and so Uzbekistan sought, unsuccessfully, to establish a final assembly plant in the capital at the Tashkent Aircraft Production Plant, where the production of the An-70's wings and the Il-76 were taking place. Construction of the first prototype had started in Kyiv in 1991. The maiden flight of the aircraft had originally been scheduled for late 1992. However, due to financing and design issues, this was pushed back until 1994. In particular, the weakened national currency diminished the firm's ability to pay for the aircraft's components, especially those sourced from Russia, and workers' salaries. In addition, engineers discovered numerous design and manufacturing deficiencies during the final ground checks, the majority of which were non-critical yet necessitated lengthy corrections. In the end, the aircraft made its maiden flight on 16 December 1994. Crewed by a seven-man team, the first aircraft performed a short take off from Svyatoshino Airfield, Kyiv. This was the first flight of an aircraft that was powered only by propfans. Due to worsening weather conditions over Antonov's headquarters and the flight test area in Kyiv, the flight was cut short, and the flight ceiling was capped at 2,000 m (6,500 ft). The crew took the aircraft to a height of 450 m (1,475 ft), while performing basic checkouts of the prototype's systems. After having been airborne for less than half an hour, the aircraft landed at Antonov's flight test facility at Hostomel. During the flight, engineers identified problems with the engine gearboxes, and so the aircraft was grounded for eight weeks while the issues were fixed. Originally, the aircraft was to conduct flight tests at Hostomel for three months before transferring to the Gromov Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky, near Moscow. However, the first prototype was lost when it was making its fourth flight on 10 February 1995. During the flight, the aircraft suffered a sudden deviation from its intended flightpath and collided with the An-72 chase plane before spiralling into the ground, erupting into flames; the test crew of seven were killed. Although there were initial allegations of technical issues with the aircraft, it was later determined that the crash had been caused by human error. Antonov subsequently converted the static-test prototype into a flying prototype equipped with a modified flight-control system. The second airframe was rolled out in December 1996 in Kyiv, before making its first flight on 24 April 1997 from Svyatoshino Airfield, during which