The Flight of the Cub

 I was having one of those days today when I didn't really feel like doing much.  There wasn't much stirring on the rivers (or lakes).  I didn't really feel like going out for trains as it was a little on the cold side and windy so there was no guarantee the roads would cooperate.  As I was accepting that I might not get out to take pictures, I took a look at FlightRadar and I saw something that caught my interest.

The first plane that I caught was a CRJ-200 coming in from Toronto.

It has been a while since I've seen this particular flight, so it was pretty cool to catch it.

Next up was a 757.

Anyone who follows this blog knows that I like the 757.

As a result, I will take many pictures of it.

This particular one is a 757-200.  Actually, it is a 757-251.  I remember correctly, different airlines have different designations for their planes.  This particular plane is powered by two Pratt and Whitney PW2037 engines.  It carries 199 passengers.  It was the 714 757 to come off the line from the Boeing Renton plant.

This plane had its first flight on May 30, 1996 and was delivered to Northwest Airlines on August 23, 1996.  

In 2009, ownership was switched to Delta Air Lines.

Today, this plane was coming to Detroit from Tampa.

This is the plane that got me out though as it was one I've never seen before.

It was an An-12 built by the Antonov Aircraft Bureau in Ukraine.  This was one of the Soviet aircraft design bureaus and they mostly produced cargo aircraft.  

The An-12 was developed from the An-8 and was a military version of the An-10.  The design first flew on December 16, 1957 and was introduced to service in 1959.  A total of 1,248 aircraft were built.  

It has a crew of 5 and can carry a little over 44,000 pounds of cargo.  The plane is 108 feet long and has a wingspan of 124 feet.  It has a cruise speed of 350 miles per hour and a range of 3,500 miles.  The Soviet military aircraft had two 23 mm cannons in the tail.

The NATO designation of this aircraft was Cub.  All of the NATO names for cargo planes started with a C, fighters with an F and bombers with a B.  

It is roughly equivalent to the C-130.

This particular aircraft was built in 1966 and currently flies with the Ukraine Air Alliance.

The flight originated in Miami.  Today's flight was 1,214 miles and went up to an altitude of 24,000 feet.  The filed flight speed was 316 miles per hour.  The flight took roughly 4 and a half hours to get from Miami.

It was pretty cool to catch this plane.  It's been here a couple of times but it was never at a time that I could catch it.