Antonov An-26

what is it?

The Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name: Curl, nicknamed Nastia in the USSR) is a twin-engined turboprop regional airliner and military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986. It is the third member of the Antonov An-24 family, coming after the An-24 and An-30, while preceding the An-32 and cancelled An-132. The An-26 is still license-produced in China as the modern version of the Xi'an Y-7.

🔎How to recognise it: 3 turboprops · 29.3 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 433 km/htop speed
• range 2,500 kmwithout refuelling
• seats 40passengers
• size 24 tmax take-off weight
• built 1,403made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 57 years ago, in 1969.
• 🏎️Top speed is 3.3× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 29.3 m: about 7 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 4 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🌍Range of 2,500 km: 14× Amsterdam to Brussels.

turboprop: A jet-style turbine turning a propeller: efficient on short hops.

spec sheet

first flight

1969-05-21

introduced

1973

status

still flying

number built

1,403

role

transport aircraft / regional airliner

origin

🇷🇺 Soviet Union

makers

Antonov, Antonov Serial Production Plant

engines

3× Progress AI-24VT / Tumansky Ru19A-300 / AI-24T / Ivchenko AI-24VT

passengers

40

length

23.8 m

wingspan

29.3 m

height

8.6 m

max take-off weight

24 t

top speed

433 km/h

cruise speed

440 km/h

range

2,500 km

ceiling

7,500 m

ICAO code

AN26

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.