An-30 aircraft

The Antonov An-30 (NATO: Clank), is a development of the An-24 and Antonov An-26 equipped for aerial cartography, a special VIP passenger version has been made in very limited numbers

All photos by Vadim Savitsky, Pravda.ruText to all photos by Wikipedia

The Antonov An-30 is a development of the An-24T fitted with a new forward fuselage with a glazed nose and a raised flight deck (41cm higher fuselage) with a hump similar to the Boeing 747. As a specialist aerial surveying craft, the An-30 was equipped with four survey cameras, with additional hatches provided to permit the use of laser, thermographic, gravimetric, magnetic and other geophysical surveying tools. To enable accurate and repeatable survey flights, standard equipment for the An-30 included computer flight path control technology. It first flew in 1974, with 123 built

As well as its principal use as a survey aircraft, it has also been used by Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia and Ukraine to carry out surveillance under the Open Skies Treaty

The An-30 has also been used as a weather control aircraft as the An-30M. Some have been fitted with frozen tanks of carbon dioxide to be ejected into the sky to form artificial rain clouds. These An-30s have also been put to use to avoid crop-damaging hailstorms and also to maintain good weather for as example new airplane maiden flights, important parades like 1st of may and 850th anniversary of Moscow in September 1997

В настоящее время самолёты Ан-30Б используются Россией, Украиной и другими странами для наблюдательных полётов в рамках международного Договора по открытому небу.  Фото: Вадим Савицкий