LIVING LEGEND // Antonov An-2 at Merseburg airfield

The plane featured in the video wasn't the actual reason I was at Merseburg airfield (EDAM) that day. An aircraft that looks even more bizzare was! A Short Skyvan ( see https://youtu.be/JnPdcRpZ920 ). Nevertheless, an Antonov An-2 is always an eye-catcher, especially when it's in as good a shape as this one! Luckily, quite a few of those big biplanes still exist in East Germany, where this video was shot. But even here, you don't see one any day and normally, the only way you get as close to one as I did here, is to pay for a flight on one ( which I already did ... twice: https://youtu.be/y8WfU2PAyk8 and https://youtu.be/TkUmKvn-b-g ) and so I was really excited to be able to capture this and with me, two fellow YouTubers, @jahuuhuuhuu and πlot.Tv ( https://tinyurl.com/gt2js6y ) to whom I'd like to say thank you for the video material they allowed me to use!

The An-2 itself may look outdated and unspectacular, but is has a fascinating background! Not only does it mark the beginning of the history of its maker Antonov, it's also one of the most produced aircraft of all time (about 18,000 units), finds itself amongst the airplanes with the longest time in production (1947 to (almost) today) and holds the title of largest single engine biplane in the world!

The plane featured in the video is registered as D-FWJK. It is an An-2T, which means it's the multi-purpose variant of the An-2 and it was build at PZL Mielec in Poland. Its serial number is 1G142-34 and although, against the background of Germany's reunification, the aircraft seems to have quite an eventful history, the only point in it I could find out about for certain was an accident that happened on 6th September 2015, where D-FWJK flipped during landing at Merseburg airfield (where this video was shot) and ended up lying on the runway upside down. I've seen pictures of that and it was a really sad sight! Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured in the accident and as you can see, by June 2016 (when this video was recorded) the plane was up and running again!
Recorded on 2016-06-11
similar videos on my channel:
► 2016: http://tinyurl.com/gvugc48
► Antonov aircraft: https://tinyurl.com/h3s73oj

Видео LIVING LEGEND // Antonov An-2 at Merseburg airfield канала LEJ.approach