Air Colossus | Antonov An-225

Day 2,736, 06:16 • Published in Romania Argentina • by L E V I A T A N


Welcome my friends to this new saga I'm starting today. The main idea of these new types of articles is to give you information about a specific aircraft, but these are not simply aircrafts, they are big metal birds that amaze with their size or their statistics. Old ones, new ones, even experimental aircrafts that never passed the prototype phase.

Because of the name of this saga, and because is the first article, I couldn't find a better candidate than the mighty Antonov An-225 the current and undisputed king of the skies. Please, sit and enjoy it!



The Antonov An-225 Mriya is a strategic airlift cargo aircraft designed by Antonov in the Soviet Union during the late 80's. Often considered as the biggest aircraft in the world, is also the heaviest aircraft in the history with its 640 tons of MTOW (Maximum Take-Off Weight).

In ucranian, Mriya means "wish"(in the inspiration sense). It was designed to carry the Buran Shuttle and another big components of the soviet space program, it was a development of the successful Antonov An-124 Ruslan, that's why it is also known as "Super Ruslan".


The An-225 carrying the Buran Shuttle.

The first An-225 was completed in 1988, the second unit was partially built but never finished. The only operative aircraft currently operates under Antonov Airlines carrying oversized payloads. In 2004 the An-225 was included in the Guinness World Records with its 240 marks. Among these we can find the absolute world record for a single item payload of 189,980kg in a single flight.


Development

The An-225 was designed for the soviet space program as a replacement of the Myasishchev VM-T. It can carry the rocket boosters of the Energy (the most powerfull rocket ever built) and the Buran Shuttle.


Myasishchev VM-T predecessor of the Antonov An-225

It's the successor of the An-124. To reach the requirements for his new task, new extensions in the fuselage were placed to support two new engines making a total of 6 and the landing gear was modified with a total of 32 wheels. The rear cargo door and ramp were removed to save weight and the single vertical stabilizer tail became a larger one with two vertical stabilizers.


comparison between the An-124 and the An-225

The double tail was a necessity to be able to carry big loads in an external container that would affect the aerodynamics in a conventional tail. Unlike the An-124, the Mriya wasn't designed for tactic transport or short runway operations. Even in larger runways the An-225 has difficulties to operate because when it takes off creates disturbance in the force air that causes violent whirlwinds.


Operation

The An-225 made its first flight on December 21, 1988. Two units were initially built but only one was completed. It can carry very heavy loads up to 250 tons inside or 200 tons at the top of the fuselage. The external loads can measure up to 70 meters length.

After the demise of the Soviet Union and the cancellation of the Buran program, the operative An-225 was stored. The six engines were removed to use them in others An-124.


The second An-225 unit, partially built.

In 1989, the Antonov bureau established Antonov Airlines with its main base in Kiev. The company started to operate with four An-124 and three An-12, but after the late 90's they started to need an aircraft bigger than the An-124.

Because of this, the original An-225 was equipped with new engines for heavy loads and started to fly under Antonov Airlines. Since then the An-225 is the cargo beast, carrying objects like locomotives or electric generators with a weight of 150 tons, it is also appreciated by international aid organizations for its cargo capacity.


Detail of the left main gear with its 14 wheels

By 2000 the An-225 demand exceeded the airline capacity and in September, 2006 the decision to complete the second An-225 was taken. The assembly was estimated to end in 2010. However, the project didn't prospered for reasons like the high cost of the operation and the spread of technologies and factories needed among the successor countries of the USSR.

The aircraft has also received interest from Middle Eastern magnates, as they wanted to mass produce the An-225 to convert it into a plane able to carry 1,000 passengers inside.


Specifications

Crew: 6
Length: 84 m
Wingspan: 88.4 m
Height: 18.1 m
Empty weight: 285,000 kg
Max takeoff weight: 640,000 kg
Fuel capacity: 300,000 kg
Powerplant: 6 × ZMKB Progress D-18 turbofans
Maximum spee😛 850 km/h
Cruising spee😛 800 km/h
Range: 15,400 km with maximum fuel; range with maximum payloa😛 4,000 km
Service ceiling: 11,000 m
Take-off Distance: 3,500 m


Comparison between four of the biggest aircrafts in the world


Photo Gallery










































Okay guys, this is the sad moment when we have to say goodbye 🙁 I really hope you enjoyed this masterpiece of engineering as I did 🙂 We will see us again in the next article! is going to be epic moments or air colossus? that is up to you to know! stay tunned!

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Air Colossus | Antonov An-225

http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/2524789/1/20

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