The An-180 was designed as a replacement for the aging Tupolev Tu-134 and Yakovlev Yak-42 airliners.[2] Antonov was discussing this aircraft in Soviet aviation publications as early as October 1990, describing the An-180 as a 164-180 passenger plane with a range of 1,300 to 1,600 nautical miles (2,500 to 3,000 kilometres; 1,600 to 1,900 miles) and a per-passenger fuel consumption of 14 to 15 grams per kilometre (0.79 to 0.85 ounces per mile).[3] The proposed aircraft was introduced to the world at the 1991 Paris Air Show.[4] As of September 1991, the An-180 had a T-tail design with the propfan engines attached to the aft fuselage,[5] but Antonov later modified the design so that the engines were attached to the ends of the horizontal stabilizer in a conventional tail configuration.[6] In 1992, Ukraine and China were studying whether to jointly develop the aircraft.[7]
In April 1994, a prototype of the aircraft was tested at the Russian Central Aviation Institute's transonic wind tunnel, with follow-up tests in July to finalize the design, but financial problems delayed the completion of the study as of November 1994.[8] By February 1995, joint manufacturing was expected to begin at the aircraft factories in Kharkiv, Ukraine and the Production Corporation Polyot plant in Omsk, Russia.[9] Because of extreme funding shortfalls from the Ukraine government, however, the development of the An-180 was fully suspended by August 1995.[10] In 1999, D-27 engines created by the Progress Design Bureau were still expected to be built for the An-180, according to the CEO of Motor Sich,[11] the Ukrainian manufacturer of the D-27.[12] Subsequent attempts to obtain commercial investment failed, though, and by 2004, the An-180 was no longer an Antonov project.[13]
As of 2003, the fuselage of an uncompleted An-180 aircraft remained in storage in a building used for assembly of Antonov's experimental models.[14]
Design
The An-180 was a conventionally designed low-wing cantilever monoplane with a conventional tail unit. The unusual feature was the mounting of an Ivchenko Progress D-27 propfan mounted at the end of each tailplane.[1] Each propfan was to have a coaxial contra-rotating tractor propeller, and the An-180 was also designed with a retractable landing gear with twin nosewheels, and tandem pairs of mainwheels.[1]
It was planned to have a number of variants with seating starting at 150–156 passengers, to a larger variant for 200 passengers, and it was also planned to build a combination passenger/freight and an all-freight variant.[1] The cabin is configured to use two aisles, with a seating row containing two seats each between an aisle and the adjacent windows/cabin walls, and two seats between the two aisles.[15] The undercarriage can store seven LD3-46 unit load devices.[1]
Specifications
Data fromBrassey's World Aircraft & Systems Directory[1]
^"Aircraft industry on financial problems". Ukraine: Economic issues. Central Eurasia: Annex. Daily Report (published December 7, 1994). Ukrinform. November 21, 1994. pp. 23–24 – via Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) and NewsBank. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
^Siruk, Mykola (August 12, 2003). "Ukrainian, Russian planes compete for CIS market". Den [The Day (Kyiv)]. Translated by BBC Monitoring Ukraine & Baltics. Kyiv, Ukraine (published August 15, 2003) – via Factiva.
Salnikov, Yuri Petrovich (Director) (1991). Легенда Боинга. Фильм II. Уроки Боинга [The legend of Boeing. Part II: The lessons of Boeing.] (Television production) (in Russian). Interviews with Yakovlev general designer A. Dondukov and Antonov general designer P. V. Balabuyev. Event occurs at 39:42 and 40:51 – via sibnet.ru.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
