Antonov's Heavy Transports: Big Lifters for War and Peace (Red Star)

The Antonov design bureau has long been associated with transport and utility aircraft such as the Antonov An-2 , (featured elswhere on this website). This heavily illustrated book concentrates on the transports - the An-22, An-124, the An-70 and the amazing An-225 "Mriya".

The Antonov An-22 was the first large transport to be developed by the Antonov Design Bureau. It was the worlds largest aircraft when it was introduced at the 1965 Paris Airshow

The Antonov An-124 "Ruslan" made its first flight in 1982. It is larger then the An-22 and slightly larger then the American C-5 Galaxy . Like the An-22, it was the largest aircraft in the world when introduced

The Antonov An-225 "Mriya" which made its first flight in 1988, was designed to carry the Soviet "Buran" space shuttle. An enlarged version of the An-124, with the cancellation of the Soviet Shuttle, only one was completed.

The Antonov An-70 is the next generation medium transport design from Antonov. It first flew in December 1994. Political changes mean that only two prototypes have been completed.

"Antonov's Heavy Transports" covers all four planes in good detail, with a good collection of 200 photographs, which are almost entirely black & white. The authors expertise shows through in the text, which is clear and fairly concise.

Although a fairly large book, it is not thick and has only 128 pages. If you want a well illustrated guide to all four aircraft, then it will be well worth the money. For me, there are other aircraft books I would be spending the money on!