MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax-AVN) - The AN-3 Colt plane will become the main means of transportation of the Russian Emergencies Ministry's regional departments, chief of the ministry's aviation Lieutenant General Rafail Zakirov said on Friday.
"The demand for AN-3 planes, which will be the main means of transportation of the ministry's regional departments, is estimated at 12 pieces," Zakirov told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The ministry will start procuring AN-3s in 2004, he said.
"The regional departments have so far used MI-8 Hip helicopters for transporting rescuers, but the modernized AN-3 that is capable of airlifting rescuers with 2t of cargo at a distance of 1,000km surpasses the helicopters in the load-to- range ratio," Zakirov noted.
"For us it is also important that the AN-3 requires technical examination and control after every 2,000 hours in the air, which makes the aircraft maintenance much easier.
"Calculations show that the operation cost of an AN-3 will be five to six times lower than that of a helicopter. Moreover, the planes as such are four times cheaper than MI-8MTV helicopters," the general noted.
The AN-3 light transport plane designed jointly by Russian and Ukrainian aircraft makers is a derivative of the famous AN-2 biplane. The new plane is being assembled by the Omsk aircraft plant.
The AN-3 is powered by VK-1500S engines designed by the St. Petersburg-based Klimov plant and mass produced by the Motor Sich enterprise in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia. The engine has a take-off weight of 1,500hp. Its capacity is 1,500hp with specific fuel consumption of 230g/hp per hour (take-off mode) and 1,050 hp in the cruising mode. The engine's specified service life is 20,000 hours.