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Antonov AN-225 landing in Norton

submitted by mintbbb

1 decade 5 years 9 months 3 weeks ago

The world's largest airplane landing!

WikiPedia: The An-225 Mriya is a strategic airlift transport aircraft which was built by the Antonov Design Bureau, and is the largest airplane ever built. The design, built to transport the Buran orbiter, was an enlargement of the successful An-124 Ruslan. Mriya (Мрія) means "Dream" (Inspiration) in Ukrainian.

The Antonov An-225 is commercially available for flying any over-sized payload due to the unique size of its cargo deck. Currently there is only one aircraft operating but a second mothballed airframe is being reconditioned and is scheduled for completion around 2010. (Airliner World January 2009)

With a maximum gross weight of 600 tonnes (1,323,000 lb), the An-225 remains as the world's heaviest and largest aircraft, being even bigger than the current double-decker Airbus A380. The Hughes H-4 Hercules, known to most as the "Spruce Goose", had a greater wingspan and a greater overall height, but was considerably shorter, and due to the materials used in its construction, also lighter.

On 23 May 2001, the An-225 received its type certificate from the Interstate Aviation Committee Aviation Register (IAC AR). The type's first flight in commercial service departed from Stuttgart, Germany on 3 January 2002, and flew to Thumrait, Oman with 216,000 prepared meals for American military personnel based in the region. This vast amount of ready meals was transported on some 375 pallets and weighed 187.5 tons.

Since then, the An-225 has become the major workhorse of the Antonov Airlines fleet, transporting objects once thought impossible to move by air, such as locomotives and 150-ton generators, and has become a valuable asset to international relief organizations for its ability to quickly transport huge quantities of emergency supplies during disaster relief operations.