Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan confirmed its interest in purchasing 10 Ukrainian An-178 aircraft, President of the state enterprise “Antonov” Alexander Donets told Ukrainian media on July 31.

During the interview, he noted that there are demand and customers for the Ukrainian aircraft, pointing to the protocol of the last meeting with representatives of Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines certified on July 11.

“They confirmed their interest in purchasing 10 An-178 aircraft. Most likely, these will be planes from the NEXT range with components supplied by Aviall company,” Donets said.

Asked about the price of the aircraft, he said that it would be possible to answer this question after the conditions of withdrawal of the components from warehouses are defined.

An-178 is a military transport aircraft created by “Antonov” in April 2015. It is capable of delivering cargo up to 18 tonnes. The maximum speed of the plane reaches 850 kilometers per hour, while its highest altitude is approximately 12 kilometers. The first flight of the aircraft was operated on May 7, 2015.

The plane was produced via computer-aided design and engineering and can be used for both civilian and military purposes. Replacement of four-engined turboprop by two-engined is considered to be one of the most fundamental distinctive features of An-178.

The “Antonov” state enterprise is considered to be one of the few enterprises running the complete development cycle of advanced aircraft — from preliminary design to construction, testing, certification, production and integrated logistic support.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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