Russian airliner spews gold out its cargo door

It says a lot about your aircraft if the wind is able to blow a door off. I mean I get it in a cardinal but not necessarily the plane that can carry that much weight
 
One has to wonder what nearly $400 million worth of gold and precious stones was doing on an An-12 in the middle of Yakutsk.
 
Well I remember the great Russian gold rush of '18. Gold was just falling from the skies. You didn't even have to mine for it. It could be found in big rectangular bars instead of just those little nuggets. Those were great times in Yakutsk I tell ya...great times. :)
 
Keep in mind that this is an AN-12. Are the things even pressurized?

They are heavy smokers...

 
Well I remember the great Russian gold rush of '18. Gold was just falling from the skies. You didn't even have to mine for it. It could be found in big rectangular bars instead of just those little nuggets. Those were great times in Yakutsk I tell ya...great times. :)

:rofl::rofl::rofl: Now that is funny!
 
have you ever noticed how much Russian airplanes resemble those of the U.S. inventory... ? Coincidence?
 
have you ever noticed how much Russian airplanes resemble those of the U.S. inventory... ? Coincidence?

It's been long documented that Russian aircraft have been "-ski" copies of first world nations. The TU-144 (Concordski) was perhaps the most obvious one. Corporate espionage existed significantly during the Cold War, with people whose job it was to steal designs from others. The lengths that the Russians went to to steal the Concorde's designs were incredible, of course they still made enough errors in the execution that it didn't work quite as well and had no range.
 
It says a lot about your aircraft if the wind is able to blow a door off. I mean I get it in a cardinal but not necessarily the plane that can carry that much weight

I sort of assumed the load broke loose on take off and crashed into the aft cargo door. That would be a lot of weight/force for any door structure to withstand. If the door hadn’t given way, the result might have been similar to the National Airline 747 in Bagram.
 
I sort of assumed the load broke loose on take off and crashed into the aft cargo door. That would be a lot of weight/force for any door structure to withstand. If the door hadn’t given way, the result might have been similar to the National Airline 747 in Bagram.
Yeah. That seems obvious. The other obvious question is "Who owned all that loot?"
 
Yeah. That seems obvious. The other obvious question is "Who owned all that loot?"
https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/com...out-its-cargo-door.109465/reply?quote=2478830
You don't expect [insert least-favorite politician's name] to take a check, do you?

have you ever noticed how much Russian airplanes resemble those of the U.S. inventory... ? Coincidence?
Coincidence to some extent. Machines designed to perform the same function look the same. So if the Russians want a four-turboprop tactical transport, it's going to have the four engines installed on a high wing, an upsloping fuselage in back for rapid load/unload, lotsa tires to spread the ground force out (probably in blisters to keep the fuselage interior clear). It's going to look a lot like a Hercules.

I'm sure the Russians took advantage of the research performed by the west that came UP with the optimal design...but these airplanes aren't "copies" (except in specific cases like the TU-4).

The Soviet "Buran" space shuttle is an obvious example. NASA research is unclassified and open to all, so the basic shape optimized by NASA was available...and so was technology like the heat tiles. But the Buran was a bit smaller than the US shuttle, and, more to the point, didn't include the large rockets at the stern (they were on the center tank). Making a major change like that would have been impossible without a ground-up development program.

Ron Wanttaja
 
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