In the Tyumen region, the discovery of the giant Samotlor field coincided with the creation of the An-22. Even now it is not easy to get there, and in the second half of the 60s it was possible only by air. It was "Antey" that took on the main load in the delivery of large-sized equipment and urgent cargo, and the first in this business were the crews of test pilots from the Antonov Design Bureau.
Transport workers with tail numbers 01-01 and 01-03 in March 1969 transported to Tyumen more than 620 tons of bulldozers, gas turbine stations and many other useful little things. And in November 1970 from Leningrad to Cape Schmidt "Antey" transported a diesel power plant weighing 50 tons. At the same time, they did not stop experimenting with the An-22: in the 70th year, Yuri Kurlin lifted a car into the air, in the hold of which there were two excavators with a total weight of 60 tons. And the highlight of this flight was that Antey took off from the Surgut airfield, covered with a meter layer of snow! Our hero-heavy truck was also busy transporting elements of the fuselage of the supersonic Tu-144, which at that time was under development. The winter of 1972-73 was tense, during which the Antei were again involved in the transfer of hundreds of tons of heavy equipment to the young oil and gas province of the country. Terskoy wrote about this time:
“During the tests, there was the only serious improvement associated with the introduction of a nonlinearity mechanism into the elevator channel, which reduced the increased control sensitivity, especially at rear alignments. The ailerons were slightly "corrected".
Maintenance giant
After the devastating earthquake, the Armenian Spitak received humanitarian aid from the bottomless holds of the An-22, which were piloted by test pilots S. Gorbik, Y. Ketov and E. Litvinichev. In Farnoboro in 1988, the An-124, the older turbojet brother of the Anthea, was unable to carry out the demonstration program due to engine breakdown. An-22 came to the rescue and promptly delivered a three-meter D-18T to Great Britain. At the stage of fine-tuning tests, the An-22 in 1969 took part in the large-scale Vostok-69 exercises, during which the vehicles transferred equipment and personnel from the Far East without landing for 16 hours. Antey provided the delivery of large-sized fragments of the giants An-124 and An-225 to the assembly sites - these were sides 01-01 and 01-03. Test pilots Yu. Kurlin and I. Davydov were awarded gold stars of Heroes of the Soviet Union in 1966 and 1971, respectively, for their work in the An-22 tests.
An-22 in Peru
Unloading a house in Surgut in February 1972
Unloading the Komatsu dump truck in Polyarny
By the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU No. 4-2 of January 3, 1974, the An-22 Antey was officially adopted, but it was more of a formality. The military began to master the machine back in 1967. For this, the 5th squadron of the 229th military transport aviation regiment was formed as part of the 12th Red Banner Mginsky military transport aviation division. And at the beginning of 1970, on the basis of this squadron, which flew on the An-22, the 81st military transport aviation regiment was formed, located in Ivanovo. It was in Ivanovo on January 10, 1969 that the first serial An-22 with the serial number 01-09, which later became the USSR-09301, came from the Tashkent TAPO. At first, the crew included a flight engineer, since the car was an order of magnitude more complicated than all previous technology for such a purpose. In addition, representatives of both the design bureau and the manufacturer constantly worked in Ivanovo.
It is worth mentioning separately the difficulties that had to be faced in the early stages of operation. Each aircraft was serviced by 22 ground personnel, and flight preparation could take up to two days. It was impossible to talk about any operational readiness at that time. Over time, everything was optimized, and only a few technicians remained with each machine. One senior technician was responsible for de-icing, fuel systems and air conditioning, a second senior technician and mechanic worked with the propulsion system, a third technician was responsible for hydraulic equipment and control, and individual specialists worked with the airframe, landing gear and air system. Everything was commanded by the flight engineer of the aircraft. In the absence of a team of ground technical personnel, the technical work was entrusted to the flight engineer, senior flight technicians for aviation and landing equipment, the radio operator, navigator and the second pilot. In general, there was enough work for everyone.
The consequences of meeting the eagle
An explosion on the left plane near the USSR-09301 aircraft at the Yakutsk airport (1980-10-06)
The first operational problems began to be delivered by power plants. The cracked steel gas outlet pipes were replaced with titanium analogs. The main difficulties were with cold engine starts in winter. The engine oil was not designed for winter at all and thickened already at -5 degrees. Therefore, it was necessary to warm up the engines with gasoline heaters four to five hours before departure, the hot air from which was directed to the nacelles along canvas sleeves. But common sense prevailed: the steel was heated from an auxiliary power unit, and the engines were prescribed oil that did not lose viscosity down to -30 degrees. The complexities of maintenance did not end there. The procedures for opening and closing the wing panels to repair the fuel tanks drank a lot of blood by the technicians along with the replacement of the NK-12MA motors and AV-90 propellers. Strong-looking wheels and brake drums were the weak link in the An-22 chassis. They often did not withstand heavy landings. They were replaced with reinforced KT-130 and KT-131, and magnesium brake drums were also installed, but even in this case, they could withstand no more than ten landings. Therefore, spare wheels and brake drums have become the usual cargo in all Antey's travels, and this is extra weight.
At first, not every transport An-22 could complete its planned flight - equipment failures were regularly recorded. Actually, it was a common practice with new samples of equipment of this level of complexity. We must pay tribute to the engineering staff, who eliminated most of the defects and put the car on the wing.
The first pilots who mastered the An-22. 81st Military Transport Aviation Regiment
Navigator Sysoev V. E. examines the antenna of the KP-3 locator. Summer 1975
Not without flight accidents. In early September 1967, during the flight, the aircraft commander switched the power supply of the barometric instruments from the main wiring to the reserve one. But he did it for a reason, but moved the crane to an intermediate position instead of a reserve one. And in addition, he bent the limiting stop of the crane, which turned off the power indicator of the commander and navigator. As a result, they landed the plane according to the testimony of the co-pilot, whose role was played by an experienced instructor.
Further, it will be appropriate to cite the story of the flight engineer-instructor Major A. Ya. Zhuravel, who quotes the author Nikolai Yakubovich in his book "Military transport giant An-22":
“In 1971, the regiment carried out night flights. According to the planned schedule, with the onset of night, our An-22 USSR - 09310 was supposed to take off first. In addition to me, the crew also included: the commander of the ship, Major V. I. Panov, assistant commander of the ship V. N. Rybkin and navigator V. L. Chigin. During takeoff in the second half of the takeoff run, it turned out that the speed indicators for the entire crew did not work. We all saw that the plane was picking up speed intensively, but the arrows of the speed indicator showed "0 km / h". It was too late to stop takeoff and slow down. There was no panic, but, to put it mildly, everyone was worried. The ship's commander, Valery Ivanovich Panov, instantly assessed the situation and made the only correct decision to continue takeoff with inoperative instruments. Very calm and cold-blooded words of the commander, addressed to the crew: “Guys, do not worry and calm down. Everything will be fine. Let's take off and sit down."
Such confident words and calm tone had a magical effect on everyone, instilled confidence in the successful outcome of the flight. We took off and walked along the box to land. That year we already had little experience in operating the An-22 aircraft in the air, so the speed around the circle and on landing the commander and I had to determine "by eye" by the position of the engine control levers. In the instructions to the crew on actions in special cases in flight, this was not provided. It was only thanks to the great flying skill of the ship commander that the plane successfully completed a circle flight and landed with inoperative speed indicators. It was not for nothing that colleagues said then that Panov was a pilot from God. After landing, the cause of this emergency was found out. During the pre-flight preparation of the aircraft, ground-based instrumentation specialists disconnected the dynamic pressure line of the incoming air and forgot to connect it.
In 1973, US President Ford paid a visit to the USSR. The 81st VTAP was given the task of transporting communication equipment from Moscow to Vozdvizhenka airfield, used to ensure his visit. The crew of Major N. F. Borovskikh on An-22 USSR - 09310 solved the problem by delivering the equipment to its destination. It was time to return to the home airfield. During takeoff from Vozdvizhenka, the pneumatic of the middle pillar of the left landing gear collapsed, which I found after takeoff. Landing became problematic as the crew had no relevant experience. The commander of the ship made the decision to land at the departure airfield. After running out of fuel to the permitted landing weight, the aircraft landed successfully. In September of that year, in the afternoon, the crew of the same side (commander of the ship, Major V. I. Panov, assistant commander V. N. Rybkin, navigator V. L. Ivanovo (North). When approaching Ivanovo at an echelon of 5700 meters, the aircraft, due to the fault of the flight management group, fell into thunderclouds, became uncontrollable and began to rapidly lose altitude. The engines and rudders worked properly, the crew made every effort to get out of the clouds, but the car remained uncontrollable and continued to fall. At an altitude of 4200 meters, the plane with a large roll fell out into the clouds. The crew immediately eliminated the roll, brought the car into a level flight and continued the flight along the route. After landing in Ivanovo, the torn off fairing and antenna of the Initiative-4-100 radar, as well as the cable antenna.
The crew with the flight engineer are ready to fly
