Antonov An-14 Little Bee Russian passenger aircraft, Aeroflot
Eastern Express 14437

The Antonov An-14 "Little Bee" was a Soviet utility aircraft which was first flown on 14 March 1958. It was a twin-engined light STOL utility transport with two 300 hp Ivchenko AI-14RF radial piston engines. Serial production started in 1966, and 340 examples were built by the time production ended in 1972. The An-14 failed to replace the more successful An-2 biplane, which was manufactured until 1992 (the An-2 is still manufactured on special orders). A small number of An-14 are still in airworthy condition.

The An-14's successor, the Antonov An-28 is a 2-engined light prop transport aircraft, developed from the Antonov An-14M. It was the winner of a competition against the Beriev Be-30 for use by Aeroflot as a short-range airliner. The An-28 is similar to the An-14 in many of its aspects, including its wing structure and twin rudders, but features an expanded fuselage and turboprop engines, in place of the An-14's piston engines. It first flew in 1969. After a short pre-production series built by Antonov, it was licence-built in Poland by PZL Mielec. A total of 191 were built.

In 1993, PZL Mielec developed its own improved variant, the PZL M28 Skytruck. It had a redesigned fuselage and wings, new Pratt & Whitney Canada engines, new (western) avionics, 5-blade rotors, and some other minor changes. PZL M28B Bryza 1R - a maritime patrol and reconnaissance variant (equipped with: 360° Search and Surveillance Radar ASR-400, Link-11 datalink). Used mainly for sea border patrolling, search and rescue operations and protection of the national economical sea zone (7 built). PZL M28B Bryza 1RM bis - a variant with submarine detection capability (1 built as of 2006). [Wikipedia]