World's Largest An-225 Airlifter Completes 25 Years

© ANTONOV    Antonov An−225 Mriya (Dream), the world’s biggest transport aircraft marked its 25th anniversary of first flight on 21 D...

© ANTONOV  

Antonov An−225 Mriya (Dream), the world’s biggest transport aircraft marked its 25th anniversary of first flight on 21 Dec 2013.

Currently it is the largest and heaviest aircraft in the world performing outsized commercial cargo transportation, carrying payloads weighing up to 250 tons with a 640 tons maximum take off weight.

Designed by the erstwhile Soviet Union's Antonov Design Bureau in the 1980s, An-225 was an enlargment of the An−124 Ruslan heavy transport, to airlift the Energia rocket's boosters and the Buran space shuttle for the Soviet space program.

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The An-225 has become the workhorse to transport outsized cargoes worldwide, once thought impossible to move by air such as locomotives and 150-ton generators. It is also used to airlift huge quantities of emergency supplies during disaster relief operations.

Less than six months from its maiden flight in 1988, the An-225 made its maiden flight from Baikonour with its first cargo – Buran spaceship weighing more than 60 tons piggybacked. Together with Buran, An-225 performed 14 flights with total duration of 28 hours and 27 minutes.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the following cancellation of the Buran space program, the only operational An-225 was placed in storage in 1994 and the second partially completed An-225 airframe was also stored.

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In 2000, modernization of the flyable An-225 was intiated to use the airplane for transportation of commercial cargoes heavier than An-124-100 Ruslan’s payload. The only airplane is now operated by Antonov Airlines.

The An−225 holds 240 world records including transportation of the heaviest cargo weighing 253.8 tons, the heaviest mono cargo at 187 tons as well as a cargo with length 42.1m.

The aircraft has a spacious pressurized cargo compartment with a length of 43.32 m, width of 6.4 m and height of 4.4 m. It is powered by six Ivchenko Progress D-18T turbofan engines with 229.5 kN (51,600 lbf) thrust each.

In 2009, maintenance was carried out on An-225 to extend its operational life to 20000 flight hours or 4000 flights, equal to 45 years of operation, extending it opertional life through 2033.