Antonov An-24

The Antonov An-24 is a 50-seat twin turboprop regional airliner designed in 1957 in the Soviet Union by the Antonov Design Bureau, known to NATO as Coke. First flown in 1959, it is powered by two Ivchenko AI-24 turboprop engines and was meant to replace the piston-engined Ilyushin Il-14 on short and medium routes, operating from rough strips and remote airports with little ground support. It entered service between Kiev and Kherson on 31 October 1962. About 1,000 were produced in several versions at factories in Kyiv, Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude, and it was licence-built in China as the early Xi'an Y-7. The design grew into a family that includes the An-26 tactical transport, the An-30 survey aircraft and the An-32. In 2023, 93 were still in service worldwide, mostly in the Commonwealth of Independent States and Africa.