eehnie wrote:Vladimir79 wrote:eehnie wrote:For military purposes the An-2 has too low service ceiling. 4500m means the aircraft can not fly avoiding manpads.
In the role of transport aircraft, the An-2 and the current aircrafts of its size cathegory lack the payload necessary to be useful today.
In the role of airliner aircraft, the An-2 lacks the capacity to make its use profitable today.
In overall terms this concept is outdated today.
All it is reflected in the low number of orders of the successors of the An-2 in the last decades.
Of course the units in service still are used, but in the refered to the Russian Armed Forces very likely are under exhaustion in the mid-term and will not have replacement with aircrafts of its size cathegory. In this aircraft cathegory helicopters dominate.
It is only $1.5m per unit, that is the selling point. There are many countries that cannot afford more but still need this capability.
Taking into account the size of most of the countries, they are not tempted by the opton of longer range with really minimal payload.
These countries tend to order helicopters. Russia prepared a good range of models to offer in the size cathegories around the size of the An-2:
Ka-27 + Mi-8 families
Ka-60/62
Mi-Ansat
Ka-226
All them more successful than the aircrafts of the list of my previous comment, or with better prospect (in the case of the Ka-60/62
None of those helicopters have the range of An-2 and nowhere near the TVS 2DTS. When TVS 2DTS comes into production and start selling I will be there to remind you to eat your words lol