An-8 is the first specialized domestic gas turbine military transport aircraft, which carries 11 tons of payload and is intended for transportation, as well as parachute landing of equipment and troops. An-8 has good take-off and landing characteristics, as well as high maneuverability on unpaved airfields. It was there that the scheme of the transport liner, which had become a classic one, was worked out: a chassis with a small gauge in the fairing along the sides of the fuselage, a high-wing aircraft with engines located on the wing. In the stern of the An-8 fuselage there is a gunner’s cabin, which is equipped with a tower with 23 mm caliber guns. The An-8 aircraft is equipped in the tail section with a large cargo hatch, which opens in flight with a high-passable landing gear. The plane has a pretty interesting story.
The story of the emergence of the An-8
In those years, the Americans had already made a breakthrough: the C-123 went into the series, the C-119 transporter was actively used, the C-130 was in development, another plane with turboprop engines. In the USSR, such specialized transport aircraft have not yet been. There were drawings, there was a description for several projects, and they remained on paper.
The history of the An-8 begins in 1951, when the Antonov Design Bureau prepared draft sketches and descriptions for the DT-5/8 aircraft, a landing-transport prototype with two turboprop engines, a high-end chassis with a maximum carrying capacity of eight tons, and a large tail hatch for airborne equipment. and troops. The device was approved by the aircraft, it was given the name "P".
To build a prototype, specialists from Moscow, Taganrog, Voronezh, Riga, Leningrad came to Kiev to help out. Oleg Antonov, the head of the Design Bureau, was worried that the team had no experience in creating such air machines. Therefore, he turned to Ilyushin and Tupolev - to send drawings for IL-28 and Tu-16, and also to study their design directly at production plants. Drawings and permission were obtained. The floor structure was slightly modified according to the drawings of Robert Bartini, the creator of the DAR aircraft. As a result, the development timeframe for the new product was significantly reduced, and the drawings provided made it possible to avoid errors during design. In 1954, the draft design was completed.
The creation of the first specialized domestic transport worker required the implementation of a mass of experimental studies. An-8 was created in cooperation with several aircraft factories. The main work - the general assembly and construction of the fuselage were carried out in Kiev, on the pilot production. In 1956, the car rolled out of the shop, and it rose into the air on February 11. The first flights revealed flaws and malfunctions that needed to be corrected and modified the plane. During the tests, the TV-2T engine was replaced with an AI-20D forced engine.
An-8 went to the series at the Tashkent aircraft factory. Since 1959, one hundred aircraft to enter the military units. The aircraft was serially produced in 1961, 151 aircraft were assembled. Mastered the aircraft is very difficult. Due to errors in piloting, five cars crashed in three years. But the An-8 showed good technical characteristics: it had the opportunity to take off from a muddy runway and "difficult" airfields.
Specifications aircraft An-8
The An-8 has the following specifications:
- Wingspan is 37 m.
- The length of the aircraft is 30.7 m.
- The height is 10 m.
- The wing area is 117.2 square meters. m
- The length of the cargo compartment is 11 m.
- The width of the cargo compartment is 3.6 m.
- The height of the cargo compartment is 2.9 m.
- Engine - 2xAI-20D.
- The engine had a thrust of 2x5180 e.s.
- Empty mass - 24.3 tons.
- Normal take-off weight is 38 tons.
- The maximum take-off weight is 41 tons.
- Maximum payload - 40 paratroopers or 11 tons.
- Flight range with maximum load - 850 km.
- Ferrying range - 4410 km.
- The maximum speed is 520 km / h.
- Cruising speed is 450 km / h.
- The practical ceiling is 9600 m.
- The takeoff run is 775 m.
- Mileage is 590 m.
- The crew is 5-6 people.
Design Features An-8
- An-8 is built according to the scheme of free-floating vysokoplan. All-metal design, semi-monocoque fuselage. Trapezoidal wing in plan, straight, two-spar. The wing mechanization includes two-section ailerons and double-slotted flaps.
- The chassis with a nose-pillar, tricycle, retracts into the fuselage.
- The power plant includes 2 AI-20D turboprop engines. Aircraft fuel consumption is significant. In order to compensate for fuel consumption, a fuel reserve of 13080 liters is placed in 20 wing fuel tanks.
