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The AN-225 also makes the Airbus A380, whose freight version was never built, look small. In its brief time carrying the “Buran” space shuttle the AN-225 dwarfed the Boeing 747 given similar duty in the U.S.
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Loads included trains, up to fifty cars, enormous power transformers, turbine blades and helicopters. Its onboard crane could lift 30,000 kilograms. The landing gear had some 32 wheels to support the great loads the Mriya could carry. The aircraft had a wingspan of 290 feet and a potential loaded weight of 640,000kg (1,410,958lbs). It has been operated by Antonov as a commercial cargo carrier since 2001. The aircraft was stored from 1994 to 2000 after the demise of the Soviet Union and its space shuttle program. The An-225, whose “Mriya” nickname translates to ‘dream’ or ‘inspiration,’ first flew in December 1988.īased on the four-engine An-124 cargo craft, two An-225 prototypes designed for six turbofan jet engines were built, although only one was completed and put into service.
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The super heavy-lift cargo plane was designed and built by Antonov Design Bureau (ADB) of Ukraine for the Soviet Space Shuttle program, to fly the “Buran” to its launch facility. While that may seem a doubtful proposition, the Antonov An-225 cargo jet was truly one of a kind. Sergei Savostyanov/TASS (Photo by Sergei Savostyanov\TASS via Getty Images) Sergei Savostyanov/TASS The surviving Buran flight unit which was never launched as the Buran program was closed, and a mock-up of the spacecraft remain at Baikonur. The spacecraft that actually flew to space was destroyed in a Baikonur hangar roof collapse in 2002. Buran was launched on the Energia rocket carrier from Baikonur Cosmodrome on November 15, 1988, made two circles around the Earth orbit and landed at the Yubileiny airfield at Baikonur Cosmodrome. shuttle at an assembling and refueling complex at Baikonur Cosmodrome. BAIKONUR, KAZAKHSTAN - NOVEMBER 22, 2021: The flight unit of the Buran Soviet/Russian reusable space.