"Ken Duffey" wrote in message
...


Kevin Brooks wrote:
"Ken Duffey" wrote in message
...

Kevin Brooks wrote:
I believe they have had not one but two accidents ('95 and '01) tied to
the engines and props?

"10 February 1995.........Approximately at 17.30 local time, when
executing a manoeuvre not envisaged by the mission assignment, the An-70
collided with the An-72G that was flying ahead of it. The An-70 fell into
a wood near Velikiy Lis ....disintegrating utterly"

You are right there. The engine problem had arisen on the previous flight.

http://www.flug-revue.rotor.com/FRhe...11/FR9711b.htm


27 January 2001.......... at Omsk for cold-weather trials .... "Suddenly
the engine indication and crew alerting system (EICAS) indicated the
failureof starboard inboard engine; 20 or 30 seconds later the port
outboard engine cut as well..........

The accident investigation commission panel completed its work in March
2001......

....stated that immediately after takeoff an overspeeding of the No 3
(starboard inboard) engines propfan occurred and the FADEC shut the engine
down. In so doing the second row of propfan blades failed to feather due
to a broken pipeline supplying oil to the blade pitch control mechanism in
the propfan hub .........The crew increased power output of the other
three engines, but at that moment the FADEC shut down the No 1 (port
outboard) engine....."

There is more - but from the above you can see that it has had two
crashed - one due to a mid-air collision with the chase plane, the second
due to a failure in the propfans - which has apparently been fixed to the
satisfaction of the Russians.

In neither case was the engine to blame.

OK, the "powerplant" was at fault. Which has had *lots* of problems:

"Having 386 flight hours An-70 demonstrated more than 382 serious faults, 52
events of in-flight engine shut-down including 30 afterburning shut-downs
and 22 without afterburning, - noted V.Mikhailov. - And there is one more
aspect of An-70 a/c problems - noise ICAO requirements. Should we produce
one hundred of these machines they will be allowed to operate between Russia
and Ukraine only." "There is possibility to cut down noise level in
turbo-jet aircraft. But it is quite difficult to do it with propfan engines.
If for example to space engines from each other we can miss all advantages
of the engines", - said V.Mikhailov.

http://www.tupolev.ru/English/Show.a...onID=60&Page=2

That was the commander of the Russian AF commenting there.


The Ukrainian/Russian An-70 is a troubled program - but don't write it off
just yet!

Nor would I endorse it is being stae-of-the-art and exemplfying truly
wonderful powerplant design and operation.

Brooks

Ken