Antonov Company

AN-8

TRANSPORT AIRPLANE

First flight 1956

The first Soviet-designed special purpose transport airplane Antonov AN-8 took off on the 11th of February 1956. Test pilot Yakov Vernikov was a captain of the airplane. A large-size cargo door at the fuselage tail section enabled to transport loads within the loading gauge weighting up to 11 tons and allowed for military equipment, cargoes, and personnel paradropping. Aerodynamics problems of an airplane with a high wing carrying two turboprop engines were worked out on the AN-8; structural and strength solutions for creation of a large rear cargo door, a landing gear of high passing ability, and an aerial-delivery system were found. Nowadays, this layout of cargo airplane is accepted as a classical one. The Antonov AN-8 airplanes were manufacturing in series at the aircraft plant in Tashkent from 1957 to 1961; 151 airplanes were built there.

Characteristics

Main characteristics

Length (m)	30.74
Height (m)	10.05
Wing span (m)	37.00
Wing area (m)	117.20

Flight characteristics

Cruise speed (km/h)	450
Operational range (km)	3900
Operational ceiling (m)	9600

Chronology

11th of December 1953	Directive No. 2922-1251 of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the creation of a twin-engine turboprop transport airplane was issued.
26th of October 1954	The customer’s Mock-up Committee in respect of the product “P” (prospective AN-8) was held under the chairmanship of Major General V. Lebedev.
11th of February 1956	the crew consisting of: Yakov Vernikov – captain, Valentyn Vasin – co-pilot, V. Kondratiev – navigator, Igor Morozov – flight engineer, L. Chizhikov – flight radio operator, and A. Evdokimov – senior engineer performed first flight of the AN-8.
18th of August 1956	the AN-8 airplane prototype took part in the flight display over Tushino.
4th of April 1957	Directive No. 373-184 of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was issued ordering to eliminate detected on the AN-8 airplane prototype defects, to install АI-20D engine, and after that to put the AN-8 airplane into the serial production at the Tashkent plant.
End of 1958	the crew of Mykola Gavritskii – captain, Yurii Sorokin – co-pilot, Georgii Zhdanov – test flight engineer, and Oleksandr Myagkov – test radio operator performed the first flight of the AN-8 series airplane (S/N 8340101).

Gallery

AN AIRCRAFTS

an-26

AN-26

LIGHT TRANSPORT AIRPLANE

an-38

АN-38

LIGHT MULTIPURPOSE AIRPLANE

an-2

AN-2

LIGHT MULTIPURPOSE AIRPLANE

an-158

AN-158

REGIONAL TURBOJET AIRPLANES

an-32

АN-32

MULTIPURPOSE TRANSPORT AIRPLANE

an-22

AN-22

MILITARY TRANSPORT AIRPLANE

an-132d

AN-132

MULTIPURPOSE TRANSPORT AIRPLANE

an-71

AN-71

AIRBORNE EARLY WARNINGAND CONTROL SYSTEM AIRCRAFT

an-148

АН-148

REGIONAL TURBOJET AIRPLANES

an-14

АN-14

Stol light multipurpose aircraft

an-30

АN-30

SPECIALIZED AERIAL SURVEY AIRPLANE

an-74

AN-74

LIGHT TRANSPORT AIRPLANE

an-24

AN-24

REGIONAL PASSENGER AIRPLANE

an-225-mriya

AN-225 "MRIYA"

SUPER-HEAVY TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT

an-124-ruslan

AN-124 RUSLAN

HEAVY TRANSPORT AIRPLANE

an-12

AN-12

MILITARY TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT

an-10

AN-10

PASSENGER TRANSPORT AIRPLANE

an-72

AN-72

LIGHT TRANSPORT AIRPLANE

an-70

АN-70

MEDIUM MILITARY TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT

an-28

AN-28

LIGHT MULTIPURPOSE AIRCRAFT

an-140

AN-140

REGIONAL AIRPLANE

an-178

AN-178

MULTIPURPOSE TRANSPORT AIRPLANE

Advanced ideas and technologies are in great demand in our dynamic times. And that is what the ANTONOV COMPANY offers to the world market. Our company is now one of the few enterprises, running the complete development cycle of advanced aircraft — from preliminary design to construction, testing, certification, production and integrated logistic support.