The modernized An-2 biplane, as part of the "Russian Arctic" project, will cost buyers only 60 million rubles. Designer Yuri Petrov explained that the aircraft is necessary for guarding the state border and for rescuers.
According to him, the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia, the head of the Omsk region, and the heads of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Industry and Trade have already familiarized themselves with the "Russian Arctic".
Now they are aware that we are engaged in this. We are now establishing joint work; none of the officials pushed us away. On the contrary, we were instructed to deal with aircraft for the Northern Delivery, and we were connected to the developments of SibNIA named after Chaplygin.
For comparison, the An-2 "Russian Arctic" with the ability to fly on 95-octane gasoline for a range of 1700 km and with an all-round radar will cost approximately 60 million rubles. The cost of the new LMS-901 "Baikal" is approximately 220–340 million rubles.
The modified An-2 retained its famous ASh-62IR engine, but the engine has been seriously modernized. The aircraft received a modern turbocharger; the practical ceiling almost doubled — to 4500 m.