Passenger aircraft were mainly used to transport various civilian and military cargo until the 1950s. Specialized transport aircraft, primarily for military purposes, began to be created in the mid-1950s - these are the C-130 in the USA and the An-8 in the USSR.
After the appearance of the first jet passenger aircraft B-707 and DS-8, transport aircraft began to be created on their basis, after they developed a significant part of the resource for passenger transportation. Later, after the transportation of packaged goods on pallets and containers (the so-called general cargo) increased significantly, both passenger and cargo versions of aircraft began to be built in parallel. As an example, the B-747 aircraft can be cited, although almost most of the mainline aircraft created in recent decades were built in 2 versions. Currently, the largest cargo aircraft for transporting general cargo is the B-747-8F aircraft. (We will take it as one of the starting points for the future cargo aircraft). A significant part of the aircraft was converted from passenger to cargo after the development of a part of the resource by specialized certified enterprises. Today, a wide range of pallets and containers are used. The most widely used are: LD7 and LD1, LD3, LD6, LD9, respectively (see "Dimensions and characteristics of aviation containers" on the Goodloading website).
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| Loading pallets into the cargo cabin. |
| Source: www.wing.com.ua |
The beginning of the appearance of heavy military transport aircraft was the An-22 Antey. In the future, it was widely used for the transportation of large-sized civilian equipment for the development of oil and gas fields in Siberia, etc. It also transported the central part and wing ends of the AN-124 and AN-225 aircraft from Tashkent to Kiev.
In 1968, the C-5A Galaxy military transport aircraft took to the skies, which actually became the first super-heavy military transport aircraft. A number of constructive ideas were implemented on it, which later found their application in the creation of the An-124 Ruslan aircraft (see "The An-124 Ruslan aircraft is the pinnacle of achievement of the Team and Man Balabuyev P.V.", A. Vovnyanko).
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| The C-5A aircraft. |
| Source: www.wing.com.ua |
The AN-124 aircraft was created as a military transport aircraft and made its first flight on 12/24/1984. The aircraft was created and built by the whole country — the USSR, and the design was carried out under the leadership of the outstanding general aircraft designer O.K. Antonov at the Kiev Mechanical Plant - p / ya A-3395. Chief designer P.V. Balabuyev, lead designer V.I. Tolmachev.
These 2 outstanding heavy military transport aircraft C-5A and An-124 were built at the peak of the confrontation between the United States and the USSR to transport missile systems, heavy and oversized military equipment, as well as personnel of the Armed Forces to various points of the Earth.
At the end of the 1980s, the USSR did not have the funds to create and produce new aircraft, as well as to purchase An-124 aircraft built in Kiev and Ulyanovsk for the Ministry of Defense. In this extremely difficult situation, the general designer of the O.K. Antonov Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex, P.V. Balabuyev, came to the conclusion that it was necessary to use this aircraft for transporting civilian goods and earning financial resources on international airlines. P.V. Balabuyev was not only the general designer, but also an outstanding Manager who brought the An-124 aircraft to the international market of air transportation of bulky and non-standard cargo, thus creating this direction in international trade, and also preserved and developed the aviation industry of Ukraine (By the 90th anniversary of the birth of General Designer Balabuyev P.V., The Wings website.).
It should be noted the stupidity of the Kiev authorities, who renamed a huge number of streets (the new names of John McCain, Brussels, De Karta and others that have nothing to do with Kiev and Ukraine), but the street named after aircraft designer Pyotr Balabuyev did not appear. The street where Antonov State Enterprise is located was renamed from academician A.N. Tupolev to Mriya. The AN-225 aircraft with this name was created just under the leadership of General designer P.V. Balabuyev.
After certification, the AN-124 aircraft was assigned the AN-124-100 index in 1992, and it began to be widely used by Ruslan Airlines in Ukraine, and then by Volga-Dnepr airlines. Polet, Titan and Ajax in Russia, and 2 aircraft were sold to Libya at a price of about 20 million. dollars each and one in the UAE at a price of about 38 million dollars. Ukrainian and Russian airlines got planes much cheaper. Given such a low cost of the aircraft, it became clear that it pays for itself quickly, allowing you to earn hard currency. But the difficulty of maintaining the airworthiness of the aircraft and other reasons did not allow some of these vehicles to continue their operation. (The AN-124-100 aircraft is taken as the second of the starting points for the future cargo aircraft)
Boeing also tried to bring the C-17 military transport aircraft to the civilian market, but due to the high price ($220 million military version and $ 180 million civilian version) and lower payload characteristics compared to the AN-124-100, there were no willing buyers!
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| Loading a wind turbine blade into an AN-124-100 aircraft. |
| Source: www.wing.com.ua |
Modifications of the C-5A military transport aircraft C-5B and C-5M are very expensive and difficult to operate, so they had no prospect of being used for commercial transportation. But they continue to be used by the US military and they have a calendar service life of 70 years. It is possible that it may be extended for a certain number of aircraft.
The AN-124-100 aircraft have a resource of 50,000 flight hours, 10,000 flights with a service life of 50 years. Difficulties with maintaining airworthiness, the lack of mass production of components and D18T engines, increasingly high requirements for noise and engine emissions, resource depletion and other problems known to specialists will lead to the fact that in 10-15 years aircraft will begin to be written off and there will be a need for a similar, but more advanced new aircraft on the market.
Another feature of the operation of military transport aircraft during the transportation of commercial goods should be noted. Since the cargo is non-standard, the transportation is carried out in an irregular manner, which is why the raids of such aircraft are 3-5 times less than commercial transport aircraft carrying general cargo on regular airlines. This is due to the difficulty of loading into the cargo cabin, difficulties with the supply of spare parts and maintenance, the inability to transport pallets and containers cost-effectively, outdated equipment that does not allow them to be operated in accordance with new international requirements, etc.
Taking into account all of the above, the requirements for the development of a new generation of heavyweight transport aircraft should be specific and multifactorial - it should combine the capabilities of the B-747-8F and AN-124-100 aircraft. It is proposed to consider the possibility of creating two variants of a cargo aircraft based on almost one (~85%) airframe design:
A) for the transportation of general cargo on regular lines;
B) for the transportation of bulky and military goods on irregular lines.
Such an aircraft will have a place on the market if it is competitive with the B-747-8F aircraft, and also considering that the cargo version based on the A-380 aircraft has not been created. The B-747-8F aircraft is no longer in production and in about 15 years it will be written off, and it is not possible to refit decommissioned A-380 passenger aircraft. It should also be borne in mind that the cost of shipping goods from Southeast Asia by waterway has increased significantly due to the shelling of ships by the Houthis in the area of the Strait of Aden and the Red Sea, which expands the use of air transport for cargo delivery.
We present a comparison and technical data of existing cargo aircraft and future aircraft in variants A (transportation of general cargo) and B (transportation of bulky and other cargo)
Table 1.
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| Comparison and technical data of existing cargo aircraft and future aircraft in variants A (transportation of general cargo) and B (transportation of bulky and other cargo). |
| Source: A.G. Vovnyanko |
And now let's move on to determining the size of the cargo cabin for the future aircraft, which for option A is determined by the size of pallets and containers.
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| The cross section of the fuselage of the new aircraft (option A), dimensions in cm. |
| Source: www.wing.com.ua |
It can be noted that the width of the cargo cabin set by the USSR Ministry of Defense for the AN-124 aircraft is 620 cm. based on the dimensions of military equipment, it is practically suitable for a new aircraft. The AN-124 aircraft has a slightly larger width of the cargo cabin - 640 cm, as O.K. Antonov considered that it would be more appropriate, which was confirmed by operational experience. The height of the cargo cabin is 480 cm (for AN-124 - 440 cm), but it will be slightly refined during the design of the cargo floor of the second deck, where motor rollers and rotating balls will be placed that provide easy manual or automatic loading and unloading of containers. The same cross-sectional dimensions will be available for the aircraft in variant B.
Pallets and containers will be loaded into the aircraft (option A) through the bow and side loading hatches. The design of the nose and tail of the fuselage of the new aircraft in variant B will be similar to the design of the C-5 and An-124 aircraft, without a second deck in the cargo cabin.
The author assumes that orders for such an aircraft will amount to dozens, a maximum of a hundred copies, and therefore its creation should be carried out with maximum use of current technological and constructive developments and minimal costs so that the price of the aircraft is acceptable to airlines from the point of view of economic efficiency. (For information, the price of the B-747-8F aircraft is 379.1 million dollars).
It should be noted that when creating it, it is necessary to ensure that the equipment for loading pallets and containers available at airports is used for the new aircraft (option A).
For option B, the floor of the cargo cabin should be universal for loading heavy, bulky and military equipment, as well as for a variety of packaged goods on pallets. (It is possible to provide for the installation of a removable second deck in the fuselage structure, if necessary. This design was implemented for the AN-124-100 aircraft).
The new aircraft (variant A) should be more cost-effective than the B-747-8F aircraft. and in variant B, the outdated An-124 and AN-124-100 aircraft are significantly superior in terms of technical and operational performance.
A more detailed description of the design of the future aircraft, as well as the new systems used and proven design solutions will be described in the second part of this article.
A.G. Vovnyanko, leading designer in the service of the AN-70 aircraft 1982-1985, head of the service of leading designers for the AN-225 aircraft 1985-1989, Deputy. Chief Designer for the AN-225, AN-325 aircraft and aerospace systems 1989-1991, Deputy. Chief Designer for the AN-218 aircraft 1991-1994, Deputy. Chief Designer for the AN-124, AN-124-100, AN-225 aircraft and their modifications, as well as aerospace systems 1994-2008, Ph.D. (1985, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR).
