ANTONOV – International Cargo Transporters

Type - State owned company

Native Name: ANTOHOB

Founded on: 31 May 1946; 72 years ago

Headquarters: Kiev, Ukraine

President: Oleksandr Donets

Products: Aircraft for various applications, Aircraft maintenance, Cargo air

transport.

Number of employees: 13,700 (2014)

History:
Antonov Airlines is a Ukrainian cargo airline, a division of the Antonov aviation
company. It operates international charter services in the world of oversized cargo
market. Its main base is Gostomel Airport near Kiev. The company owns the only
completed Antonov An-225, the world's largest operational cargo aircraft.

The airline was established and started operations in 1989 through a marketing
agent agreement with Air Foyle to market Antonov An-124 Ruslan cargo charters
worldwide. This relationship ended in June 2006. The same month Antonov
Airlines and another large player in the global specialty air cargo business, Volga-
Dnepr Airlines (Russia), established a joint venture company — Ruslan
International — where each company has a 50% stake. The joint operation of the
Ukrainian and Russian fleets allows them to share the combined An-124-100
commercial fleet of seventeen aircraft (seven of which belong to Antonov Airlines)
and the only Antonov An-225 in service worldwide — the largest cargo aircraft in
the world.
In 2017 Antonov Airlines opened a United Kingdom office at London Stansted
Airport, with a first flight in February by an Antonov An-124 Ruslan.

Foundation and relocation:

The company was established in 1946 at the Novosibirsk Aircraft Production
Association as the top-secret Soviet Research and Design Bureau No. 153. It was
headed by Oleg Antonov and specialised in turboprop military transport aircraft.
The An-2 biplane was a major achievement of this period, with hundreds of these
aircraft still operating as of 2013.[5] In 1952, the Bureau was relocated to Kiev, a
city with a rich aviation history and an aircraft-manufacturing infrastructure
restored after the destruction caused by World War II.
The 1957 introduction of the An-10/An-12 family of mid-range turboprop
aeroplanes began the successful production of thousands of these aircraft. Their
use for both heavy combat and civilian purposes around the globe continues to the
present; the An-10/An-12 were used most notably in the Vietnam War, the Soviet–
Afghan War and the Chernobyl disaster relief megaoperation.
In 1959, the bureau began construction of the separate Flight Testing and
Improvement Base in suburban Hostomel (now the Antonov Airport).
In 1965, the Antonov An-22 heavy military transport entered serial production to
supplement the An-12 in major military and humanitarian airlifts by the Soviet
Union. The model became the first Soviet wide-body aircraft, and it remains the
world's largest turboprop-powered aircraft. Antonov designed and presented a
nuclear-powered version of the An-22. It was never flight tested.
In 1966, after the major expansion in the Sviatoshyn neighbourhood of the city, the
company was renamed to another disguise name: "Kiev Mechanical Plant". Two
independent aircraft production and repair facilities, under engineering-supervision
of the Antonov Bureau, also appeared in Kiev during this period.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, the company established itself as USSR's main
designer of military transport aircraft with dozens of new modifications in
development and production. After Oleg Antonov's death in 1984, the company
was officially renamed as the Research and Design Bureau named after O.K.
Antonov (Russian: Опытно-конструкторское бюро имени О.К. Антонова)
while continuing the use of "Kiev Mechanical Plant" alias for some purposes.
In the late 1980s, the Antonov Bureau achieved global prominence after the
introduction of its extra large aeroplanes. The An-124 "Ruslan" (1982) became the
Soviet Union's mass-produced strategic airlifter under the leadership of Chief
Designer Viktor Tolmachev. The Bureau enlarged the "Ruslan" design even more
for the Soviet space shuttle programme logistics, creating the An-225 "Mriya" in
1989. "Mriya" is still the world's largest and heaviest aeroplane.
The end of the Cold War and perestroika allowed the Antonov company's first step
to commercialisation and foreign expansion. In 1989, the Antonov Airlines
subsidiary was created for its own aircraft maintenance and cargo projects.

Production facilities' consolidation:

During the Soviet period, not all Antonov-designed aircraft were manufactured by
the company itself. This was a result of Soviet industrial strategy that split military
production between different regions of the USSR to minimise potential war loss
risks. As a result, Antonov aeroplanes are often assembled by the specialist
contract manufacturers.
In 2009, the once-independent "Aviant" aeroplane-assembling plant in Kiev
became part of the Antonov State Company, facilitating a full serial manufacturing
cycle of the company. However, the old tradition of co-manufacturing with
contractors is continued, both with Soviet-time partners and with new licensees
like Iran's HESA.
In 2014, the Antonov State Company produced and delivered only 2 An-158
airplanes. This trend continued onto 2015, producing one An-148 and one An-158.
In 2016, no aircraft were produced or delivered to clients, though the company has
plans to start up production in 2017.
In June 2016, Ukraine's major state-owned arms manufacturer Ukroboronprom
announced the creation of the Ukrainian Aircraft Corporation within its structure,
thereby combining all aircraft manufacturing enterprises, including the assets of
Antonov State Company into a single cluster, according to Ukroboronprom's press
service.[18]
On 19 July 2017, the Ukrainian government approved the liquidation of Antonov's
assets,[19][20][21] starting with closing down three factories in Kiev and Kharkiv. The
State Concern "Antonov" (a business group, created in 2005 from the merger of
several legally independent companies into a single economic entity under unified
management) will be liquidated as a residual corporate entity. Antonov State
Company, Kharkiv State Aviation Manufacturing Enterprise and Plant No.410 of
Civil Aviation were transferred under the management of another state-owned
concern Ukroboronprom in 2015. Antonov State Company continues to function as
an enterprise

Products and activities:

Fields of commercial activity of Antonov ASTC include:

● Aircraft design and manufacturing

● Cargo air transport (Antonov Airlines)
● Aircraft maintenance, testing, certification and upgrading
● Aerospace-related research and engineering
● "Aerial Launch": a joint Russian-Ukrainian project of midair spacecraft
space launch from aboard a modified version of the An-225.
● Operation of the Gostomel airport (Antonov Airport)
● Medium-capacity rail transport system RADAN
● Construction of LT-10 trams
● Construction and manufacturing of Kiev-12 trolley buses (a spin-off, using
existing technical expertise).

Contract and licensee manufacturers:

● Tashkent Aviation Production Association (formerly Tashkent State
Aviation Plant) – Tashkent, Uzbekistan
● Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA) – Shahin Shahr,
Iran
 ● Voronezh Aircraft Production Association (VASO) – Voronezh, Russia

Chief designers:
● Oleg Antonov: 1946–1984
● Petro Balabuiev: 1984–2005
● Dmytro Kiva: since 2005

The Antonov-124-100 is the world’s largest civil cargo aircraft, and

an acknowledged leader of the air cargo market for the transportation of oversized
and super-heavy shipments. The combination of exceptional characteristics such
as its cargo compartment size, flight range and uplift capability without using
special loading equipment allows the An-124 to carry super-heavy and oversized
cargo up to 120 tonnes across the greatest range.
The aircraft’s pressurized cargo cabin, with its total volume of 1050 m³, guarantees
unprecedented opportunities for the transportation of different types of cargo,
including non-standard and oversized pieces or shipments demanding special
transportation conditions.
Multi-leg landing gears equipped with 24 wheels allow to operate the aircraft
on unpaved runways as well as to change the angle of the fuselage to simplify
loading operations.
The Antonov-124-100 has two loading entrances, at the nose and tail of the
aircraft, both equipped with expanding loading ramps. For loading of non-standard
cargo the cabin is equipped with two electric winches of 3 tonnes traction each and
4 electric hoists of common carrying capacity up to 30 tonnes.
Today, Volga-Dnepr operates a fleet of 12 Antonov-124-100 aircraft.