Antonov An-12

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The Antonov An-12 (Russian: Антонов Ан-12; NATO reporting name: Cub) is a four-engined turboprop cargo/military transport aircraft designed by Antonov and produced at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant and the Tashkent Mechanical Plant in the Soviet Union. It is a militarised version of the Antonov An-10 transport aircraft and was produced in many variants. Developed during the 1950s and introduced by the Soviet Air Forces in 1959, it remained the standard medium-range cargo and paratroop transport aircraft of the service throughout the rest of the Cold War. A total of 1,248 aircraft were built in the Soviet Union. Soviet An-12s was deployed in a variety of roles, including search and rescue, electronic warfare, VIP transport, and aerial refueling tanker amongst others. During the 1960s, China purchased several An-12s along with a licence to locally produced more; this resulted in the Shaanxi Y-8, which entered production in the early 1980s. While Soviet production of the An-12 was terminated in...

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