The Russian Federation has been working on its own light aircraft project, the LМС-901 "Baikal," which was intended to replace the well-known An-2 within the aggressor country. However, due to various reasons, the implementation of this project has not gone well for the Russians. Ultimately, they opted for a rather unconventional solution – to re-engine existing An-2s with Soviet engines from the An-28.
This situation clearly illustrates that when faced with failures in their own developments, the Russians tend to revert to utilizing designs from the Soviet era.
Specifically, Russian propaganda "media" report that the decision to halt work on the light aircraft project LМС-901 "Baikal" was made by the "Minpromtorg" (Ministry of Industry and Trade) against a backdrop of chronic issues in developing this aircraft, which would require at least an additional 10 billion rubles, without any clear prospects.
As further noted by Russian sources, during the development of LМС-901 "Baikal," "dramatic errors" emerged, necessitating a complete redesign of the aircraft. These "dramatic errors" include issues with stability at low speeds, the need to modify the landing gear and tail assembly, as well as addressing problems with how the aircraft responds to the control stick.
Amidst this backdrop, the idea arose to attempt to re-engine the venerable An-2 using the turbo-prop engine TVD-10B, developed back in 1965. Current estimates suggest that this project would cost the Russian treasury only 1.8 billion rubles, or five times cheaper than finalizing the "Baikal."
It should be specified that the aforementioned TVD-10B was used during Soviet times specifically for equipping the An-28. Interestingly, other variants of this engine were intended for a regional airliner project, the Be-30/32, which never reached serial production, and also for an unrealized modernization project of the An-2 designated T-101 "Grach."
However, it is important to note that the option chosen by the Russians to install the engine from the An-28 on the An-2 does not actually resolve the issue of the physical aging of the well-regarded "corn pickers," which imposes its own limitations on the potential for modernization.
Recall that in February 2024, it became known that the Russians were discussing converting the An-2 into a target drone with a "Lancet" on a cable, but there are currently no data on the practical implementation of this project. Meanwhile, in January 2025, China produced a UAV HY100 based on a copy of the An-2, highlighting the extraordinary durability of the "corn picker."
