012, all An-124 reported from a passenger aircraft compared to relatively low operating time 14000-24000 flight hours. It was decided to increase the initially planned service life of 24,000 flight hours gradually to 50,000 hours.