Air Force Technology - An-124 Condor - Long Range Heavy Transport Aircraft

Ron Mahlen
President of C.I.A.C. Transport
rmahlen@ciactrans.com
952-881-1810
888-832-6028
Fax 952-881-7963

One example of the heavy-lift aircraft CIAC handles are the Antonov Aircraft

The An-124, designed by the Antonov Aeronautical Scientific Technical Complex based in Kiev in the Ukraine, is the world's largest and highest flying cargo capacity aircraft in production. Its serial production has been launched at AVIANT State Aviation Plant, Kiev, and AVIASTAR, Ulyanovsk, Russia. The aircraft, which has the NATO reporting name Condor, is designed for long-range delivery and air dropping of heavy and large size cargo, including machines, equipment and troops. The An-124 aircraft is capable of airlifting troops and armaments from the interior of a country to the theatre of operations, between forward and rear zones of operations, to reinforce airborne troops with heavy combat materiel, and the delivery of cargo for fleet forces on naval operations. The unique transport capabilities and the high performance of the aircraft have been proven in operation. The An-124 has served several nations in the transportation of economically important cargoes, for example: 90-ton hydraulic turbines, large size Liebherr autocranes, American Euclid dump trucks, the fuselage of Tu-204 passenger transporter, a 109-ton railway locomotive, and a sea yacht of more than 25 metre length. STRUCTURE Instead of using traditional approaches, the design and construction of the aircraft required the development and implementation of a major research programme encompassing aerodynamics, stress analysis, propulsion, controls, systems, reliability and safety. The aircraft fuselage has a double-deck layout. The cockpit, the relief crew compartment and the passenger cabin with 88 seats are on the upper deck. The lower deck is the cargo hold. The flight deck has crew stations arranged in pairs for six crew - the pilot and copilot, two flight engineers, the navigator and communications officer. The loadmaster's station is located in the lobby deck. The An-124 aircraft is fitted with a relatively thick (12 %) sweptback supercritical wing to give high aerodynamic efficiency and consequently a long flight range. To decrease the trim drag, the aircraft was designed with a low margin of static stability. The construction includes extruded skin panels on the wing, extruded plates for the centre-section wing panels and monolithic wafer plates for the fuselage panels. The aircraft structural members are made of composites that make up 1,500 square metres of the surface area, giving weight saving of 2,000 kg. High rough-field capacity multi-leg landing gear and loading equipment ensure self-sufficient operation of the aircraft on prepared concrete runways and on poorly equipped unpaved strips at forward airbases close to the areas of operations where the cargo is needed. The landing gear is self-orienting and incorporates a kneeling mechanism in the landing gear which allows an adjustable fuselage clearance to assist the loading and unloading of self-propelled equipment. The aircraft has paradropping and cargo-handling equipment, a 1,000-test point on-board automatic test system, as well as two auxiliary power units equipped with electric generators and turbopumps for independent operation of the aircraft. CARGO HATCHES The two cargo hatches are a distinctive structural feature. The fuselage nose can be hinged upward to open the front cargo hatch and there is a rear cargo hatch in the rear fuselage to speed up the cargo loading and unloading operation. AVIONICS All systems are quadruple redundant. The on-board equipment provide the capability to execute airlift and paradrop missions by day and at night, in visual flight rules and instrument flight rules (VFR and IFR) weather conditions, under hostile air defence conditions, and in prolonged operation beyond the main basing airfield. The systems include an integrated flight control and aiming-navigation system, communications facilities and paradropping and cargohandling equipment. There are 34 computers functioning aboard the aircraft, combined into four main systems: navigation, automatic piloting, remote control and monitoring. The integrated flight control and aiming-navigation system comprises an autonomous navigation system, altitude and airspeed indicating system, combat formation flight control equipment, short-range radio navigation and landing system, global positioning system, automatic radio compass, integrated flight control system, ground surveillance radar, forward-looking weather radar, optical and TV sight and IFF equipment. Standard communications facilities include an aeronautical-space communications radio station, HF radio set, VHF/UHF radio set, intercom, voice warning and documentation system. CARGO The on-board system of cargo handling equipment make it possible to load and unload the aircraft without the help of ground facilities. The paradropping and cargo-handling equipment comprises two travelling cranes, two winches, rollgang and tiedown equipment. The aircraft is often compared to the US Lockheed Martin C-5 Galaxy. The An-124 has a transportation capability 25% higher than that of the C-5A and 10% higher than the C-5B. WORLD RECORDS Since 1989, An-124 aircraft have been making charter freight and the aircraft has set 30 world records, the most significant of those are: 171,219 kg cargo was lifted to 10,750 metres altitude in 1985; a 20,161 km closed route was flown in 25.5 hours in 1987; and an average speed of 689.1 km/hour was achieved in a round-the-world flight over the South and North Poles in 1990. AN-124-100 On the basis of the An-124 military transport, the An-124-100 has been developed and certified for cargo operations. At present, the An-124-100M modification of the aircraft is being developed together with Aviastar Joint Stock Company using advanced. domestic equipment of the Commonwealth of Independent Sates, (CIS), as well as Collins and Litton equipment which allows the reduction a reduction in the number of crew members from six to four, while improving flight safety and navigation accuracy.				The An-124, designed and manufactured by the Antonov Aeronautical Scientific Technical Complex based in Kiev in the Ukraine, is the world's largest and highest flying cargo capacity aircraft in production.
				The fuselage nose can be hinged upward to open the front cargo hatch.
				There is a rear cargo hatch in the rear fuselage to speed up the cargo loading and unloading operation.
				High rough-field capacity multi-leg landing gear and loading equipment ensure self-sufficient operation of the aircraft on prepared concrete runways and on poorly equipped unpaved strips.
				The Antonov Design Bureau maintains some of its An-124-100, among them UR-82009, that operate international freight services.
				An-124-100 RA-82073, one of two Ruslan operated by the Russian State Transport Agency on behalf of the Russian government.
				Since 1989, An-124 aircraft have been making charter freight and the aircraft has set 30 world records.
				Operators use their Ruslans regularly to haul commercial cargo, as RA-82035, an An-124-100 operated by the Ministry of Defense, demonstrates.
				Line drawing of the Antonov 124 Ruslan.