Antonov completes fuselage of An-132D airlifter demonstrator aircraft

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World Defense & Security Industry News - Antonov Company
 
 
Antonov completes fuselage of An-132D airlifter demonstrator aircraft
 
On February 8, 2016, the Ukrainian manufacturer Antonov Company completed assembly of the fuselage of the first new transport aircraft-demonstrator AN-132D. At present, works on the aircraft final assembly (joining the main aircraft aggregates – wing, tail union, pylons, engine nacelles) are in progress at the enterprise, Antonov announced on Feb. 11, 2016.
     
Antonov AN 132D fuselage 640 001Antonov An-132D demonstrator fuselage
(Credit: Antonov Company)
     
According to Mykhaylo Gvozdov, President of Antonov Company, «the next stage of the first AN-132 construction was performed in accordance with the approved schedule. So, we meet commitments to our partners and keep the fixed terms of the program development».

Completion of the AN-132 construction is scheduled for the end of 2016. After series of the test flights, Antonov and its partners on the programme: King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Taqnia Aeronautics Co. (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) will present the aircraft to the potential customers in Saudi Arabia.

«Our country needs such airplanes, the market has very high potential. Creating the AN-132 we generated a cluster of aerospace industry in one platform. We had a study that forecasting very good number of this aircraft to be utilized in Saudi Arabia», – said Dr. Khaled Abdullah Alhussain, Director of National Aerospace Technology Center, KACST.

Aircraft operators from South-East Asia and Latin America expressed their interest in the AN-132, stressed the company.

The AN-132 is a light multi-purpose transport aircraft jointly developed by Antonov and Taqnia Aeronautics Company. It is based on the An-32 twin-engine turboprop aircraft.