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Antonov An-10 and An-12 & Shaanxi Y-8

Antonov's heavy tactical cargo aircraft was developed in the same time frame as the Lockheed Hercules. The basis for the design are the twin engined An‑8 and four engined An‑10. The latter can be somewhat regarded as the passenger version of the An‑12, but the An‑10 came before the An‑12. The NATO code name is Cub.

The Chinese first built the An‑12 in license, but later the Soviet Union and China went separate ways, Xi'an reverse-built the An‑12 as the Y‑8. Production was undertaken by Shaanxi.

Like the Hercules the An-12 and Y-8 have high mounted wings with a large wingspan. Typical is the anhedral of the outer wings: they appear to drop down. Under the wings hang four turboprop engines. Unlike the Hercules the An-12/Y-8 has a standard four wheel bogey on each main landing gear leg, partly retracting sideward in small pods at the side of the fuselage, but mainly in the fuselage itself. The rather pointed nose also has windows, for the navigator, with a radar radome under its chin. The rear fuselage slopes up to allow easy loading and unloading. The vertical stabiliser has a trapezium shape and is bigger than the horizontal stabiliser. In front of the vertical stabiliser is a large triangular dorsal fin.

Like many Soviet designed aircraft the An-12 has a glass nose for the outside view of the navigator.

The rear fuselage is strongly swept up and ends with a large, trapezium shaped vertical stabiliser with a large triangular dorsal fin.

Unlike the Lockheed Hercules the An-12 has standard four wheel bogeys.

Different versions

How to recognise the different versions of the Antonov An-10, An-12 and Shaanxi Y-8 will be added later.

Confusion possible with

Shaanxi Y-9

y 9

Given that the Y-9 was developed from the Y-8 above, they look like each other. The Y-9 is longer than the Y-8, has different cockpit windows, six blade props and no glass nose. (photo Alert5/WikiMedia)

Lockheed C-130 Hercules

c 130j 30

The Lockheed Hercules also has four engines, high wings and a sloped up rear fuselage. The C‑130 has two large main landing gear wheels in tandem configuration, wings without dihedral, a small dorsal fin and no glass nose.

Antonov An-8

an 8

Comparable in size and appearance to the An-12 but then with two engines instead of four. (photo Felix Goetting/WikiMedia)