An-225 Mriya is the world’s largest aircraft

An-225 Mriya (which is referred to Dream from Ukrainian) is the heaviest airlift cargo aircraft ever taken off in the sky. The maximum takeoff weight makes 640 tons. An-225 was designed, due to the necessity to create the air transport system for the Soviet reusable Space Shuttle Buran. This is the only aircraft in the world. The airplane was designed in USSR and manufactured by Kiev Mechanical Plant in 1988.

Mriya has set the absolute world record of takeoff weight and an airlifted total payload.
An-225 transported a payload of 156.3 tons on March 22, 1989 which broke 110 air world records. This has become a world record in its turn. Since its launch the aircraft has logged 3740 flying hours. If the average flight speed is equal to about 500 km per hour (taking into account takeoff, climb, cruise, descent and approach to landing), it is possible to calculate approximate kilometer performance: 500 x 3740 = 1 870 000 km. It is more than 46 circles around the Earth at the equator.

The size of An-225 is impressive. It is 84-meter long and 18-meter high (like 6-stored house with 4 porches). The wingspan constitutes 88.4 m and wing area is 905 m².

The Hughes H-4 Hercules is the only aircraft which has a greater wingspan than An-225 and is referred to the flying boats class. The airplane flew only once in 1947. The history of this aircraft is reflected in the film Aviator.The aircraft has six D-18T engines. Every engine has the takeoff thrust of 23.4 tons (or 230 kN) meaning that the total thrust of all six engines constitutes 140.5 tons (1380kN)

An-225 has the same D-18T turbofans as An-124 Ruslan. The height of an engine makes 3 m, width is 2.8 m and weight equals more than 4 tons. Tank capacity constitutes 365 tons. Fuel is held in 13 wing integral tanks. The aircraft can keep on flying for 18 hours and cover the distance of more than 15 000 km.

As for the size of cargo compartment, its length is 43 m, its width is equal to 6.4 m and height is 4.4 m.
The cargo compartment is pressurized which allows transporting different types of cargo.16 standard containers, about 80 passenger cars or even large trucks like Belaz can be loaded inside the cargo compartment. There is enough space for Boeing-737 to be placed inside.

Mriya holds the absolute world record in terms of its carrying capacity: it has transported 247 tons of commercial item which is 4 times larger than Boeing-747 payload capacity, 187.6 tons of commercial single item and ultra-heavy cargo of 253.8 tons. The longest item in the history of airlifting – two blades of wind generator each of which is 42.1m long – was transported by An-225 on June 10, 2010.

Maintenance compartment is designed for having meal, working with technical documents and holding a conference.
There are 18 seats for the crew and engineers which account for 6 seats in the front cabin and 12 seats in the rear part. The crew of the aircraft includes 6 members: captain, first officer, navigator, chief flight engineer, flight engineer of onboard equipment and radio operator.

Due to high air transportation costs by An-225, the orders appear only for very long or ultra-heavy load, when carrying by ground transport is impossible. Flights are random and occur from 2-3 times a month up to 1-2 times a year. Sometimes the construction of the second An-225 is discussed, but for this purpose corresponding order and financing are required. About $ 90 million is necessary to complete the construction of the aircraft. Taking into account the aircraft testing costs, this sum increases up to $ 120 million.

Thanks to “Antonov Airlines” for the help in organizing photography!