Antonov

Antonov is a Ukrainian state-owned aircraft manufacturing and services company, formerly the Antonov Design Bureau and later the Aeronautical Scientific-Technical Complex named after Antonov, taking its name from chief designer Oleg Antonov. It specialises in very large aeroplanes and aeroplanes able to use unprepared runways, and its An-series aircraft, about 22,000 in total, still operate widely in the former Soviet Union and in developing countries. The company was established in 1946 at Novosibirsk as the secret Soviet Research and Design Bureau No. 153, and it moved to Kiev in 1952. Its first major product was the An-2 biplane, which first flew in 1947. In 2015 the company was transferred to the state defense group Ukroboronprom, which in 2016 announced the Ukrainian Aircraft Corporation to combine the country aircraft makers.