Antonov An-22 | "ANTEI" | The Largest Turboprop Powered Aircraft in the World

The AN-22 is the biggest turboprop aircraft globally and the first wide-body aircraft in the world. The AN-22 still holds a Guinness World Record with a max payload of 250 tons. It is the only wide-body freighter capable of operations at airports with unpaved runways or a remote airstrip. Welcome to Kings of Luxury. How big is Antonov AN-22? Why no plane can still rival the Soviet giant? Make sure to watch till the end to find out. The Antonov AN-22, dubbed Ante, is a heavy military transport aircraft created by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Powered by four turboprop engines, each having a pair of contra-rotating propellers, the design was the first wide-body transport aircraft and still holds the title of the world's largest turboprop-powered aircraft to date. The AN-22 first appeared to the crowd outside the Soviet Union at the 1965 Paris Air Show. After that, the model saw extensive use in major military and humanitarian airlifts for the Soviet Union and still operates in the Russian Air Force. The AN-22 airplane first touched the air on the 27th of February 1965. Due to high flight performance and the ability to operate from unpaved runways, the AN-22 found broad application in the USSR national economy for delivering large cargoes and equipment to remote and hard-to-reach areas. Enormous cargo capacity and range, engine fuel efficiency, and self-sufficiency ensured the high profitability of the operation. The AN-22 was serially constructed at the Tashkent Aviation Plant in Uzbekistan. A total of 66 airplanes were created from 1965 to 1976. Since 1980, ANTE had been used to transport large components to construct the AN-124 Ruslan and AN-225 Maria. Just imagine the sizes of those aircraft! The wing center section of the AN-124 Ruslan heavy transport airplane was manufactured at an aviation plant in Tashkent. It was mounted on the AN-22 fuselage to deliver the aggregate to Antonov company. The aggregate traveled on ANTE's back from Tashkent to Kiev, the place of AN-124 final assembly. Then the outer wing panel was transported in the same way. ANTE made more than 100 flights for delivering the wings for Ruslan airplanes in total. In 1987, the wing center section and outer wing panels for the AN-225 Maria, the world's largest super-heavy aircraft, were also transported. The AN-22 follows a traditional cargo transport design with a high-mounted wing allowing an ample cargo space of 33 meters in length and a usage volume of 639 meters cubed. The forward fuselage is wholly pressurized and provides space for 5 to 8 crew and up to 28 passengers. However, the cargo space is pressurized to only 3.55 psi or 0.245 bar allowing for a lighter airframe. A door equipped with a pressure bulkhead is located at frame 14 separating the cargo attendance booth from the main cargo compartment. This also means the rear cargo door can be opened on flights to deploy paratroopers and equipment. Like the AN-12, the aircraft holds a circular fuselage section. The AN-22 has set many payloads and payload-to-height world records. The AN-22 has an enlarged version of the earlier Antonov AN-12 except it is fitted with a twin tail. This provides the AN-22 with better engine outperformance and decreases hangar height restrictions. Also worth mentioning a large anti-flutter masses on the top of each tail. Prototypes like the one that was first featured at the 1965 Paris Air Show had wholly glazed noses that had no nose-mounted radar of production models. Those prototypes had the radar mounted below the right wheel well fairing forward of the wheels. Antonov created a variant with a modified electrical system and an additional augmented flight control system, the AN-22A, but the military did not use the designation. Looks wise, the AN-22 follows classic cargo aircraft designs with a high-mounted wing and opening rear door for loading and unloading. A proposed civil airliner version can seat 724 passengers on upper and lower decks, compared to a typical Boeing 747 can carry 400 to 500 passengers. The Antonov AN-22 has its own mainly made tow bar. Once the plane pushes back, the technicians put the tow bar in and close the door to depart. The fuselage of the AN-22 is around 4 meters high and 4 meters wide. The plane also carries its staircase for technicians to reach the engine during a stop. The advantage of flying the AN-22 is that you have all the tools and equipment inside the plane. Nothing additional is needed. This is very handy at a distant airfield where can be a lack of equipment. Two pilots in the front operate the Antonov AN-22 cockpit. A flight engineer operates on the engine throttle between the two pilots. A radio controller stays behind the captain. An additional flight engineer sits on the opposite side of the radio controller. Plus a navigator sits below the cockpit near the glass nose. The plane is powered by four Kuznetsov NK-12 engines, each driving a pair of contra-rotating propellers with their unique sound. According to the pilots, the AN-22 consumes around 6 tons of fuel per hour, much less than other jet engine cargo planes, making the AN-22 operation viable and economical. AN-22 can take off from austere, unpaved and short airstrips, allowing airborne troops to perform air landing missions. This is accomplished by four pairs of contra-rotating propellers. Similar can be found on the Tupolev TU-114. The propellers and exhaust from the engines create a slipstream over the wings and giant double-slotted flaps. The landing gear is ruggedized for rough airstrips. In the first versions, tire pressures could be adjusted in flight for optimum landing performance. That feature was removed in later models. To sum up, the aircraft can fly up to 8,000 meters. It has a maximum speed of 460 miles per hour with a rate of climb of 457 meters per minute. AN-22 boasts a travel range of 3,107 miles with a maximum payload of 60 tons and 6,801 miles with maximum fuel and 45 tons payload. The fuel tank capacity of the aircraft is 11,400 US gallons. It has a takeoff distance of 1,300 meters and a landing distance of 800 meters. Antonov AN-22 records Since entering service, the AN-22 has set 14 payloads to height records. The most impressive one was an airlift of metal blocks weighing 100 metric tons to an altitude of 7,848 meters. One of the AN-22's first missions was delivering humanitarian aid to Peru in July 1970 following the 7.2 magnitude Ancash earthquake. During the relief flights, one AN-22 mysteriously disappeared. The Soviet Air Force have used AN-22s to deliver military supplies to Egypt and Syria during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Angola in 1975 and Ethiopia in 1977. Today, six AN-22s are still in service with the 76th Military Transport Air Squadron at Tver, Russia. However, only three of these are airworthy. The Russian military plans to keep the three aircraft flying until 2033 after which time the turbofan-powered Antonov AN-124 will replace them. One Antonov AN-22 also operates in service with Antonov Airlines, a Ukrainian freight specialist transporting special cargo to all corners of the globe. Production of the Antonov AN-22 officially ended in 1975 with 66 aircraft have been delivered to the Soviet Air Force and state-owned Aeroflot in total. The latter also painted them to look like civilian airliners which allowed AN-22 freer overflight access and landing rights, unavailable to military aircraft. There is no way turboprop of this size will ever be built again and as the aircraft gets older, it is only a matter of time when they will be gone in the wind. So what do you think? For how long will AN-22 hold its records? Will we ever see air of its legacy? Let us know in the comment section. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe so you don't miss an upload and you can enjoy the excellent content we send your way.