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Russia works on a new heavy-lifter dubbed "Elephant" to replace An-124 Ruslan

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MOSCOW, RUSSIA — Engineers at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute in Russia (TsAGI) are working to enhance the aerodynamic configuration of a successor to the Antonov An-124 heavy-lifter, which is dubbed "Elephant." (www.airlinerwatch.com) More...

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alpineglobalprivate
Christian von Delius 1
What's wrong with current the AN-124...
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skylab72
skylab72 0
Seriously? Yet another non-story. Russia cannot even manufacture bearings for their own rail cars, how are they going to both design and build a new heavy lifter? They outsourced their best heavy-lift work to Ukraine and then POed the Ukrainians!
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WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 4
Where would this plane fly to besides within Russian borders?
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xtoler
Larry Toler 4
By the time it takes them to get it off the drawing board, built, and a few test flights later the political landscape hopefully has changed for the better. A lot can happen in 25 years, lol. In other words it's ot going to be built anytime soon.
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ftldave
Dave Underwood 2
Throughout its long history TsAGI has created countless studies and design concepts that never got past the paper they were drawn on, so assuming that the Russians will ever "fabricate, test, and approve" is a great leap of imagination at this point. It's great fun to look at TsAGI's many of TsAGI's Cold War projects that rival anything seen in the best science fiction, aircraft and space projects that were way beyond anything the Soviets could actually get built. That may be the case too with a new giant lifter, I bet, and something much more modest and compromising will come to light.
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LeanderWilliams
Leander Williams 3
Knowing Russia, they are probably doing what they have been doing ever since they reverse engineered the B29 into the Tu4. I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't already getting black-market parts through third parties to keep their Western planes airborne.
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dgfhyrte
Victor Hugo 2
You said it : reverse engineering is what they do best. You mentioned the B29, but also look at the TU144 vs Concord and their space shuttle Buran vs US shuttles. (this one fortunately never left ground, not alike the TU144 which crashed and killed 23 French ppl at Paris airshow)
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wears
George Otterman 2
In 1994 this plane carried a 120 ton locomotive from London Ontario Canada to Dublin Ireland.
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dgfhyrte
Victor Hugo 1
Was the AN225, not the 124.
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pagheca
pagheca 2
heavy-lifter to accommodate all avionics using valves and transistors, I guess.
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natki
N K 1
A bit if history. Antonov company was established in 1946 at the Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Association as the top-secret Soviet Research and Design Bureau No. 153 (OKB-153). It was headed by Oleg Antonov and specialised in turboprop military transport aircraft. The task was to create an agricultural aircraft CX-1 (An-2), the first flight of which occurred on August 31, 1947. The An-2 biplane was a major achievement of this period, with hundreds of these aircraft still operating as of 2013.[6] In addition to this biplane and its modifications, a small series of gliders A-9 and A-10 were created and built in the pilot production in Novosibirsk. In 1952, the Bureau was relocated to Kiev.
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Michel0
Michel B. 3
It is useless to cut and pasted (simply use a title with a Link) FYI wikipedia is NOT a reliable source
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mohenley
Mark Henley 1
True. They're not non-partisan as they like to claim, either.
I "watched" online as they frantically tried to modify all their existing pages that had content on the classic definition of "recession" after the White House re-defined yet another part of the English language.
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xtoler
Larry Toler 1
Hey, man we speak the 'Merican dialect. You expect me to go to my local liebary to read some books and do do actual research like they tried to teach us in high school? I'm from the Southeastern 'Merica two, just because I'm my own grandpa don't mean I don't know no English.
LOL, that was so painful typing that. I was just creating some levity on this thread. I am originally from Alabama though.
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mohenley
Mark Henley 1
That's pretty good! (LOL)
Like you, that would have been a real pain to type all that out -- my editorial hat would have to have been hung on the wall...
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xtoler
Larry Toler 2
Thank you.I made straight A's in English during high school. My first real test was my MoD counterparts and a bartender in England. My second real test was from my Guyanese mother-in-law who spoke the Queen's English while she was angry.
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AviationEnthusiast350
Luu Minh Bao 4
or is it to replace 225s
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dgfhyrte
Victor Hugo 1
Guess you are right, I expected someone to notice what's obviously a confusion : who needs so badly a 4 engines heavy cargo when so many competitors are already on this market with up to date machines ? Instead, replacing the AN 225 they childishly destroyed as an emblem could be a money making option.
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xtoler
Larry Toler 1
It used to be my toy, then someone took it and it's nobody's now.
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[This comment has been downvoted. Show anyway.]

21voyageur
21voyageur 15
Wrong website for your political diatribe. Many more appropriate website/forums out there for such beliefs.
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xtoler
Larry Toler 7
On an aviation standpoint it would be cool to see what they come up with. I hope it's not a C17 knockoff. It sounds like they're wanting so.ething that can do what the An124 and C5 can do. One thing that I always thought strange about Soviet Era built aircraft is using a crane to load cargo instead of using a with for some rolling stock. Also not having a retractable roller system on the floor for pallets or containers.
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ssobol
Stefan Sobol 5
An-124 has two multi-ton overhead cranes. These can be extended out under the tail to pick up stuff. No need to have wheels/rollers under the load to move it. I've seen the -124 pickup oversize crates and shipping containers, pull them inside, and put them where they need to be using these cranes.
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xtoler
Larry Toler 2
You are right. I've watched one pick a large generator while I was about an hour turn at IAD.i guess I'm used to my USAF aircraft.
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21voyageur
21voyageur 4
It's a big world outside of the US of A and there is a lot of wonderful technology out there.
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xtoler
Larry Toler 2
I agree, I spent most of the '90's in Europe with both the USAF and layer as a DoD civilian for the US Army. I also did have great opportunities working with our NATO partners.
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kevinkeswick
Kevin Keswick 5
Yes I'm very interested to see what they come up with. I agree that that gantry crane inside the An124 didn't seem to make much sense (to me at least) and of course it adds significant weight for no real purpose. I don't see why the heaviest loads can't be moved inside the aircraft on rollers.
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charlie02vy
Charlie Roberts 2
But will it be solar or wind turbine powered for green energy, using electric motors??
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patpylot
patrick baker 21
it may take as long for russian designers to think of , design, fabricate, test, and approve this elephant, years perhaps, as it will take to make some accomodation with the western aviation powers. So the ruskies build a mamouth lifter: who is going to let it fly in western airpace on any revenue flight? A name occurs for this elephant fantasy lifter: WHITE.......
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shenghaohan
Shenghao Han 1
Well C-5 aren't being used to fly revenue flight as well. An-124 used to fly cargo to far east from Moscow to Siberia.
The biggest motivation probably is An-124 depends on parts made in Ukraine, and after the war they will never get them.
Plus An-124 and IL-76 are really old designs... sooner or later they will build a new plane like more modern C-17 and Chinese Y-20
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jeffinsydney
jeff slack 16
.............. and who cares what Russia wants to do.

They have signalled to the world they are not interested in getting along with the rest of us; Russia is a big place but I doubt the elephant will justify its existence by flying between Russia's borders.
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21voyageur
21voyageur 2
The answer to your question is , , , , the Russians who are the audience for the news release. All about internal politics - NOT global as you are assuming.
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netzero
Net Zero 7
Conflicts don't last forever. Today's enemies can be tomorrow's friends. Look at the history.
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21voyageur
21voyageur 6
Indeed, cases in point , , , , Germany, Japan, Vietnam. Somebody is living in the moment.
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patpylot
patrick baker 7
putin is not on our list of potential friends, but perhaps the next guy will be, because he will want access to the rest of the world's financial operations, which putin will never be allowed to partake of. Russia has a practice of authoritarian leaders since the second world war uninterupted, and russian success at democracy and rules-following is scant. Russia is not a candidate for any meaningful friendship with the united states or most of the rest of the world.
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paulgilpin1953
paul gilpin 0
the "next guy" would presumably be Medvedev, who recently stated, "the americans should only be visible in our binoculars and gun sights".
interesting negotiating style he has there.
in 1917, the rushans traded the gawd fearing tzars for the gawdless tzars. they have never been communist. they have always be authoritarian, and always been a pariah since oleg tried to unite the slavs into the rus back in 998. the ukranians didn't want to have anything to do with them then either.
BTW, that 998 was not a typo. if you do the maths, you will figure out how long rusha has been a boil on the but of humanity.
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jprogers
John Rogers 1
"998 was not a typo". Who could tell, based on the rest of your post?
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