If war reparations enable Antonov to build some more outsized cargo lifters, which is their one serious niche that nobody else has bothered to explore.
It isn't a strategy game, where you dig some gold from a mine to produce a gnomish helicopter.
Antonov can't produce big aircraft anymore. Just like BSS(Ukraine) can't produce nuclear aircraft carriers anymore.
It lost most engineers who still remember how to get aircraft to production. Some of them are in prison, some in Russia, a few in the West, maybe; some are retired. We're talking about circles with the strongest ties to Russia.
It is cut off from its whole supply chain. All of its internal design standards - oriented at Russian MIC - became irrelevant in 2015, down to the last bolt and last piping.
Antonov desperately tried to go western with some flying gulf money - it also failed the moment Arabs understood its actual shape. (re: An-132 tragedy)
It isn't a money problem at this point. Post-1991 Ukraine had very low chances to keep its superpower plants, because the only path to keep them went against the chosen national path. After 2014 it became simply impossible, and many people involved in designing them turned into political enemies.
By now it's simply a statement - Y-20 will probably remain the last Antonov-designed big airlifter. And even if Antonov will somehow arise as an aircraft producer again - it won't be through superheavy lifters.
The -124s get used more often, though I don't know if they're still in general production or not
An-124 line was in Russia (Ulyanovsk). Antonov can only service them.
Russia does indeed work right now on a replacement superheavy airlifter - because
it needs it. In fact, I won't be terribly surprised if OAK now employs quite a few former Antonov employees there.
Meh, make it a national prestige project or two and it's no longer a commercial threat
Then why independent Ukraine must create a whole industry - thousands of companies producing hundreds of thousands of articles most people don't even imagine exist - for the sake of something that doesn't even make a commercial threat?
If it isn't commercially competitive - then it's just a money laundering vanity affair. Antonov produced well over 20k aircraft(with thousands still in operation around the world) - it was one of the largest and most capable producers worldwide.
Reanimating it to produce one superheavy - and that superheavy does require a whole thing - makes no sense.
Though I'd laugh my ass off if Antonov provided a plane for the C-5 replacement bid.
That's the cruelty of the situation. You'd laugh if they will try to do what you want them to.
They actually tried to bid for a US air tanker - that was exactly what everyone did about them. Everyone laughed, and even Airbus paired with mighty Lockheed ended up losing the NIH-game.
But what it leaves to Antonov?
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