From 22 to 26 September 2015, the AN−70 short takeoff and landing military transport performed an international flight and carried a military cargo within evaluation of transport capacity and widening the operational conditions.
From the Kyiv−Antonov airport, the aircraft flew to Bangui, Central African Republic. This flight endured 9 hours 2 minutes. In Bangui, the AN−70 took on board a cargo weighting 23.6 tons. After that, the aircraft landed in Ndjamena, the Republic of Chad. According to Viktor Goncharov, test pilot of ANTONOV, the crew captain, “from Ndjamenaairport we took off under a temperature of +33 Celsius degrees with a take−off weight close to the maximum. The aircraft confirmed designed data of the take off parameters including length of the runway distance. AN−70 also showed good climb rate“.
After 6−hour flight, the AN−70 arrived to the place of the cargo destination – to Istres, France. The aircraft returned to the Kyiv−Antonov airport with intermediate stop in Leipzig, Germany.
In this expedition AN−70 was in the air more than 20 hours, flew over 13,600 km. Throughout the route the aircraft demonstrated its high flying, take off and landing characteristics as well as low fuel consumption. On−board handling equipment was tested under actual operating conditions. All the tasks were performed successfully.
