The largest cargo aircraft Antonov An-225 Mriya has been destroyed by Russian forces during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. Well, this made quite news in the aviation industry as An-225 Mriya was the only piece. War is one of the most undesirous things mankind would ever want.
War brings a lot of destruction with it, Now if we look at the current situation of Ukraine the city is almost destroyed with losses of many assets like monuments, historical buildings, etc. An-225 Mriya is one of the country’s assets that has been shattered by the war. The aircraft was first designed in the 1980s and it took to the skies for the first time on 21 December 1988.
Before going into details follow aeronefs to get verified aviation jobs and for more aviation blogs. In this blog, you will get to know everything about An-225 Mriya. Its details are in layman’s language.
The An-225 Mriya was a cargo freight aircraft which was made in Soviet Ukraine and later it became an aircraft of Ukraine after the split of USSR. Although it was designed in the 1980s its standards were still intact before it was destroyed. It has been estimated that the Aircraft was destroyed on February 27 a photo got viral on Twitter which showed the world that the aircraft has been destroyed by Russian bombings while they attacked Antonov Airport.
History of An-225
The Aircraft was designed to airlift the Energia rocket’s boosters and the Buran-class orbiters for the Soviet space program. It was developed as a replacement for the Myasishchev VM-T. The Aircraft’s original mission and objectives are almost identical to that of the United States’ Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The lead designer of the An-225 (and the An-124) was Viktor Tolmachev. Order for the second aircraft was also there but due to insufficient funds, only one piece was made.
Structure and Design of Antonov An-225 Mriya
The aircraft retired in 1994 and again in 2001 It was repaired and was made serviceable. It could carry ultra-heavy and oversized freight weighing up to 250,000 kg (550,000 lb) internally or 200,000 kg (440,000 lb) on the upper fuselage. Cargo on the upper fuselage can be 70 m (230 ft) long. The Aircraft had an Anhedral wing with a high wing configuration. It consisted of six turbofan engines that provided thrust to the aircraft. It had a twin tail with an oversized sweptback horizontal stabilizer. An-225 is fitted with a 32-wheel landing gear system. The cargo door is fitted with a ramp for quick loading and unloading of cargo.
Records created by the Aircraft
The air lifter holds the absolute world record for an airlifted single-item payload of 189,980 kg (418,830 lb).
It holds the record for largest wingspan of an operational aircraft (Although Sprucegoose has the largest wingspan of an aircraft. However, it was not for operation)
On 11 June 2010, the An-225 carried the world’s longest piece of air cargo, two 42.1 m (138 ft) test wind turbine blades from Tianjin, China, to Skrydstrup, Denmark.
When An-225 landed in India
The Ukrainian-made; world’s largest aircraft Mriya once landed in India back in 2016 at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad. At its first landing, the aircraft managed to keep everyone wondering about its size with its wingspan of 88.4 meters carrying six turbofan engines. Its long length of 84 meters from nose to tail was a part of everyone’s thought process. People gathered at the airports to witness the large aircraft and made memories of it.
History has witnessed that whenever war took place it always it has always caused destruction and loss of lives because of tension between diplomats and politicians. The loss of An-225 Mriya will always be remembered. As per reports, the Destroyed aircraft can be repaired but that would require 4Billion US dollars and in the current scenario that amount is quite difficult to gather. Therefore hope that the war seizes so that the world can be preserved.
