Russia’s aging Antonov An-2 biplanes may get a new lease on life thanks to trials of the plane fitted with a modern U.S.-made turboprop engine by a Siberian research institute.
The Cheplyagin Aeronautical Research Institute in Novosibirsk fitted a Honeywell TPE-331 turboprop and a Hartzell five-bladed propeller to the An-2 and has since flown it “for around 40 hours,” says the institute’s Director Vladimir Barsuk.
“The idea of re-engining the aircraft was ours, and we put together a group of specialists to do it,” he said.
The new turboprop engine will weigh less, cause less drag, require less maintenance, and use cheaper kerosene jet fuel.
Trials with the new engine showed the aircraft has better take-off performance and more stable handling, the institute says.
“We are going to fly the aircraft at the Gelendzhik Air Show in September,” Barsuk says.
The An-2 first flew as long ago as 1947 and hundreds are still flying in Russia and abroad, powered by the same nine-cylinder radial engine and four-blade propeller as was used in the initial design.
The An-2 is the most widely produced aircraft in history (over 20,000 built). The aircraft is still used for numerous roles including crop-dusting, parachute trainer, light transport, local passenger transport and military roles.
Russia has a chronic need for a new generation of small regional aircraft to service remote communities in areas with poor road and rail links. Regional aviation has fallen into steep decline since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
Earlier this month, Deputy Trade and Industry Minister Yury Slyusar said modifying the An-2 with a new engine, avionics and airframe life extension “is a more or less economical and the quickest way to meeting the existing demand” for a new light utility aircraft for Russia’s regional air companies.