Re-engined An-2 starts flying in Omsk

Published: 3/31/2000

Maker of space launch vehicles Polyot based in Omsk has announced that in April, the An-3 single engined general-purpose biplane aircraft will start its certification trials. The An-3 is an An-2 fitted with an Omsk made OMKB ‘Mars" TVD-20 turboprop, replacing the original radial ASh-62 engine, and according to reports Polyot is undertaking the upgrade for unnamed regional airlines for Chutotka and Krasnoyarsk using the $120,000 engine. The cost of the upgrade using the TVD-20 is high, as the price of a radial powered An-2 , sold in Mielec"s ‘clearance sale" of aircraft in 1997 was reported to be $105,000-$125,000 depending on equipment. Serial production of the An-3 may prove difficult given that the rights to the aircraft have been sold to Mielec and according to some sources the jigs have been destroyed. The Poles were however, reported to have 21 airframes at the beginning of 1999 and the considerable number of aircraft flying and not flying in Russia, gives a good deal of scope for upgrade possibilities. Particularly as the fuel used by the aircraft is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain as its production decreases in Russia. According to Yegeny Belyaev, chief designer ofthe An-3 project, the upgrade has received considerable interest from as far a field as Latin America,Iraq, Cuba, Hungary and Yugoslavia.

Article ID: 1642