Brand new plane looks just like very old plane

June 17, 2022

Iran’s military has unveiled what it says is a brand-new transport aircraft “designed and developed” in Iran, though it is identical in appearance to the infamous IrAN-140 that President Rohani killed almost a decade ago for being a death trap.

The new plane is called the Simorgh (Phoenix). The announcement said it was derived from the Ukrainian Antonov-140.  Iran made a deal in the 1990s to build AN-140s at the Esfahan plant that had been built by the US Bell Helicopter firm before the revolution to build Bell’s helicopters. Iran called the plane the IrAN-140.

The plan turned into a complete disaster.  Not only was Iran unable to produce the plane at anything like the announced schedule, but the aircraft had a bad habit of crashing.  In 2014, one crashed onto a highway just after taking off from Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, killing most of those aboard.  Rohani stopped all work on the plane then.  Three of what were believed to be only 16 operating IrAN-140s had crashed.  All the crashes were attributed to engine failures.

The military didn’t say the Simorgh is just a newly renamed IrAN-140. It did not make any reference to the IrAN-140. It also made no reference to carrying passengers.  It said the plane would carry six tons of cargo for the military.

The military also did not say if it still had an arrangement with Antonov, which was supplying most of the components of the aircraft when Rohani killed it.

Antonov’s operational headquarters was at Hostomel Airport outside Kyiv before Russia landed paratroopers there on the first day of the war in February, destroying the firm’s planes, offices and hangers.  Antonov is now moving its operations to Leipzig Airport in Germany.

The military said the old version of the plane was not suitable for Iranian conditions, especially the climate.  “Looking at the design of the Simorgh aircraft, it can be seen that this new Iranian bird has experienced changes in the fuselage and design. The most important change is the addition of a ramp and changes to the rear wings of the aircraft,” the military said. The engine has been optimized for Iranian weather.

The military said Iran would be “designing and manufacturing 30,000 parts,” suggesting that it will not be buying anything from Antonov. But it is believed to have lots of parts left over from earlier deliveries from Antonov.