The full name of the combat unit sounded like this: 556th Solnechnogorsk Red Banner Order of Kutuzov III degree military transport aviation regiment. The flight crews began to get acquainted with the An-22 in 1972 at two sites at once: in Tashkent and Kuibyshev. By the end of the year, the 1st squadron of the air regiment received the first five aircraft, and by 1974 the total number of "Anteyevs" reached 18 boards. Three An-12s acted as younger brothers in the regiment.
An-22 as part of the 556th regiment from the very beginning began active combat work. In fact, the machine received its baptism in combat conditions during the next round of tensions between the Arabs and the Israelis, when nine aircraft were working on the transfer of Soviet military equipment to the Middle East. The work took place under the code of Operation Caucasus. This was followed by peaceful work at the Samotlor field in the Tyumen region. From December 27, 1974 to January 27, 1975, the Antei delivered more than 1,100 tons of payload to the oilmen. The regiment's vehicles from Solnechnogorsk were also used to support the Shield-74, Spring-75 and West-81 exercises. Whole airborne units with equipment - BMD-1, GAZ-66 and other weapons - were parachuted from the Anteevs. The winged machines of the 556th regiment, in addition to their main work, participated in the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident, transported humanitarian aid to Ethiopia and to Armenia, which suffered from the earthquake.
The cargo compartment is the main pride of the An-22 "Antey"
It is noteworthy that with all the activity of the operation of equipment in the 556th regiment, only two vehicles were lost. At the end of 1976, in the area of the Dubrovka village of the Bryansk region, during military trials, board No. 05-01 fell under the command of Major V. A. Efremov. An abnormal situation began at an altitude of 4000 meters at a speed of 380 km / h, when the ship's commander deflected the rudder to the right immediately by 25 degrees. The mistake was that the assignment required only 17 degrees. Such a sharp maneuver led to a deep slip of the car with a sharp descent. The pilot responded by taking the helm “on himself” in the hope of rectifying the situation, but the An-22 reached supercritical angles of attack with a further stall. The car randomly fell 3, 5 kilometers, until at 600 meters in front of the ground it was not possible to bring it into horizontal flight. It ended tragically - the An-22 could not stand the four-fold overload, partially collapsed in the air and exploded on impact on the ground. The crew, due to the transience of the emergency, could not leave the plane and were buried in full force under the wreckage of the An-22. Further, work on testing the machine in similar modes continued already in the 8th VTAP and already at an altitude of 7000 meters. The results were disappointing - only test pilots, but not combat pilots, can be ready to get out of such situations. According to the results of the tests, the angle of deflection of the rudders was limited, and the pilots were generally advised not to use them during maneuvering - the Antei had enough ailerons.
The interior of the cockpit and navigator. The last two photos were taken in the German Museum in Speyer.
The second time the regiment lost its car, but the crew just miraculously survived. On June 8, 1977, from the Sescha airfield, native to the 556th regiment, at a speed of 260 km / h, aircraft number 04-05 did not want to take off. The crew commander, Major A. N. Stenyaev made a decision already at 280 km / h to stop takeoff, applying braking of the landing gear, transferring the throttle to "ground low throttle" and removing the propellers "from the stop." However, with a take-off weight of 190 tons, all this turned out to be not very effective - the An-22 rolled out of the runway for almost a kilometer, ran into a freeway embankment and caught fire. Further investigation showed that a stalled elevator was the cause of the loss of the expensive aircraft. At the same time, all the devices controlling it showed the commander the complete serviceability of this unit. The designers had to bring the end microswitch into proper condition, which became the main culprit for the loss of the aircraft.
The operation of the An-22 in the 556th VTAP was not devoid of flight accidents of varying complexity. One of them was the incident on August 16, 1975. On this day, aircraft No. 06-04 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel K. V. Vlasinkevich distinguished itself by the failure of the nose landing gear - it did not go out before landing at the Seshcha airfield. After meetings with flight management and design bureau specialists, the crew went to extreme measures. They cut a hole in the wall of the right aisle of the attendants' cab and cut down the AMG-10 slurry discharge pipe from the drain cavity of the hydraulic cylinder for the landing gear. As a result, the landing gear was locked and the car landed successfully.
The photographs clearly show the working conditions of the An-22 crew members
With the An-22, there were also unpleasant stories due to the fault of the crew. So, in October 1979, board No. 05-08, when crossing the border with Afghanistan, was supposed to rise from an echelon of 6000 meters to 6600, but all the propellers in response to moving the throttle forward unexpectedly got airborne. Moreover, all engines failed, and the plane went into a dive. It happened at night, and the commander was asleep in the cabin of the attendants. As it turned out, the reason was the negligent attitude of the flight engineer, who inattentively carried out the pre-flight maintenance of the Antey. The car, which managed to descend by 1, 6 kilometers, was rescued, and the crew landed safely in Kabul. Interestingly, none of the crew reported the incident, and only two years later the incident surfaced on the onboard tape recordings.
In January 1984, a unique case occurred - during a night takeoff from Budapest at an altitude of 250 meters, the aileron control system failed. The reason was the loosening of the right aileron root section hinge bolt. An-22 began an intensive descent at a speed of 20-25 m / s, a roll angle of 50 degrees, and only the professional work of flight technician Captain Yuri Fomin made it possible to bring the aircraft into the horizon at an altitude of only 70 meters. To do this, he first transferred control to the servo wheels, and then to the boosters.
The personnel of the 556th VTAP had to say goodbye to the An-22 since 1987, when the Anteyas were replaced by even more monstrous An-124s. The turboprop machines were transferred to the 81st VTAP, and later to the 8th Aviation Regiment.
An-22 №05-10, nicknamed "Parrot" for its characteristic protective coloration. Attributed to the 8th VTAP
Probably one of the most charismatic aircraft of the An-22 series was the Antey # 01-10 in protective livery, the origin of which is still not fully understood. According to one of the versions, the car received camouflage for participation in hostilities in Afghanistan, but in the conditions of a mountainous Central Asian country, desert camouflage would look much more logical. The second version of the origin of the coloring is more believable. In accordance with it, the An-22A was included in the test program for a new anti-radar coating, as well as research on the effectiveness of automatic jamming machines APP-50. As a result, it turned out that the coloring does not at all reduce the visibility of the giant in the radio range, but the APP-50 came out as a successful development and went into series. And the khaki coating remained on the plane, although it increased the weight of the car by three tons at once.
Participated "Antei" (as part of the 8th VTAP) in the military operations of the Soviet Army in Afghanistan. Not a single car was lost during the hostilities. The most ambitious was the work of 17 An-22s at once from the airfields of Bykhov, Chebenki and Engels, when a lot of equipment and personnel of the Airborne Forces were transferred to Bagram, Kabul and Kandahar. Although, of course, the real kings of the sky in Afghanistan were the more modern, albeit less heavy-duty Il-76.
With the current situation in the Russian Air Force, the An-22 looks like a working pensioner who is not so far away from retirement. In 2012, the service life of all Anteevs was extended until 2020, and in the future it is planned to carry out major overhauls of the entire fleet of giants and extend the service life to 50 years. The 308th aircraft repair plant in Ivanovo was chosen as a site for large-scale repairs.
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