AN 158

[walterleo]

The ANTONOV 148 and 158 (an enlarged 148) are short range and short take off and short landing airliners with modern cockpits and engines. Exists a good simulation:

Texture By Jorge Vega Martínez and Ricardo Garcia Marrero
FDE Jorge Vega Martínez
Thanks to Edgar Guinart López for gauges code and help with the modelling process
and dynamics tuning.

The simulation flies nicely, checklists and speed books are included.






The real AN-158 of CUBANA created troubles for lack of spare parts creating electrical, hydraulically and mechanical problems leading to grounding of the six aircrafts operated by CUBANA.
Here a video from better times:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9bIRzXWIWU

The 6 AN 158 de CUBANA up to today are still grounded.



While CUBANA started to use ATR turboprops

Kind regard

Walter

[alex94]

Quite a nice addon, and a decent model and nice that was developed for fs9

[walterleo]

Hi:

In real the AN 158 served only with CUBANA and posibly with Air Koryo and the Cubans were fed up with that aircraft rating it an outright disaster. Also, the smaller sister AN 148 was grounded by the Russian aviation authorities:


In March 2018 Rostransnadzor suspended all flights of An-148 in Russia after crash on 11 February 2018.[42]

In May 2018, Cubana de Aviación grounded its An-158 fleet after it received an order from the Cuban National Aviation Authority.


"The official reason given by the Cuban National Aviation Authority was "multiple and repeating failures have been found in complex systems, built by mechanical, hydraulic and electrical components, as well as computer performance algorithms", in addition to "evidence of design and manufacturing flaws, serious issues in flight control system, cracks in the structure and engine temperature increase above normal parameters" citing Wikipedia


But the simulation is a gem, even it has a working FMS computer much more capable than my present knowledge of it.

Kind regards

Walter

[alex94]

Yeah, a lot of those sort of issues have happened with the superjet and their western carriers

[walterleo]

Hi friends:

Yes, seems it's one thing to design and build a good airplane and another thing to maintain it in service over the years. Worse if both things are at miss which was the case with the AN-148 and AN-158.
With the SuperJet at least the service was a disaster and for the Mexican airline INTERJET it was not profitable for its routes.

Let's see what will happen with other highflying projects of Russian origin. AND: Let's see if the Chinese had learned their lessons.

Kind regards

Walter

[alex94]

Historically speaking, eastern aircraft have generally only worked in eastern countries

[alex94]

But after the Soviet union collapsed, aircraft took a major turn for the worst, same as the training of air crews

[walterleo]

Hi friends:

Historically speaking, eastern aircraft have generally only worked in eastern countries

Yes, but these aircraft were intentionally designed for their country of origin: Climate, geography, industry standards, transportation needs.

Climate: From the Arctic to the Subtropic
Geography: Vast distances, low population density, cities far away from each other, strong magnetic variations, bad infrastructure.
Industry standards: Quality problems ever present
Transportation needs: To keep unified the country connections had to be created and maintained without regard to short-term economic considerations.

In effect: Soviet aircrafts were rugged, overbuilt, heavier but capable to navigate and land on remote places and airfields without much infrastructure. The airline industry unified in Aeroflot had to serve the needs of its country not the needs of investors.

But after the Soviet Union collapsed, aircraft took a major turn for the worst, same as the training of air crews

The collapse of the Soviet Union meant also: The former goals disappeared, the discipline was not enforced, projects were abandoned, money lacked at all levels. For most of the former Soviet citizens the years after 1990 were felt as the worst of their history. And most of them were not prepared to accommodate themselves to the new post-Soviet world, while some of them were stealing the vast resources of their country.
The airline industry and the aircraft manufactures did find it very difficult to adapt themselves to a "world market" especially difficult for them and undergoing rapid changes and severe crises.

The Russian airline industry is adapting to its new environment since some years, the service is much better according "Western" standards also, the equipment comes mainly form Airbus and Boeing, the pilots are trained to Western standards and the safety is now good. The cabin crews are now working to please their "guests".

The aircraft industry tried to introduce "Western" design principles and norms for airliners but with that depends now on "Western" parts especially electronics and so spare parts are often not available in time.

Kind regards

Walter




Kind regards

Walter

[alex94]

good point walter. my point wasnt that soviet aircraft failed, they just didnt do all that well in the western parts of the world, but some western-ised countries were able to adopt both philosophies of aircraft well.

majority of people think russian aircraft as garbage or unsafe, but most accidents/incidents ive researched have hardly ever been mechanical failure, and mainly improper maintenance and lack of crew training/crm

[alex94]

dont get me wrong, im not bashing russian aviation, i absolutely love russian aviation and what theyve built. ive learnt a lot also from your writeups you do here and highlight how good their navigation equipment for example is

I think a lot of westerners are quite naive in thinking that theyre better at making aircraft compared to the east

[walterleo]

Hi Alex:

I don't think you are bashing Russian aviation, only wanted to stress that in Soviet times its aviation was very different and in post-Soviet times it had a very difficult situation, from which the aircraft industry there is still struggling to overcame it.
AND: The AN-148 and -158 are a disaster. The Superjet for INTERJET was very cheap to buy but lacked a sound aftermarket service, nevertheless LEONARDO ALENIA Italy is partner of Sukhoi for the Superjet project. After the crash of an Superjet as Aeroflot Flight 1492 the INTERJET lost confidence in the aircraft and was convinced, that also the capacity was not adequate for the Interjet routes.

Kind regards

Walter

[walterleo]

Hi friends:

Talking about the Superjet:

Edgar Guinards V.2 of the Superjet is also a nice simulation, look for it at AVSIM.










Kind regards

Walter

[alex94]

Yep already got it

[walterleo]

Hi Alex:

Good luck with the Airbus-style AP and its pitfalls.

Kind regards

Walter

[walterleo]

Hi friends:

Wanted to add, that in Russia the Superjet is a success. 385 are on order 167 delivered and serving flights up to 2000 km. In September the flight Domodedowo-Kzyzl (IR AERO) was with 1978 km the longest RJ flight. Westwards it lasts 5 hours. But the engines are a headache, not reaching the promised TBO of 7000 hours. So plans are made to use on further variants the PW1000G engines and the composite wings of the IRKUT MC-21.

Kind regards

Walter

P.S.: The TBO of the engines for us flight simmers are not a problem!