9/1/2023 0 Comments Buran shuttle in hangarOne of the airplane’s quirks is its ability to perform a so-called “elephant dance,” a term used in aviation when the nose gear “kneels” to make cargo loading easier. It boasts the largest wingspan of any airplane in operational service.īecause of its size, pilots need special training to cope with the challenges of maneuvering the An-225. Powered by six turbofan engines, she has a maximum payload weight of 250 tonnes, which can be carried inside or on its back. To this day, Mriya remains the heaviest aircraft ever built. SVF2/Universal Images Group Editorial/UIG via Getty Images Mriya was built to carry Soviet space shuttle Buran to its launchpad in Kazakhstan. The story of the An-225 begins back in the 1960 and ’70s when the Soviet Union was locked in a race into space with the United States. The nose gear, a mechanism the size of a house, is also nearby. The wings that would give it a span of 88.4 meters are unattached, stretching off to one side. It’s an impressive sight, although it is slightly depressing to see this potentially majestic airplane in pieces. If ever completed, it will have a length of 84 meters (276 feet) – a whole 9 meters longer than the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380 superjumbo. Towering over everything is the massive fuselage of the unfinished An-225. Workers can occasionally be glimpsed in the distance, but the sound of their activity is lost, absorbed by the giant metallic structure. The cavernous, endless space swallows up the machinery and airplane parts within. Entering the building is like stepping into a cathedral of mechanics – it’s surprisingly calm and tranquil. Reaching the unfinished An-225’s hangar involves being escorted by car through the vast industrial landscape west of Kiev that Antonov occupies. The An-255 is stored in a huge hangar alongside other semi-built aircraft.
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