...looks like an Otter to me. Once again I have a huge backlog of e-mails, I will be getting to them tomorrow.
Friday 27 June 2008
DML wants to know what this is.....
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12 comments:
Antonov An-2.
I'd say it's an Antonov AN-2:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-2
It's an Antonov An-2, the russians like the glazed greenhouse approach to nose design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:An-2_RB1.jpg
Otters aren't biplanes, for starters. An-2 it is.
Just the thing for bush flying, except it's not certified for commercial use in Canada or the US, last I heard.
The engine's a Russian development of the Wright R-1820.
Here's a panoramic view from the greenhouse-like cockpit:
http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=2269&window_height=567&window_width=852
I seem to remember that these were favourites for people fleeing the communist Baltic countries, Sweden had an embarrassing number of them at one time. Huge load lugging power, slow and low-flying to fool radar and good short field performance. Ideal for the job.
Looks as tho he could lean the mixture a bit.
from wikipedia....
An interesting note from the pilot's handbook reads: "If the engine quits in instrument conditions (blind flying when you can't see the ground) or at night, the pilot should pull the control column full aft (it won't stall) and keep the wings level. The leading-edge slats will snap out at about 40 mph (64 km/h), and when the airplane slows to a forward speed of about 25 mph [40 km/h], the airplane will sink at about a parachute descent rate until the aircraft hits the ground."
So you have a plane, probably unique in that it would take a determined effort to crash on landing..... and it hasn't got safety clearance ?!
Very similar handling and envelope to the Fairey Swordfish. I remember hearing somewhere that the aft c of g limit of the Colt was effectively the rudder post. One of those wonderful aircraft that had plenty of accidents but never killed many because the forward airspeed was never dangerous enough and there was plenty of foldable airframe to take the strain. The Avro Anson being an example.
'...the russians like the glazed greenhouse approach to nose design.'
Yeah, looks like you could grow your tomatoes in there. Which is nice.
Antonov An-2. The Warsaw Pact's version of the Otter. Go anywhere, haul anything.
Jumped out of one in Cuba at Varadero in 1999, very agricultural; last time I heard an engine like that it was pulling a plough, in about 1960...
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