MILITARY EQUIPMENT and rotary aircraft are typical items moved by the Johannesburg firm Soviet Air, founded eight years ago by former pilot Evgueny Zakharov. “We had an order to deliver a helicopter made in South Africa from Johannesburg to Chad. We partly dismantled it, took the blades off, and sent it in the IL-76, which has a capacity of 50 tonnes,” recalled Lauren Nicholas, operations manager at Soviet Air. All the firm’s aircraft are available for air charter service, from the largest, the IL-76, to an Antonov-12 with a 20-tonne capacity and an AN-72 with 10 tonne capacity. Military hardware is frequent cargo because the need for such items is often urgent. “We fit two South African-made Caspers in the hold of the IL-76,” said Nicholas. “Customers come to us with materials to be moved, we give them a quotation and arrange the rest,” she said. Soviet Air flies out of Namibia or any destination required, connecting African airstrips and bearing oversized chartered cargo. “The really large items that cannot travel aboard regular aircraft are what move by charter,” said Nicholas.
Helicopter from SA to Chad moves aboard Soviet Air plane
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