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Blame it on the Antonov

First published 1999

Guy A Massey reviews the impact the Russian Antonov 124 -100 freighter has had on the oversize air cargo market

development of market

Although still considered a niche market, oversize or out-of-gauge air cargo movements continues to grow at some 10 percent per annum, as opposed to eight percent for more-general air freight. This steady growth can be attributed in part to the awe-inspiring Antonov 124.

Traditionally all oversize cargo planes are either ex-military transporters or converted ex-passenger planes; a time consuming and costly exercise according to Paul Furlonger, commercial manager of Air Foyle, one of the world's two major oversize cargo operators.

Even considering Lockheed's Hercules, oversize cargo is a comparatively new industry which didn't fully mature until the early 1980's when the short-range, four-engined, turbo-prop Belfast, designed by Shorts for the RAF, became available for civilian use.

Although small by today's standards the Hercules stood the test of time. The Belfast, however, with its 34,000lbs payload and large drive-in rear ramp, offered civilian operators some major advantages over the ageing Hercules and Boeing's new 747 which, due to its high capital cost and comparatively small payload, had to be flown almost continuously in order for it to pay for itself. Airbus Industrie's Beluga faces a similar situation today although it's questionable whether the Beluga can ever pay for itself owing to its relatively small weight-carrying capacity.

But unquestionably the major stimulant to the oversize cargo industry came in 1987 when the Soviets displayed the Ukraine-designed and build Antonov AN124 'Ruslan' at the Paris Airshow. Referred to by NATO as The Condor, this huge, four engined, flying warehouse with a wingspan of 73.3 metres and a payload of 120,000kg caused enormous excitement. Apart from being the largest plane in the world at the time, (superseded now, although only in volumetric terms, by the Beluga) it was also by then well known that the American C5 Galaxy, the Antonov's nearest competitor, albeit smaller, would not be civilianised. The AN124-100 was therefore the plane to propel the industry forward.

Not only does the AN124 afford a huge payload, but both ends of the aircraft can be accessed via the fold-down hydraulic ramps, offering, in effect, full roll on-roll off facilities. Front end loading is further eased by the large flip-up nose-door, and the plane's unique ability to 'kneel' on its front undercarriage whereby the front ramp rises at a mere 8° to the ground.

Internally the aircraft is fitted with two 10 tonne overhead cranes which, with modification and the addition of two further cranes, can be improved upon to give a lifting capacity of up to 37 tonnes. Two on-board winches deal with the final positioning of heavy loads without the need for specialised airport ground handling equipment.

Users of the AN124 generally agree that it's is a well-made plane, let down only by its D-18T engines. But these have been upgraded and improved on and now, with regular maintenance and periodic overhauling, seem to hold together.

Although the Antonov Design Bureau (ADB), situated in Kiev, first tested the AN124 in flight in December 1982 the plane didn't begin commercial operations until 1989 through Air Foyle as its GSA Europe, North America and the Middle East. Thus at Paris in 1987, the Russians were touting for western business.

players

Nowadays two UK operators tend to dominate the oversize cargo market; Air Foyle and Heavylift. Airbus Industrie are making small inroads into the market having just taken delivery of its fourth Beluga (aka A300-600 Super Transporter) with a fifth planned for 2001. Arnaud Martin, business development director of Airbus Transport International, operators of the Beluga and a subsidiary of Airbus Industrie, said: "It allows us to continue responding positively to the external transport demands on a more longer term."

Others players include Titan, the Moscow-based operator who often quotes for business but due to a lack of cash-flow is generally unable to undertake any, and Rossiya who hasn't really operated commercially for the past couple of years. Polet Airlines, with offices in Voronezh and Ulyanovsk, Russia and Limassol, Cyprus, remains the third serious operator.

It took Luton-based Air Foyle two years of tough negotiation with the former Soviet Union to reach an agreement with the ADB to make available for commercial charter in the west the first AN124. In 1990 Air Foyle agreed to wet lease four AN124's with the option of further aircraft when required, but this agreement was superseded in September 1993 by a new and extended partnership arrangement whereby Air Foyle were appointed worldwide general sales agents by Antonov. This agreement included adding to Air Foyle's fleet the Antonov AN22 (60 tonne payload) and Antonov AN12 (20 tonne payload).

Although the Antonov 124 is the big-boy of the industry, it's not the only aircraft. The Ilyushin IL76, which first entered civilian service in 1975 and helped develop the market, is still operational but despite the latest model, the IL76 TD, offering a 50 tonne payload, it is now considered past its sell-by date. Furlonger suggests: "Although it offers a reasonable payload, it's too short in length thus poor on volume. It's also too noisy and are too fuel-greedy for most operations."

Among others, Air Foyle and Heavylift both have on-going programmes to convert their respective fleets of aircraft to meet Chapter 3 noise regulations as and when hush-kits become available and the planes become due for major maintenance. Air Foyle actually introduced its first husk-kitted aircraft in 1997.

Air Foyle presently has available six AN124s along with its AN12s AN22s and IL76s and now works closely with brokers and agents worldwide specialising in outsize and heavy cargo movements. Paul Furlonger says: "As the cost-effectiveness of air cargo become more widely recognised, industrial manufacturers, such as those in the power generation field, now build into their logistics programme the utilisation of the AN124 for transporting massive pieces of equipment." Incidentally, Air Foyle achieved the world record for carrying the heaviest single piece of cargo by air when, on 22 September 1993, it moved a 135 tonne turbine from Dusseldorf, Germany to New Delhi, India in an AN124. The company also holds the record for the heaviest total load when a 109 tonne, 32,000hp diesel locomotive, plus rails and load bridging sections totalling 146 tonnes, was airlifted from Canada to Ireland.

Arnaud Martin, of Airbus Transport International, said: "Our feeling is that the increase in demand for outsize one-piece elements occurred with the appearance on the market of the AN124 [in 1989] and the Beluga [in 1995]. We are currently solicited, in terms of available fight hours, for more than we can offer, which proves the demand of the market."

Possibly so, but as voluminous as the Beluga is at 1400m³, with a maximum payload of just 47 tonnes it's poor on weight-carrying capacity. Couple this to the fact the Super Transporter's primary role is to move Airbus sections between European production sites, and that it performed its first commercial charter only in February 1998, and it's easy to see why Martin can justify his statement.

The dolphin-looking Beluga was derived directly from the Airbus A300-600R as a long-term reliable replacement for the ageing Super Guppy. Its maiden flight took place on 13 September 1994 and Airbus Transport International presently operate four Super Transporters. Martin claims: "One ST is doing the same as 2.3 Super Guppies."

The Beluga's first commercial charter, and incidentally the largest ever charter flight in the US, was transporting a liquid oxygen tank, designed for the X-33/VentureStar Reusable Launch Vehicle, from New Orleans to Palmdale, California for Emery Worldwide; a Californian company that provides global air and ocean freight transportation.

Apart from the poor weight-carrying capacity, the Beluga's biggest handicap, compensated for only by the plane's huge internal volume, is the fact that the cargo deck is some five metres above ground level, and with no build-in ramp. Additionally the plane is not readily available for charter; Airbus Industrie taking priority.

Anotoly Karpov, director general of Polet, a company that operates two AN124s, believes that the 30% increase in turnover that Polet has witnessed since 1996 is largely due to the efficient, reliable and first-class service it offers. He is particularly proud of the fact that not once, during 1997 or 1998, was a contract broken. Karpov also states that on one occasion there was a time lapse of just 4½ hours between the initial inquiry and an Antonov taking-off to undertake the assignment.

Polet was established in 1988 and in 1997 was voted 'the safest company in Russia' by the FA services of Russia. Although the company's head office is situated in Voronezh, its sales, marketing and Antonov operations are carried out from Limassol, while the planes are maintained in Ulyanovsk.

In April this year Polet took delivery of a new purpose-built rail system to facilitate the loading and transportation of extra-heavy and unique one-piece cargoes weighing up to 100 tonnes. Karpov explained: "It's six separate loading platforms, weighing just 12 tonnes in total, which can be used individually or linked together. It has greatly expanded our options in the worldwide market and means that Polet Cargo Airlines can now offer unparalleled flexibility, time efficient loading and ultimate delivery of single or multiple outsized cargo pieces."

Polet's market research has ascertained that there is scope in the US for 'a reliable and professional oversize cargo carrier.' Thus, at the start of 1998, the company submitted an official application for a licence to operate its Antonovs in North America. This was accepted by the US Department of Transport in October 1998 and Polet expects to commence flying there shortly.

An interesting variation on oversize cargo is Polet's concept of using an AN124 to 'drop' a satellite-tipped launch vehicle (LV) at an altitude of 11,000metres. Following the vertical stabilisation by parachutes, the LV would fire its first-stage engines and enter earth's orbit. According to estimates offered the cost of one kilogram of orbited payload would be just $5,000 compared to $40,000 asked for by the US Space Shuttle.

Karpov concludes by saying: "Polet's strategic plan is to remain a permanent feature in the worldwide air cargo industry."

Despite the heavy high-profile, one-off loads, Antonov 124s are regularly used for low weight transportation as the other manufacturing industries come to recognise that the benefits of speed very often outweigh the drawbacks of cost. Polet, for example, will shortly be freighting grapes to the EU to satisfy the Christmas demand. In July 1998 Air Foyle transported a 10 tonne A340 aircraft engine for AOG from Stansted to Narita and in the previous month two industrial coolers, weighing just seven tonnes, were moved from Washington to Helsinki. Additionally almost every month Air Foyle makes a Luxembourg - Mexico run with car components.

Also making regular runs to Mexico with car parts is Stansted-based Heavylift. Founded in 1980 with an ex-RAF Belfast, the company became joint partners with VolgaDnepr, an independent joint stock company based at Ulyanovsk, (where the AN124 and TU204 are built) in 1991. Originally this was to market the Antonov 124, but that honour was snatched away by Air Foyle in 1989. The company now wet leases seven AN124s, an AN12, an IL76, two Belfasts and three Airbus A300B4s, converted Air France passenger planes.

According to Vince Seeger, commercial manager for Heavylift-VolgaDnepr: "The oversize market continues to grow as manufacturers, partly due to us educating them, become more aware of our capabilities and capacities." Although Heavylift-VolgaDnepr tends to specialise in the aerospace and oil industry, the company has undertaken many assignments for Rock-It Cargo, a company specialising in the field of entertainment transport. However Seeger said: "We are always looking for and at new projects."

Heavylift-VolgaDnepr is hoping to increase it fleet with an additional six or seven A300s and whatever AN124s become available. As an aside it is interesting to note that the company now carries out its Antonov maintenance at Shannon Airport, Ireland.

over the horizon

The industry believes that the AN124 in its current form still has at least 10, and possibly 20, years of working life left in it. This is just as well as the AN22 is now getting a touch long in the tooth and the IL76, although potentially operational for another 20 years, is likely to be killed off, certainly in the western world, by its noise, heavy fuel bills and lack of readily available spares. Fitting PS90 engines to it would, however, give it a new lease of life, as would husk-kits.

The US military has made it abundantly clear that the C5 Galaxy will not be civilianised, and Boeing's 70 tonne C17, destined for the US Air Force, is still a new plane and an unknown quantity.

For the foreseeable future that leaves, at the heavy end of the market, the Antonov 225, with its 250 tonne payload. But the original plane, designed to carry the Soviet Buran space shuttle, is now languishing, due to lack of finance, on the apron in Kiev, having last flown in 1996. Full testing of the first 225 is some 65 percent complete while aircraft number two is only around 50 percent built. It's highly probable though that western capital will be injected into Antonov to finish the project and it's equally highly likely that an AN225 will be flying commercially within the next two years.

At the lighter end of the market the 30 tonne Antonov 70, with its four-metre by four-metre, large volume hold, is currently in flight testing. When available, in two years, it's expected to be a replacement for the IL76 and AN22.

helicopters

Although not heavy cargo transporters in the accepted sense, helicopters offer a valuable addition to the available arsenal of air-transportation equipment. What a helicopter may lose in gross payload is often compensated for by the fact the cargo can be installed in its final position; often many hundreds of metres up.

The Seattle, USA-based Erickson Air-Crane Company, with its fleet of 15 S-64 models E (9,071kgs lifting capacity) and F (11.339kgs lifting capacity) Aircranes, specialise in the precision placement of all types of loads. Its operational experience includes positioning more than 20,000 large roof-top units and the erection of greater than 7,000 miles of powerline transmission towers. The company topped off the world's tallest self-supported structure (over 548m) located in Toronto, Canada and removed and replaced the Statue of Freedom from the dome of the US Capitol Building in Washington DC.

Dennis Hubbard for the company said: "The Aircrane is unique in design as it's the only helicopter in the world with an aft-facing pilot station. This enables the pilot to have an unlimited view of the load being carried. To assist in the placement of large loads Erickson's patented cargo handling system restrains the load from rotating."

Heli-logging with the S-64 Aircrane is an cost-effective and environmentally-sound method of harvesting timber. The Aircrane draws on its 9,600hp jet engines to lift felled timber up and out of the forest floor significantly reducing negative impact on erodable soils and delicate habitat areas.

airships

More than sixty years after the Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937, which proved to be the deathblow for the great German-built Zeppelins, a new German company is planning to launch another era of gigantic airships dedicated to freight transportation.

CargoLifter AG, formed in 1996 by Dr Carl von Gablenz, grandson of the co-founder of Lufthansa, is designing a new transportation system that will use the latest generation of airships to carry cargo from point-to-point around the world.

The CL160, the first in a series of airships being designed and built by CargoLifter, is expected to have a carrying capacity of 160,000kgs. By using a uniquely-designed crane system, the CL160 should be able to load and unload cargo while hovering at about 100metres. This opens up the possibility of transporting heavy or oversize cargoes, in one swift movement, from original place of manufacture to eventual destination, and final even positioning, to almost any location in the world, irrespective of the local infrastructure such as roads and airports. Dr von Gablenz stated: "Unlike fixed-wing aircraft, there is no need for runways and taxiways, so basically all we need is a large clearing."

At 240metres long and 61metres in diameter, the CL160 will be one of the largest airships ever built. While it will resemble its dirigible ancestors the CL160 will feature a semi-rigid design, including rigid keel, and a compartmentalised envelope filled with non-flammable helium gas. Initially power will be from low-revolution diesel engines, whose exhaust will be recycled onboard to yield water for ballast, but future plans envisage using solar power for propulsion. The airship are expected to cruise at 80 - 120 kilometres per hour, at altitudes of 2,000metres or less which, because of its size and construction, will be virtually unaffected by wind and weather.

Although the first CL160 will not be fully operational until 2002, the company introduced to much acclaim 'Joey', a 1:8 operating scale model, at the Transport and Logistics show in Leipzig on 6 May 1998. Joey will be used by CargoLifter to demonstrate the CL160's crane system.

CargoLifter believes that in the future airships will be able to transport payloads of up to 450 metric tons, or one million pounds!

specifications

© Copyright Guy Massey

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