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The plane that can fly backwards
The Antonov An-2 first flew in 1947, as the Soviet Union was rebuilding after the tumult of World War II. Even on its maiden flight it looked archaic; aviation technology had already joined the jet age. But the An-2 was an incredibly sound design – built in the thousands, exported all across the globe, and still serving nearly 70 years after decades of production. And the plane has one very special attribute – aside from its remarkably short take-off and landing – that should be physically… (www.bbc.com) עוד...
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Nothing new here as when working for Robertson Aircraft in Seattle WA back in the late sixys if there was a good wind the company pilot would fly the company 182. He would get over the field at pattern altitude and back it up. Nothing new.
I love the AN-2. Its so ugly its beautiful. Back in the mid 70's I almost got a chance to fly one. I was one of a group of pilots that would have gone over to China to pick up 10 of them. The plan was to get checked out over there and fly them back to California full of spare parts and set up a freight airline with them. I was young and dumb and really looking forward to it. The time to go got pretty close but the US and USSR got in a tiff and one of the results was their import was banned. Well, anyway, I still like 'em and would love to fly one.
I saw one fly past our tower 3 times on one circuit. Forward, backwards in the wind and then onward again. Weird but interesting
