The Antonov An-225 The Largest Aircraft Ever

The Antonov An-225 The Largest Aircraft Ever

 
(CNN)  The undisputed superstar of the skies -- the biggest airplane in the world -- is taking flight on a rare delivery mission across three continents.
 
 
The Ukrainian cargo jet named "Mriya" is one of a kind. There is no other.
 
 
That's why the gawkers showed up Tuesday in Prague. They watched in awe as this big boy defied gravity before it touched down at Vaclav Havel Airport in the Czech Republic.
 
 
 
Officially designated as the Antonov An-225, the plane was developed in the 1980s to carry the Soviet version of the space shuttle on its back.
 
 
 
 
When the shuttle program ended, the plane morphed into the world's coolest flying moving van.
 
 
While in Prague, workers will load Mriya with a generator weighing 130 tons for delivery to Australia.
 
 
Here's a little perspective on what makes this thing so special.
 
 
We live in an age when most airliners are powered by two or four jet engines.
 
 
This monster has six.
 
 
Its wingspan measures 290 feet (88 meters).
 
 
That's longer than five 53-foot semi-truck trailers set end-to-end.
 
Mriya's cargo hold is actually longer than the Wright Brothers' historic flight in 1903.
 
 
Its maximum total weight at takeoff: 640 tons.
 
 
That's more than twice as heavy as the Statue of Liberty.

 

The Antonov An-225 The Largest Aircraft Ever

 

The Antonov An-225 The Largest Aircraft Ever

 
This beauty has other nice features ... like the way its nose opens to allow cargo loading through the front end. Fans also like the design of Mriya's split tail. (Sweet!)

It's rare to see it in action.
 
 
Lately, Mriya has been making deliveries once -- maybe twice -- a year.
 
 
If you need to fly something big -- like gargantuan oil industry equipment or a giant electric generator -- this is the plane you want.
 
 
The An-225 holds world aviation records for flying heavy payloads. It set one in 2004 when it flew a 247-ton piece of oil pipeline machinery to Uzbekistan.
 
 
 
From its pickup location in Prague, Mriya has scheduled stops in Turkmenistan, India and Malaysia before arriving this weekend at its final destination in Perth -- on Australia's west coast.
 
 
Thousands of spectators are expected to greet the plane and its six-member crew when it arrives, according to the Antonov Company.
 
 
 
Then it's back to home base in Kiev, where planners will chalk up another "mission accomplished" for the biggest plane in the world.

The Antonov An-225 The Largest Aircraft Ever

The Antonov An-124 Ruslan

          The Antonov An-124 Ruslan  (NATO reporting name: Condor) is a strategic airlift jet aircraft. It was designed by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukrainian SSR, then part of the Soviet Union (USSR). Until the Boeing 747-8F, the An-124 was, for thirty years, the world's highest aircraft gross weight production cargo airplane and second heaviest operating cargo aircraft, behind the one-off Antonov An-225 (a greatly enlarged design based on the An-124). The An-124 remains the largest military transport aircraft in the world.

 

 

 

 

          During development it was known as Izdeliye 400 (Product #400) in house, and An-40 in the West. First flown in 1982, civil certification was issued on 30 December 1992.   In July 2013, 26 An-124s were in commercial service with 10 on order.    In August 2014, it was reported that Antonov An-124 production was stopped due to the ongoing political tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

 Mighty Planes   Antonov 124

Development

During the 1970s, the Military Transport Aviation (Komandovaniye voyenno-transportnoy aviatsii or VTA) arm of the Soviet Air Forces had a shortfall in strategic heavy airlift capacity. Its largest planes consisted of about 50 Antonov An-22 turboprops, which were used heavily for tactical roles. A classified 1975 CIA analysis concluded that the USSR did "...not match the US in ability to provide long-range heavy lift support."

 

 

 

 

The An-124 was manufactured in parallel by two plants: the Russian company Aviastar-SP (ex. Ulyanovsk Aviation Industrial Complex) and by the Kyiv Aviation Plant AVIANT, in Ukraine. Design work started in 1971 and construction of facilities began in 1973. Manufacturing on the first airframe began in 1979.   Ultimately this project brought together over 100 factories contracted to produce systems and parts.

 

 

 

The first flight took place in December 1982 and the first exposure to the West followed in 1985 at the Paris Air Show.

 

 

 

Russia and Ukraine agreed to resume the production in the third quarter of 2008. In May 2008, a new variant—the An-124-150—was announced; it featured several improvements, including a maximum lift capacity of 150 tonnes. However, in May 2009, Antonov's partner, the Russian United Aircraft Corporation announced it did not plan production of An-124s in the period 2009–2012. In late 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered production of the aircraft resumed. It is expected that Russia will purchase 20 new aircraft.   In August 2014, Jane's reported that, Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Yuri Slusar announced that Antonov An-124 production was stopped due to ongoing political tensions between Russia and Ukraine.