Antonov Design Bureau?
 

Flying out of MSY yesterday I saw a white C-130 transport with no markings other than Antonov Design Bureau on the tail. Anyone know who/what they are.

Hmm...are you sure it was a C-130? There is an Antonov An-70 that greatly resembles out C-130 Hercules. Can you remember--did it have what looked like twin counter-rotating props on each engine?

The Anotnov Design Bureau is a large Ukranian aircraft builder.

The An's are actively used in cargo transport.

In fact, An's were used for transport of 777 engines during the plane's development.

I often see one at IAH.

Sorry for the new name, dudes (California_Jon2), but flyertalk doesn't seem to keep passwords past a year. So I had to create a new profile and register and all. I read the BB infrequently, due to communications restrictions at the work site, but I am still a regular.

And what I just had to say is, who IS this guy (hnechets)?

By the way, Dude, thanks for the advice on TTR. A really cool drive!

As already pointed out, the plane was likely an Antonov, not a C-130. Antonov is a cargo plane builder that builds planes similar to the C-130 and C-5 ... Several months ago I saw an one of the big ones (like the C-5) at MSY ... it was parked at the end of the DL terminal, which is where they seem to park large visiting cargo aircraft (USAF C-130's and the C-5 that came down with the president a few months ago for instance).

California_Jon2...you didn't get lost in Area 51 after all http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I posted here a few months ago, wondering what had happened to you. There are a bunch of us that get to LAS regularly. We'd love to meet you, if you're not a 'security risk'.

Welcome back.

I echo Beckles welcome back, California_jon2. Glad you haven't gotten lost out there!

I'll also be in LAS for a company all-hands meeting this month, 6-22 through 6-24. Maybe some of us can meet that weekend!

And, BTW, there's no mystery about me. I just worked for many years with the Air Force/Army/Navy, etc. Plus I grew up next to Eglin AFB. So I just picked up a lot of stuff about planes, rockets and missiles.

Hi, shadow. I missed that, or I would of replied, soory. But yeah, I am in las vegas and sometimes Reno a lot. It would be too cool to actually meet some of you gurus of the air!!!

Beckles, that humongo cargo plane would either be the AN 124 or the really, really big AN 225 (with the dual vertical stabilizers) operated by Heavylift International (I think).

We used to see them parked at Salt Lake City on occasion. It was awesome to just land and see them parked. My guess is that they were taking on oversize cargo for Thiokol which became Cordant.

Jim

As far as I know, there was only one An-225 ever built. It was custom-made for the transport of the now-mothballed Russian Space Shuttle Buran. And it is quite unmistakable - it is the largest plane ever built, and it has 6 engines. Here's a good resource for Antonov aircraft: (LOTS of impressive pictures)
http://www.west.net/~brianl/ruslan.htm