The Soviet Plane Built With A WWII Bomber’s Tail Turret & Glazed Nose That The West Forgot

The Antonov An-12 took its first flight on December 16, 1957, from ‘Irkutsk-2’ aerodrome, with Captain Yakov Vernikov and Co-pilot Georgii Lysenko in the cockpit. The aircraft entered Soviet service in 1959, arriving just a few years after the Lockheed C-130 Hercules had already begun logging service hours overseas, according to The Aviation Zone. It went on to fly for the Soviet Air Forces, most of the Warsaw Pact, and export customers as far afield as India, China, and Egypt. On paper, it reads as a straightforward Cold War parallel to Hercules. The An-12, known as “Cub” by NATO, carried…