On Friday July 10th 2015 the Air Clips Team has joined a flight of Ukraine Air Alliance’s 1968-built Antonov 12 freighter UR-CAH from Luxemburg Findel to Las Palmas airport, Gran Canaria (Spain).
Flight UKL 4075 took off at 12:57 hrs local time and almost seven hours later it touched down at 18:34 hrs LPA local time. The airplane was chartered by DB Schenker, the world’s leading specialist for logistics to include special air cargo.
The mission was to bring one huge piece of oilwell equipment to the Canary Islands, where it was desperately needed. The single pipe (1001 x 99 x 99 cms and 10.100 kg weight) arrived on a scheduled Cargolux B747F flight from the United States the same morning and in the absence of suitable scheduled cargo flights, the Antonov was exclusively chartered for the last part of the journey.
The Antonov An-12 (NATO reporting name: Cub) is a four-engined turboprop transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. It is the military version of the Antonov An-10 and was made in many variants.
The first prototype flew in December 1957. Over 900 had been built, in both military and civilian versions, before production finally ended in 1973.
The An-12BP entered Soviet military service in 1959. In terms of configuration, size and capability, the aircraft is similar to the United States-built Lockheed C-130 Hercules. Military Soviet and former-Soviet examples have a defensive tail gun turret.
In the 1960s China purchased several An-12 aircraft from the Soviet Union, along with a license to assemble the aircraft locally. However, due to the Sino-Soviet split, the Soviet Union withdrew its technical assistance.
It was not until 1974 that the first Chinese-assembled An-12 had its maiden flight. The Xi’an Aircraft Company and Xi’an Aircraft Design Institute worked to reverse-engineer the An-12 for local production.
In 1981, the Chinese copy version of the An-12, designated Y-8, entered production. Since then the Y-8 has become one of China’s most popular military and civilian transport/cargo aircraft, with many variants produced and exported. A Tu-16/H-6 bomber navigator cockpit design was chosen for Y-8 instead of the original An-12 shorter navigator cockpit design, as the H-6 bomber had been in serial production for some time.
Although the An-12 is no longer made in Russia or Ukraine, the Y-8 continues to be upgraded and produced in China.
The latest Y8-F600 is a joint venture between Shaanxi Aircraft Company, Antonov Aeronautical Scientific-Technical Complex (ASTC), and Pratt & Whitney Canada.
The Y8-F600 has a redesigned fuselage, western avionics, PW150B turboprop engines with an R-408 propeller system, and a two-crew glass cockpit. It is unknown whether the Shaanxi Y-8 remains in production, yet many believe it will remain in production for the foreseeable future.
The here seen An-12BK has an increased 30-tonne (66,140 lb) payload, improved avionics suite, TG-16M APU and the widened cargo door of the An-12BP characterized the An-12BK, which was built exclusively for the VTA (Komandovaniye voyenno-transportnoy aviatsii), a major component of the Soviet Air Force.
Ukraine Air Alliance is an airline based in Kiev, Ukraine. It operates cargo and passenger charters as well as services to Asia, Africa and Europe. Its main bases are Boryspil International Airport (KBP) and Zhulyany International Airport (IEV).
The airline was established on 28 February 1992 and started operations in 1993. It registered with the Ukrainian authorities as a joint stock company and was one of the first private air enterprises in Ukraine to obtain international status through registration at ICAO. The airline has taken part in UN relief flights.
The Ukraine Air Alliance fleet includes the following aircraft (at January 2015): 6 x AN-12 – Registration UR-CGV, UR-CGW, UR-CAJ, UR-CAK, UR-CZZ, UR-CAH
DB Schenker is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG that focuses on logistics. The company, created by reorganisation and rebranding of Deutsche Bahn subsidiaries, comprises a logistics division encompassing air, land, and sea freight, and a rail division made up from European rail freight companies.
Since December 2007 DB Schenker has been the freight logistics subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn.
DB Schenker combines all transport and logistic activities of Deutsche Bahn (DB Schenker rail and DB Schenker logistics) employing over 94,600 staff spread across about 2,000 locations in about 130 countries and now is the biggest freight operator in the UK after buying out English Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS).
From 1 January 2009 the logistics operations of DB-Schenker, Railion, EWS, and Transfesa were combined under the brand “DB Schenker”
Fonte:Air-Clips.com
