Soviet An-2 biplanes in Russia, after modernization, have increased their fuel capacity by 700 liters, and flight duration has grown by 3–4 hours. The range has increased by up to 700 km, said Vladimir Barsuk, director of SibNIA named after Chaplygin.
According to him, space for new tanks was found in the lower wing. They, along with the fuel system, are manufactured in Novosibirsk.
Work was carried out to modernize the aircraft's fuel system, involving an increase in fuel volume by 700 liters, which allowed for an actual increase in flight duration by 3–4 hours and flight range by 500–700 km.
In total, over the past 3 years, SibNIA has returned 16 previously inoperable An-2s to service, Barsuk specified. Currently, the rights to the biplane belong to Airbus Military corporation.
The head of Rosaviatsiya, Dmitry Yadrov, explained that obtaining a certificate for the An-2 finally secures SibNIA's status as the aircraft's developer and opens up the possibility for modernizing the machine.
The LMS-901 "Baikal" is being built in the Urals to replace the An-2. But things are not going very smoothly there yet – the aircraft faced fuselage limitations.