Largest Aircraft Engineered By Russia

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The An-225 Mriya , pictured on the left, is the world's largest and heaviest aircraft built by the Antonov Design Bureau, a Ukrainian-based avionics team.

The word Mriya is Ukrainian for "Dream" and there has been only two produced in the world.

Presently, only one aircraft is in operation, however, the second aircraft is being reconditioned and is scheduled for completion around late 2008.

The An-225 is an extension of Antonov's An-124 which, at the time, was the largest aircraft built. Both aircrafts, however, serve as commercial carriers to fly over-sized payload due to the unique size of their cargo deck.

Other aircraft that measure up, but don't take the cake are the Airbus A380 airliner, the Boeing 747 Large Cargo Freighter, and the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, all nearing the equivalent to the heavy airlifter An-225.

The following photographs show the aircrafts mentioned above respectively.




The An-225 was designed in the late 1980s for the Soviet space program to aid in the launch of the Buran spacecraft. The aircraft's equivalent is the Airbus Beluga and the the United States' Shuttle Carrier Aircraft


The photograph to the left is the An-225 transporting the Buran spacecraft. It was built to carry up to 250,000 kg (550,000 lb) internally or 200,000 kg (440,000 lb) on the upper fuselage where cargo on the upper fuselage can be, as-much-as, 70 m long.




The following two photographs show the Airbus Beluga and the United States' Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

The first photo shows the Airbus Beluga which resembles a fish or whale.The cargo, however, is only transported inside the belly of the aircraft.


The second photo shows the SCA with the Atlantis space shuttle on its upper fuselage returning to the Kennedy Space Center. The image looks very much like the An-225 and Buran spacecraft.

Though the An-225 was originally engineered in the late 1980s for the Soviet space program to carry the Buran its operation was short lived with the collapse of the program in 1990.

The aircraft was than stored for some 12 years and fully returned to service in 2001 for use in transporting food and supplies in the Iragi War.

Thanks For Flying :)