HOSTOMEL, Ukraine — The Antonov Company, the major Kyiv-based airline and aircraft manufacturer established in 1946, is honoring its impressive legacy in the history of aviation.
Two of its legendary military transport aircraft from the Soviet period — the Antonov An-24 and Antonov An-26 — are celebrating the 60th and 50th anniversaries of their maiden flights, respectively.
The Antonov An-24 (NATO reporting name Coke), a twin turboprop transport aircraft, saw the sky for the first time as far back as October 1959. In the next 20 years, as many as 1,367 airplanes of this family were produced, and nearly 100 of them are still in service worldwide.
The Antonov An-26 aircraft (NATO reporting name Curl), an in-depth modification of its predecessor, had its maiden flight in 1969 and is also still quite popular in numerous militaries and civilian cargo airlines all over the planet. As many as 1,403 such airplanes were manufactured by the Antonov plant in Kyiv through 1986.
On the sunny morning of Oct. 17, Antonov pilots and engineers, including veterans who had been involved in the creation of those legendary aircraft, invited visitors to an airshow at the company’s airfield in the town of Hostomel near Kyiv to demonstrate the beauty and the might of the company’s old and new designs.
Like many in the industry, the company’s employees hope for a better tomorrow for Ukrainian aviation, which is currently struggling to get foreign contracts, overcome brain drain and build new production chains after cutting ties with Russia.
