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Antonov
An-2 Colt in Detail
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Your trusty webmaster
warms up hopping in front of the An-2 on display at the Army Museum
in Warsaw on a cold Autumn afternon. There could
hardly be any better place to shoot a walkaround of an An-2 than
Poland. The bulk of its long production run was made by WSK Mielec. Many of the produced machines were, and indeed still are
used by the Polish Air Force as unit hacks, light transports,
parachute training or special duty aircraft. One retired Polish Air
Force example is being shown here. |
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Configuration-wise,
the An-2 still holds the record as the World's largest single engine biplane. I don't know of
any other similar aircraft ever produced. Noorduyn Noresman and DHC
Beaver come to mind, both originating in the same time frame and out
of a similar need. However, these aircraft were
monoplanes, and much smaller. |
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The engine has a history on its own. It is in fact a direct descendant of the Wright R-1820 Cyclone, which has been licensed and produced by the Soviet Union in the 1930s to power the Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 fighters. As such, it always ranked as one of the world's most durable aircraft engines. A rudimentary circular oil cooler is provided below the cowling. |
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The same aircraft in full daylight showing what's visible inside the cowling from the distance. This view also shows that the propeller is painted in a rather vivid blue colour. |
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Close-up of the engine
shows details of the nine-cylinder radial and the propeller hub with
its characteristic pitch control mechanism. |
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Lower forward fuselage of another An-2 from one of the German air museums shows an oil cooler of a different type. Even though the
majority of An-2 were produced in Poland, the standards of
manufacturing seemed to have closely followed Soviet industrial practice
in that aircraft modifications on the production line were not seen
as justifying change of model designations. Therefore, one can
expect to find numerous small differences between An-2 airframes of
different production series. |
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The engine has an
exhaust collector ring placed behind the row of cylinders with a single exhaust pipe going out on the starboard
side of the cowling. Very visible oil leaks on
the entire lower forward fuselage area are another signs of the 1930s ancestry of the engine. |
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Close-up of the lower
cowling showing its fasteners and the additional air scoops and
access hatches in this area.
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More scoops and vents of the lower right cowling. Note how the engine
oil formed a brown residue collecting along and emphasizing major
panel division lines. |
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