Does anyone remember the Antonov An-148 and An-158?

The Antonov An-148 is a twin engine regional aircraft, produced by Antonov in Ukraine. Powered by two Progress D-436-148 engines, it first flew on 17 December 2004. It’s slightly stretched sibling, the An-158 first flew on 28 April 2010.

Typically seating 68 to 85 passengers in five abreast seating, the An-148 has a range of up to 4,400 kilometres. The larger An-158 seats up to 99 passengers, with a shorter range of 2,500 kilometres. Service entry of the -148 took place on 2 June 2009, with Ukraine’s Aerosvit flying from Kharkiv to Kyiv. The -158 entered service with Cuba’s Cubana in 2013.

Antonov An-148 and An-158 Video

Following on from the last video about the rare Dutch Fokker 70, this week we head over to Ukraine to have a look at the Antonov An-148 and An-158. The first presentation runs for about 7 minutes and is from Ilyushin Finance.

https://youtu.be/O_PmAYF8FbQ

This promotional video shows everything from the glass cockpit to what the narrator keeps referring to as the “off-road” capabilities of the aircraft. It is fun to see the plane using a grass runway, that’s for sure.

Next up is one from Skyships Eng, titled, “An-148 – a child of divorce”. This runs for just under 10 minutes and gives a potted history of the aircraft, including a comparison with the Sukhoi SuperJet.

It’s good to see how much of the aircraft features Russian components, which you wouldn’t necessarily know. Lots of good film is used and of course Skyships trademark humour is included once or twice too.

Overall Thoughts

Apparently 47 Antonov An-148 and An-158 aircraft have been produced. The only airline operators are North Korea’s Air Koryo who have two An-148s, Cuba’s Cubana who have six An-158s and Siberia’s Angara Airlines who have five An-148s. All the rest are with Ukrainian and Russian Government fleets.

Questions around the safety of the jet after an accident in 2018 resulted in Russia and Cuba grounding the plane. Therefore it is not an easy one to get a flight on. While it is still technically in production, I wouldn’t count on seeing many more made, if any.

Have you ever been on board an Antonov An-148 or Antonov An-158? What was it like? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Oleg V. Belyakov on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.