This Day in Aviation History
October 29th, 1959
First flight of the Antonov An-24.

The Antonov An-24 (Russian: Антонов Ан-24) (NATO reporting name: Coke) is a 44-seat twin turboprop transport/passenger aircraft designed in 1957 and manufactured in the Soviet Union by the Antonov Design Bureau.

First flown in 1959, over 1,000 An-24s of various marks were built and 880 are still in service worldwide, mostly in the CIS and Africa, with a total of 297 Antonov An-24 aircraft in airline service, as of May 2010. As of 2014, 133 units were still in airline service.

It was designed to replace the veteran piston Ilyushin Il-14 transport on short to medium haul trips, optimized for operating from rough strips and unprepared airports in remote locations. The high-wing layout protects engines and blades from debris, the power-to-weight ratio is higher than that of many comparable aircraft and the machine is rugged, requiring minimal ground support equipment.

Due to its rugged airframe and good performance, the An-24 was adapted to perform many secondary missions such as ice reconnaissance and engine/propeller test-bed, as well as further development to produce the An-26 tactical transport, An-30 photo-mapping/survey aircraft and An-32 tactical transport with more powerful engines. Various projects were envisaged such as a four jet short/medium haul airliner and various iterations of powerplant…..

Source:
Wikipedia, Antonov An-24: http://gstv.us/1P31dQW

YouTube, Antonov 24 Cockpit into Warsaw: http://gstv.us/1P31frT
 
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Photo from: http://gstv.us/2foBxVr
 
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