The An-225 first flew in 1988 and successfully completed a 74-minute flight from Kyiv. The plane was originally designed to transport the Energiya carrier-rocket and the Buran spaceplane and was, in turn, an enlargement of the already successful, and massive, Antonov An-124. The Antonov An-225 was designed and built by the Soviets as a super heavy transporter to replace the aging Myasishchev VM-T. It was codenamed "Cossack" by NATO forces during the cold war. However, the project is currently under new ownership. In fact, since the passing of Paul Allen, its future was in doubt for some time. The Stratolaunch first flew in 2019, although it has yet to be used in regular flights or for its original purpose of carrying air-launch-to-orbit rockets and satellites. The Antonov An-225 is also dwarfed by the much larger Stratolaunch with its wingspan of 383 ft and a length of 240 ft (117 by 73 mt). For example, the Hughes H-4 Hercules "Spruce Goose" had a larger wingspan of 320 ft (97.5 mt), although it was shorter, at 220 ft (67 mt).īut, while the "Spruce Goose" is now only a museum exhibit, the Antonov An-225 is the largest cargo plane in operation. This enables the Antonov An-225 to be able to actually turn within a 200 ft wide (61 mt) runway.īut despite its size, the "Mriya" is not the biggest cargo plane ever built. The aircraft's landing gear consists of no less than 32 wheels in 16 pairs. They are also easy to maintain and have low noise and contaminant emissions.
These engines were selected for their high takeoff thrust, their low specific fuel consumption of great reliability. The "Mriya" is powered by six huge Ivchenko Progress D-18T turbofan engines, each capable of pumping out over 51,600 lbs (23 tonnes) of thrust on takeoff. When debuted in 1988, the An-225 was around 50% bigger than any airliner that had been seen before. Nicknamed the "Mriya" or Мрія in Ukrainian (meaning dream), this enormous plane has been in commercial service since 2001.
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