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An-2 specifically is kinda popular with Western collectors, as far as I know. But if there were still broad applications for this kind of performance, surely we'd see more modern designs along those lines?

For An-2, the ability to perform such tricks wasn't really the goal, just a side effect. The goal was to have a cheap mass-produced utility plane that could take off and land on very rough makeshift airstrips in remote locations, which were plentiful in USSR at the time when it was designed (~1950). These days there's probably way fewer locations like that, and for those that do exist, helicopters provide an adequate solution without the need to design a new dedicated airframe. Note that all those benefits aren't free, either: the downsides of the design include high fuel consumption and high noise levels.

As far as I know, even in Russia, most present-day use of An-2 is for skydiving.




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