History: Beriev Be-200

The Beriev Be-200 Altair is a russian built multipurpose amphibian aircraft. The aircraft was designed by the Beriev Aircraft Company and was built by Irkut. The Beriev Be-200 is intended to serve as a fire fighting, search and rescue, maritime patrol and even passenger transport aircraft. It can carry up to 12 tonnes (12 000 litres, 3 170 gallons) of water or 72 passengers.

The name of the aircraft (Altair) was chosen because "Al" is the first part of the name of the Beriev A-40 Albatross another amphibious aircraft which served as a basis for the development of the Beriev 200, "ta" is for Taganrog - the home city of of the Beriev design bureau and "ir" stands for Irkutsk - home of the aircraft builder Irkut. Altair is also the name of the alpha star in the Eagle constellation.

Development

The Beriev Be-200 project was started in 1989 with the purpose of building a water bomber for the Russian Government which approved the project on 8 December 1990. The design team was spearheaded by Alexander Yavkin. One year later at the Paris Air Show the project was made public and a model was displayed at the show. The full scale mockup was constructed by Beta Air.

The Beriev Aviation Company was in charge of the design of the Beriev Be-200 together with the Russian Irkutsk Aircraft Production Association, which is currently part of the Irkut Corporation. While Beriev did the development, design and documentation, the testing of the prototypes, the certification and the support of production models the Irkut Corporation was assigned the production preparation, manufacture of tooling, production of the four prototypes and the production aircraft and the spare parts. Currently both companies are part of the state-owned United Aircraft Corporation

According to initial plans the first flight from land of the Be-200 should have occurred in 1997 but due to various delays the maiden flight took place on 24 September 1998. In order to perform a take off from water the aircraft was transferred from Irkuts to Taganrog after it flew an initial 26 and half hours. Shortly after being transferred the Be-200 performed its first take off from water on 10 September 1999 in Taganrog. Three years later on 27 August 2002 the second Be-200 took off and performed its maiden flight. This was a Be-200ES with custom fittings to the specifications of the model's launch customer EMERCOM - the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Production

The aircraft was certified by EASA on 7 September 2010.

Design

Technology

The aircraft was designed with some unique fire-fighting equipment which allows it to scoop water while skimming the surface at a speed that is roughly 90-95% of the takeoff speed of the aircraft. The development of this system used a modified Be-12P, coded '12 Yellow' which served as a development platform for both the fire-fighting system and the methods of operation. This aircraft which was given the designation Be-12P-200 was later registered as RA-00046.

Operational Service

Operators

Russia

• Ministry of Emergency Situations - 10 ordered (8 of 10 purchased on 9 September 2010, 5 currently in use (BE-200 ES variant).
• Ministry of Defence - 6 Be-200 ordered. There will be four Be-200PS variants and two Be-200ChS variants

Azerbaijan

• Ministry of Emergencies : 1 Be-200ES

Variants

• Be-200 — Basic multirole model
• Be-200ChS (Бе-200ЧС) or Be-200ES (Emergency Services) — Multirole aircraft specially customized for the needs of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations
• Be-200E — English cockpit version of the Be-200ES
• Be-200RR — Proposed Rolls-Royce engined variant.
• Be-210 — Proposed Passenger only model
• Be-220 — Proposed maritime patrol variant.

Competitors

Deliveries

The first production Beriev Be-200 had its maiden flight on 17 June 2003 and was delivered to EMERCOM on 31 July 2003. A total of seven aircraft have been ordered by EMERCOM.

Specifications

General characteristics

• Crew: 2
• Length: 32.0 m (105 ft 0 in)
• Wingspan: 32.8 m (107 ft 7 in)
• Height: 8.9 m (29 ft 2 in)
• Wing area: 117.4 m² (1,264 ft²)
• Empty weight: 27,600 kg (60,850 lb)
• Max Take Off Weight (Land): 41,000 kg (90,390 lb)
• Max Take Off Weight (Water): 37,900 kg (83,550 lb)
• Max Capacity (Water or Retardant): 12,000 kg (26,450 lb)
• Max Capacity (Cargo): 7,500 kg (16,530 lb)
• Max Capacity (Passengers): 44 (Be-200ES) 72 (Be-210)
• Powerplant: 2 × Progress D-436TP turbofans, 7,500 kgf (16,534 lbf) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 700 km/h (435 mph)
• Cruise speed: 560 km/h (348 mph)
• Economy speed: 550 km/h (342 mph)
• Landing speed: 200 km/h (124 mph)
• Takeoff speed: 220 km/h (137 mph)
• Minimum speed (Flaps 38°): 157 km/h (98 mph)
• Range: 2,100 km (1,305 mi)
• Ferry range (One Hour Reserve): 3,300 km (2,051 mi)
• Service ceiling: 8,000 m (26,246 ft)
• Rate of climb: 13 m/s (2,600 ft/min) (At Sea Level and MTOW—Flaps 20°)
• Rate of climb: 17 m/s (3,350 ft/min) (At Sea Level and MTOW—Flaps 0°)

Avionics

ARIA 200-M integrated avionics system.

Further reading

List of seaplanes and flying boats