Satellite spots Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps airlifter on Sirri Island in the Persian Gulf

February 19, 2013 Iran

David Cenciotti

According to Google Earth, the satellite image below was taken in July, 2010.

Although it’s not recent, it is worth a look as it shows a quite interesting and somehow rare bird: an Iranian Antonov An-74T-200 on the apron of the airport of Sirri, Iran’s small island in the midst of the Persian Gulf, east of Hormuz.

The aircraft is one of the 11 such cargo aircraft (including seven white colored An-74TK-200s) believed to be operated by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and used to carry equipments and revolutionary guards across the country.

The type of aircraft can be determined by the characteristic unusual design feature in which the high engines exhaust are placed over the wing’s upper surface to boost lift by means of the Coandă effect.

An IRGC An-74 crashed on take off from Tehran on Nov. 27, 2006 killing 37 of 38 people on board.

H/T to Chance Templeton for the heads up

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

Winston Smith says:

February 19, 2013 at 7:52 PM

David, don’t you check airliners.net website? How is this a rare bird? LOL!
Paul says:

February 20, 2013 at 7:15 AM

Rare?

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?cx=partner-pub-8297169501225184%3Aa05n2n-tzky&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=iran+An-74&sa=Submit&search_active=1&search=&sheadline=&search_field=datedesc&submit=&siteurl=www.airliners.net%2F
David Schwartz says:

February 21, 2013 at 7:50 PM

Well there are only 11 of these planes in Iran operated by a government agency, so 77 photos on Airliner.net don’t change the reality that it is a rare bird.
- cencio4 says:
  
  February 21, 2013 at 8:43 PM
  
  Thanks. I’ve obviously checked A.net but I too believe 11 such planes constitute a small fleet of a somehow rare aircraft.
  - David Schwartz says:
    
    February 21, 2013 at 8:59 PM
    
    You’re welcome. This is a relatively rare plane since only a small number were built: the number range from 81-240 depending on source. Though I do hope to see this design recreated for other STOL aircraft.