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Antonov to give African charity operations a lift

1st March 2013

By: Keith Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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Russian aviation company UTAir and South African business aviation company ExecuJet have donated an Antonov An-2 utility aircraft to support charity operations in Southern Africa. (The two companies have had close relations at group level for many years.) It is hoped that, with the support of sponsors, the aircraft will be used both to develop aviation awareness among young people, particularly those in poor and/or rural areas, and to transport aid personnel and supplies when and where needed. UTAir has pro- vided the aircraft and ExecuJet will provide the necessary support.

Originally designed in the then Soviet Union just after the Second World War, the first An-2 flew in 1947 and full production con- tinued until 1992. Thereafter, limited production continued until 2001. It was built in the Soviet Union, Poland and China (as the Y-5).

The aircraft is famous for its ruggedness (it was designed to operate in harsh climates and remote areas with minimal support facilities), short take-off and landing capability and for being the biggest single-engine biplane ever built. It is powered by a 1 000 hp (746 kW) nine-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine. UTAir still operates some 40 of the aircraft.
This particular aircraft flew to South Africa in a special flight to mark the sixty-fifth anniversary of Antonov (which is now a Ukrainian company) commercial aircraft (of which the An-2 was the first). This flight originated at Stone Cape (Mys-Kamenny) on Russia’s Arctic coast and ended in Cape Town, a distance of more than 20 000 km.
The route followed crossed Europe to Spain, then across the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco, then to Algeria and down West Africa, including Nigeria, Gabon, Angola and Botswana, and a planned stopover at Lanseria International Airport, north-west of Johannesburg. The more direct route – through the Middle East, North East and East Africa – was blocked by conflict and crisis situations in the Middle East and North East Africa. Because of unforeseen delays – climatological, bureaucratic and political – the flight took two-and-a-half months to complete.
The aircraft was flown by a binational crew of four – a Rus- sian pilot (Sergei Bykov), a navigator/copilot (Sergei Dmitrenko) and a flight engineer (Alexander Achimov), and a British woman copilot/trainee (Tracey Curtis-Taylor). “Our average ground speed was 190 km/h,” reported Curtis-Taylor. “That’s slow! Most of the way, we had a bit of a tail wind, which is very useful in an aircraft like this. We were operating at maximum weight. Its short field performance is phenomenal.”

Logistics were a problem. As a piston-engined aircraft, the An-2 uses fuel called Avgas, which is very difficult to find in much of Africa and had to be stockpiled in advance. This was made possible by ExecuJet’s operations team, which specialises in aviation logistics in Africa – only sometimes there were delays in its delivery, requiring the aircraft and its crew to wait.
Others, however, were eager to assist. “This flight caught a lot of attention. Lots of people helped,” stressed Curtis-Taylor. “We especially want to thank the air traffic controllers over the whole route. They were exceptional, trying to get us the most direct route – it’s a slow aeroplane!” The entire flight was conducted under visual flight rules – that is, in daylight and adequate visibility only.
Curtis-Taylor has accumulated some 1 100 flying hours and specialises in flying veteran piston- engined aircraft, but hitherto has had little experience in flying biplanes. She joined the flight to gain experience both with biplanes and in flying over Africa – she plans to fly a vintage Boeing Stearman two-seat training biplane, modified with extra fuel tanks, from Cape Town to Cambridge, in the UK, next year. Stearmans were built from 1934 to 1944

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Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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