[snip]
If I need a bolt for an AN-2, what do I do? If the plane has a standard
type certificate, I *cannot* replace a bolt with an AN or NAS unit...it
must be replaced with a bolt that meets the standards that Antonov imposed
at the time the aircraft was built. I doubt they used US standards. If
the aircraft is being operated on an Experimental certificate, the owner is
allowed to replace the hardware with US-equivalents, but that won't work if
one wants to operate ex-Soviet aircraft commercially.

I took a quick look through the US aircraft registration database, and
found about 360 Antonov and Yakovlev aircraft, plus almost 200
Nanchang-built Yaks. No Illyushins.

Ron Wanttaja

I can see why under those circumstances you'd have plenty of the
Nanchang Yaks, since being pleasure flyers you won't be affected by the
Experimental restrictions. Now it remains to be seen how successful the
new Eastern-bloc types (designed from ground-up for Western
certification) will be.
The article on the Il-76 and the forestry service can be found via a
link from the Il-76 entry in wikipedia.com, if anyone's interested.

Seb