The Antonov An-225 Mriya (Ukrainian: Антонов Ан-225 Мрія (Dream), NATO reporting name: “Cossack”) is a strategic airlift cargo aircraft that was designed by the Soviet Union’s Antonov Design Bureau in the 1980s. The An-225’s name, Mriya (Мрiя) means “Dream” (Inspiration) in Ukrainian. It is powered by six turbofan engines and is the longest and heaviest airplane ever built with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tonnes. It also has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service. The single example built has the Ukrainian civil registration UR-82060. A second airframe was partially built; its completion was halted because of lack of funding and interest.
The Antonov An-225, initially developed for the task of transporting the Buran spaceplane, was an enlargement of the successful Antonov An-124. The first and only An-225 was completed in 1988. After successfully fulfilling its Soviet military missions, it was mothballed for eight years. It was then refurbished and re-introduced, and is in commercial operation with Antonov Airlines carrying oversized payloads.[1] The airlifter holds the absolute world records for an airlifted single item payload of 189,980 kilograms (418,834 pounds),[2][3] and an airlifted total payload of 253,820 kilograms (559,577 pounds).[4][5] It has also transported a payload of 247,000 kilograms (545,000 pounds) on a commercial flight.[6]
Design[edit]
An-225 main landing gear
Based on Antonov’s earlier An-124, the An-225 has fuselage barrel extensions added fore and aft of the wings. The wings also received root extensions to increase span. Two more Progress D-18T turbofan engines were added to the new wing roots, bringing the total to six. An increased-capacity landing gear system with 32 wheels was designed, some of which are steerable, enabling the aircraft to turn within a 60 m (200 ft) wide runway. Like its An-124 predecessor, the An-225 has nosegear designed to kneel so cargo can be more easily loaded and unloaded.[5] Unlike the An-124, which has a rear cargo door and ramp, the An-225 design left these off to save weight, and the empennage design was changed from a single vertical stabilizer to a twin tail with an oversized horizontal stabilizer. The twin tail was essential to enable the plane to carry large, heavy external loads that would disturb the airflow around a conventional tail. Unlike the An-124, the An-225 was not intended for tactical airlifting and is not designed for short-field operation.[7]
An-225 Ivchenko Progress D-18T turbofan engines
Initially the An-225 had a maximum gross weight of 600 t (1,300,000 lb), but from 2000 to 2001 the aircraft underwent modifications such as the addition of a reinforced floor, which increased the maximum gross weight to 640 t (1,410,000 lb) at a cost of US$20M.[19][20][21]
Both the earlier and later takeoff weights establish the An-225 as the world’s heaviest aircraft, being heavier than the double-deck Airbus A380. It is surpassed in other size-related categories, however: Airbus claims to have improved upon the An-225’s maximum landing weight by landing an A380 at 591.7 tonnes (1,304,000 lb) during tests,[22] and the Hughes H-4 Hercules, known as the “Spruce Goose”, had a greater wingspan and a greater overall height. But the Spruce Goose was 20% shorter and overall lighter, due to the materials used in its construction. It also flew only once, making the An-225 the largest aircraft in the world to fly multiple times.[5][23]
The An-225’s pressurized cargo hold is 1,300 m3 (46,000 cu ft) in volume; 6.4 m (21 ft) wide, 4.4 m (14 ft) high, and 43.35 m (142.2 ft) long[5][24][25] — longer than the first flight of the Wright Flyer.[26][27][28] The Boeing Dreamlifter has a bigger cargo hold at 1,840 m3 (65,000 cu ft).[29]
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