Antonov is currently working on its restructuring, and should also adapt its aircraft to a new scenario for the company, which is now operating without the An-225 and had two units of the An-124 damaged in Gostomel.
According to pilot Dmytro Antonov, who now flies the smaller brother of the An-225, the An-124 Ruslan, he declared that all planes in the company's fleet will be updated. In addition, two aircraft that were at the Gostomel Airport, near Kiev, must be restored, since they were damaged in the Russian attacks on the place.
“The Rulans and An-28, which were damaged, will be restored”, said Dmytro in a video answering questions from subscribers, which you can check out below:
Antonov Airlines currently has five active An-124 aircraft, and two more (UR-82073 and UR-82009) that were under maintenance in Gostomel at the time of the war. The others were at the operational base in Leipzig, which will also carry out heavy maintenance on the freighters from now on.
All Antonov An-124s will be upgraded to the -100M-150 version, equipped with new avionics and Progress D-18T engines, allowing flights performed by GPS operations such as RNAV and the transport of up to 150 tons of cargo on board . The Ukrainian company only has two planes of this version currently, and the other planes do not have structural reinforcements, and allow to transport up to 120 tons.
Honeywell avionics also reduces the technical crew from 6 to 4 people, and is now available in the AN-124-100M version. The bigger brother, the An-225, did not have these upgrades incorporated, which allowed reducing the number of crew per operation.
The Ukrainian Antonov An-124 freighter is 69 meters long, about 21 meters high and has a wingspan of approximately 73 meters. The cargo cabin is pressurized and has a total volume of 1050 m³.
Another curiosity of this aircraft is that it has a landing gear equipped with 24 wheels and allows you to change the angle of the fuselage to simplify loading operations. In addition, it has two loading entrances, both with entrance ramps.
