LIGHT MULTIPURPOSE AIRPLANE
First flight 1947The AN-2 airplane, a firstling of the O.K. Antonov Design Bureau, got off the ground on August 31, 1947. The first flight was made by test pilot Pavel Volodin. Owing to high flight performance, structural reliability and wide transport capabilities, the AN-2 airplane has become an indispensable worker on regional airlines and in agriculture. The wing with powerful high-lift devices and landing gear with low-pressure tires enable to operate the airplane at small unpaved fields. The landing gear wheels can be replaced with skis or floats if necessary. From 1948 to 1963 the AN-2 airplane was serially manufactured at Kyiv Aviation Plant; 3,320 airplanes were manufactured. Since 1958, the АN-2 (Y-5) has been serially manufacturing in China. About 1,100 airplanes have been built in the PRC so far. From 1959 to 2002 the АN-2 and its derivatives were assembled at the WSK PZL-Mielec plant in Poland. A total of 11,915 airplanes have been manufactured. In 1966, production of АN-2М airplanes was started at the Dolgoprudnyi Engineering Plant, and 506 airplanes were manufactured until 1971. The АN-2 airplane is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as a biplane the most intensively manufactured after the end of the World War II. The airplane had dozens of modifications: the An-6 for high-altitude meteorological research, the AN-2F close range night reconnaissance and artillery observation airplane, the AN-4 floatplane version, the An-3 light multipurpose airplane powered with turboprop engines, the АN-2-100, etc. The AN-2 airplane is operated in more than 70 countries worldwide.
| Length (m) | 12.40 |
| Height (m) | 5.35 |
| Wing span (m) | 18.17 |
| Wing area (m) | 71.52 |
| Cruise speed (km/h) | 185 |
| Operational range (km) | 9000 |
| Operational ceiling (m) | 4500 |
| 31st of May 1946 | Enactment of the USSR Communist Party Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers No. 1145-171 was issued which approved a decision of the Ministry of Aviation Industry on the establishment of ОКБ-153 Design Bureau and construction of an airplane under the code “T” (transport). |
| 31st of July 1946 | the USSR Council of Ministers approved new Specifications for the agricultural airplane. The future airplane turned from a transport aircraft into multipurpose one. |
| 31st of August 1947 | a prototype of the agricultural aircraft piloted by test pilot of the Civil Aviation Institute Pavel Volodin made its maiden flight at the aerodrome of Novosibirsk Plant No. 153. |
| 10th – 13th of October 1947 | the crew including Pavel Volodin, Oleksandr Eskin and Mykola Salazkov made a flight from Novosibirsk to Zakharkovo, to the Civil Aviation Institute aerodrome to carry out State tests of the aircraft. Having made intermediate stops in Omsk, Sverdlovsk, Kazan and Arzamas, the agricultural airplane flew over a distance of almost 3,000 km. |
| 21st of March 1948 | the airplane for high-altitude meteorological research flew for the first time at altitudes of 6,000-8,000 m in Novosibirsk. It received the code “K” (АN-2ZАТK, later designated as АN-6). |
| 23rd of August 1948 | the USSR Council of Ministers issued Enactment No. 3187 concerning the agricultural airplane series production startup at Kyiv Plant No. 473 under the designation АN-2. |
| In April 1949 | the first flight of the AN-2F (AN-2NAK) close range night reconnaissance and artillery observation airplane was made. |
| 6th of September 1949 | the first flight of the first production AN-2 airplane was performed. |
| In 1949 | the AN-2TP (transport/passenger) airplane was built. |
| In mid 1950s | the АN-2P passenger airplane was developed under the order of Aeroflot. |
| In 1950 | an order to equip the AN-2 for operation in the Arctic was obtained from the Polar Aviation Department. Polar aviation pilot M.N. Kaminskiy, who arrived in Novosibirsk, imposed a number of special requirements for the airplane equipment for operation in the North. |
| In July 1951 | the AN-2V (water-based) flew for the first time controlled by Vasyl Didenko, pilot of the air transport wing of Plant No. 153. |
| In December 1951 | the АN-2ZАТK (intended for meteorological research), or AN-6 (the modified “K” airplane with a new power plant and ТК-19 gas generator), passed tests at the AF State Flight Center. |
| In 1951 | operation of AN-2 airplanes by DOSAV (AF Volunteer Society, later – DOSAAF (Army, Air Force and Navy Volunteer Society)) branches was started. |
| In April 1952 | tests of the AN-2 airplane equipped with a ski landing gear were completed. |
| 9th of June 1954 | test pilot Volodymyr Kalinin and flight engineer V.I. Baklaikin set a world record in the С-1е-I category having climbed to the altitude of 11,248 m on the AN-6. |
| In 1954 – 1955 | experimental operation of the АN-2V (АN-4) provided with a float-type landing gear was started. |
| In 1954 – 1957 | the АN-2 piloted by P. Oshurkov carried cargoes for the SP-4 research station. |
| In 1955 – 1956 | when the SP-5 research station was organized, the AN-2 piloted by M. Kaminskiy carried out 200 flights and delivered 80 t of cargoes to the camp location. |
| In January 1956 | pilot А. Kash flied on the AN-2 in Antarctica in order to find the area for construction of Mirnyi station. |
| In October 1956 | Documentation for AN-2 manufacturing was transferred to China. |
| In 1956 | the specially equipped AN-2 was donated to the head of the Vietnamese government Ho Chi Minh. |
| 18th of March 1957 | pilot I. Mazuruk together with A. Poliakov first landed on the top of iceberg in Antarctica. |
| In 1957 | the first Soviet specialists arrived in Nanchang (China) to set up the AN-2 series production. |
| 7th of December 1957 | the first Chinese AN-2 (serial number 0032001), which was designated as “Feng Shou-2” flew for the first time. |
| In 1958 | the USSR entered into an agreement with Poland on the assignment of rights for production of AN-2 airplanes (WSK PZL-Mielec plant based in Mielec). |
| 23rd of October 1960 | the first production aircraft manufactured in Poland flew for the first time (pilot in command: Tadeusz Golebowski). |
| In 1966 | the Dolgoprudnyi engineering plant started series production of the AN-2M. |
| 24th of April 1967 | the Ukrainian crew (pilot in command N. Buriak – captain, G. Fedchenko – co-pilot) delivered from Kyiv to Hornostaipol (Chernobyl district, Kyiv region) the 100 millionth passenger carried on the AN-2 since placed in service. |
| 25th of September 1975 | the 250 millionth passenger was carried on the AN-2 from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Chegdomin. |
| By the early 1990s | civil AN-2 airplanes carried more than 370 million passengers and 9 million tons of cargoes and mail. |
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